Roof repairs

What a repair visit is for

Leaks, lifted flashings, split ridges, loose fasteners, a gutter that overflows into the fascia, a single bay damaged by wind, a penetration for a tank or a pipe that was never finished. On the form that is “leaking roof,” “storm or wind damage,” or sometimes “rust or corrosion” if the failure is still local. “Old or worn-out roof” is the hint that you already suspect replacement. If you cannot tell, choose aninspection. Micheletti Construction would rather look than sell the larger job by default, and would rather not sell a tube of sealant for a roof that is finished.

The company is the same one that does building work. A stain that turns out to be a cracked slab or a flooded wall is not forced into a sheet repair to protect a category. Say what you see.

How water actually travels

People point at the drip. The entry is often upslope: a failed side lap, a ridge cap that no longer covers the joint, a nail hole that has enlarged as the sheet moved, a valley full of grit. The water then runs until it finds a joint in the ceiling. A repair that paints the stain and plugs the drip from below leaves the entry open for the next storm. We look at the covering, the flashings, and the gutters. Where the deck can be seen safely from below, we look at that too. We do not ask you to walk a wet sheet.

Wind damage is more specific than “the storm.” In Lagos, a squall off the Atlantic can lift a poorly fixed verge on a tall Lekki or Ikoyi house. In Abuja, the issue after a storm may be a sheet that was already dust-loaded at the laps. In Ibadan, wind plus an old nail pattern is a common pair: the sheet was tired before the gust. Tell us the date of the storm if you remember it. That is more useful than an adjective.

The same leak, three cities

Lagos repairs have to respect salt and a high annual rainfall, above 1,800 millimetres in the Ikeja figures cited on the Lagos page. A fastener that is only “a bit rusty” on a dry inland roof may already be the leak on Victoria Island or along Ajah. Replacing a handful of fasteners and a flashing can be the whole job. Blocked gutters on a low house then push water back under the eaves, and a flooded street can stain walls that the roof never touched. Ask yourself whether the water appears only during rain on the roof.

Abuja repairs often follow the first rains after harmattan. Dust has sat in the gutters and valleys since about November. The April or May storm finds those outlets already half full. A repair in Maitama may be a valley and a gutter; a repair in a Gwarinpa estate may be the joint with a neighbour’s identical roof; a repair in Wuse may be over an occupied flat with awkward access. Tiles crack and slip; long-span metal loosens at the screws; a flat concrete roof may need a drain cleared rather than a sheet replaced. Those are different visits.

Ibadan repairs meet patched roofs. Bodija, Jericho, Akobo, and the university area all have houses where a previous rainy season was solved with sealant, an over-sheet, or a replaced bay. Another patch is fair if the surrounding sheet is sound and the timber or steel under it is dry. It is unfair if every ridge has already been “done.” The August lull is when people book repairs because the sky is quieter, and September is when an unfinished repair is tested. The Ibadan page sets out that calendar. We work to it rather than to a slogan about “prompt response.”

What to send

The room that stains, the side of the house, whether anyone has been on the roof, and whether a previous repair is visible. Photos from the ground are enough to start. Height, access, and the month change the cost; we do not print a call-out fee. Request a quoteand choose the contact method you will answer. If the repair is really a replacement, we will say so after looking, not before.