It is raining heavily and suddenly you hear water drips above your ceiling…then you see water dropping from the ceiling…
This probably means your roof has sprung a leak. And even though you have absolutely no chance of getting your roof leak repaired during the storm, it is not the end of the world.
Take a deep breath and here is what you should do…
- Don’t stress. It is quite easy to limit the damages from a leaking ceiling. If you have house insurance, you are covered for storm damages anyway…
- Catch the water. Grab a water container and catch the water drips. Once you have caught the water, it will do no further damage. You may need more containers – but the rain (and the drip) will eventually stop.
- Use towels. You will need some towels to soak up the leakage that is already on the floor and to catch the splashes from the water drips.
- Save the ceiling. Find the lowest spot on the ceiling where it is dripping and poke a small hole through the ceiling. This will make it easier to place the container to catch the water drip. It will stop water from pooling on top of the ceiling – which will potentially lead to part of the ceiling collapsing. It is easier to fix a small hole in the ceiling than to replace a section of fallen ceiling.
The reason people stress out when the ceiling is leaking is just the thought of the damage. If you can just let the rainwater pass through the ceiling and have a container to catch it under the ceiling – then there will be a minimum of damage.
Just go with the flow – not against it.
You can try the SES – but they will take a while to get to you and if they throw a tarpaulin over your roof – they can cause more damage to your roof.
Eventually, the rain will stop and you can find a roofer to repair the roof leak (no rush – because roofers are always busy after it stops raining). If you have home insurance, contact your insurance company. They will usually be able to send their own roof repairers out to do temporary roof repairs while they assess your damage claim.
For further ease of mind, there is a roof repairs checklist for homeowners that you can check out to see if you have covered everything…
If you have a bit of time and want to do some research on the reasons why roofs leak and other roof repair information, there are lots of information on our website for you…
You can also watch our video below:
High-fronted Eaves gutters attached without a minimum 10mm back gap are the main cause of water flowing into the home in heavy rain. It happens when the gutters and down pipes can’t drain quickly enough as all down pipes feed into a single pipe/outlet which then feeds into a water tank or to the street. See Metroll – Graptor bracket for videos. This is a common problem as how gutters are attached is not required to be building inspected. To comply with the NCC Gutters must not overflow into the building even if all of the down pipes are blocked.
Hi Helen,
I am not sure if you have a financial interest in the gutter brackets you mention – so I was tempted to put your comment into spam..
BUT, most of your comment is true and very relevant during times of heavy rain and is a common reason for water leaks.
So, I am approving it
Jack
If the exit point is coming from a downlight should I pull the light from the hole to prevent pooling in the ceiling?
Hi Jen,
If it is electrically safe to do so, taking out the light fitting to allow water to drain out of the ceiling (and be collected by bucket) is a wise move.
Jack