The Winsford leak three roofers got wrong

The leak that wouldn’t stay fixed

Sahar called us in Winsford after the same brown stain came back on her landing ceiling for the third time.

Two roofers had been out before us. Both said the same thing: slipped tiles on the front slope. Both re-bedded the tiles. Both took the money. Within a fortnight the stain was back, a little bigger each time.

By the time she rang us she’d stopped trusting roofers. Fair enough.

What everyone else missed

The slipped tiles were real. They just weren’t where the water was getting in.

We don’t guess from the ground and we don’t climb up to poke around hoping to spot it. We put a drone over the whole roof first, slope by slope, and look at the photos before anyone touches a tile.

The drone found it in ten minutes: a split lead valley where the two roof slopes meet, hidden under the tile course so you’d never see it from a ladder. Rain wasn’t coming through the front slope at all. It was running down the valley, through the split, under the tiles, and tracking along a batten until it dropped onto the landing ceiling — two metres from where the stain showed up.

That’s why the tile repairs kept “failing.” They were never going to work. Nobody had fixed the actual hole because nobody had found it.

What we did

• Flew the full roof by drone and pulled the valley photos before quoting, so Sahar could see the split herself
• Lifted the tile courses either side of the valley
• Stripped the failed lead and replaced it with new code-lead, dressed and lapped properly so water runs off the top, not under
• Re-bedded the genuinely slipped tiles on the front slope while we were up there — no second charge
• Re-laid the tile courses and flew the drone again to confirm the finish

One day on site. One repair that addressed the real fault instead of the obvious one.

The result

Sahar’s had two full Cheshire winters on it since. The landing ceiling is dry. No return visits, no third stain, no “we’ll need to come back.”

She left us a five-star Google review — you can read it on our profile:

“Two roofers had already ‘fixed’ this and the leak kept coming back. Middlewich sent a drone up, showed me exactly where the water was getting in — somewhere nobody else had looked — and sorted it in a day. No mess, no return visits. I wish I’d called them first.”

— Sahar K., Winsford

Why this kept happening

A leak rarely shows up where the water gets in. It travels — along battens, down rafters, across the felt — and surfaces wherever gravity drops it. Patch the stain instead of the source and you’re paying to fix a symptom.

We start every repair with a drone survey for exactly this reason. We’d rather spend ten minutes finding the real fault than three visits chasing the wrong one. It’s also why every job we do gets before-and-after photos — so you can see the split, see the new lead, and know what you paid for.

We’re not the cheapest roofer in Winsford. Sahar paid two cheaper firms before us and still had a leaking roof. The homeowners who call us aren’t looking for the cheapest. They’re looking for the last roofer they have to call.

Got a leak that keeps coming back?

If you’ve already had someone out and the stain returned, the repair probably missed the source. We’ll put a drone over your roof, show you the photos, and tell you exactly where the water’s getting in before we quote.

Same-day emergency repairs, 24/7 phone line, every job backed by a workmanship guarantee.

Call 01606 537305 or email middlewichroofing@gmail.com. We cover Cheshire and South Manchester.