If your commercial roof in March has failed or is actively leaking, Ely Roofers can help - but knowing what to do in the meantime, and what not to attempt yourself, can make a significant difference to the outcome.
A leak on a commercial building is a business problem, not just a building problem. Whether you run a warehouse, an office, a retail unit, or a farm building near March, water getting in through the roof puts stock, equipment, staff, and the structure itself at risk. The decisions you make in the first few hours matter.
The most important thing is to protect what is inside while you wait for professional help. That means moving stock and equipment away from the affected area, containing any water that is dripping with buckets or trays, and photographing the damage - both inside and any visible external signs - before anything is moved or cleaned up. Photographs taken promptly are invaluable for insurance purposes and for helping a roofer understand the full extent of the problem before they arrive on site.
There are a limited number of things that are genuinely safe and helpful for a building manager or business owner to do before a roofer arrives. Staying within those limits is important - both for your own safety and to avoid making the problem harder or more expensive to fix.
Inside the building:
Outside, from safe ground level only:
This is the part that matters most. A number of well-intentioned actions can either create a safety risk, make the roof damage worse, or actually complicate a professional repair.
Do not get on the roof yourself. Working at height on a commercial roof without the correct equipment and training is dangerous. It is also unnecessary - a good roofer can work from the information you provide from ground level and will bring the access equipment the job requires. A slip or fall from a commercial roof carries life-changing consequences.
Do not apply temporary sealant products to the membrane or sheet surface without professional advice. Butyl tape, silicone, and similar products applied incorrectly can prevent a proper repair being made later, because some sealants are incompatible with membrane materials and create a surface that professional bonding agents will not adhere to. What feels like a temporary fix can end up adding to the cost of the proper repair.
Do not assume the leak point inside the building is directly below the entry point on the roof. Water travels along purlins, decking, and insulation layers before it drops. The wet patch on your ceiling may be a metre or more away from where the water actually got in. Pointing a roofer to the ceiling stain is useful context, but it is not a reliable guide to where the repair needs to happen.
Do not delay calling a roofer by trying to manage the situation indefinitely. A temporary fix inside the building - buckets, tarps, towels - protects your property in the short term but does nothing for the roof itself. Every period of rain that passes while the defect is unrepaired adds to the potential for water to work further into the insulation and deck structure.
In some cases, particularly where a large area of roofing has been damaged by storm or impact, a temporary covering may be appropriate while a full repair or replacement is planned. Heavy-duty polythene sheeting weighted or fixed at the edges can reduce further water ingress while materials are sourced and access equipment is arranged.
This kind of temporary weatherproofing should only be installed by someone working safely at height with the right equipment. Ask the roofer explicitly whether a temporary covering is appropriate for your situation, and whether it will be included as part of the overall job or charged separately. On a large commercial roof, temporary protection can be a legitimate and sensible first step - not an admission that the permanent repair is some way off.
The more specific you can be when you first call, the better a roofer can assess the likely scope and organise the right access equipment for the visit. Useful information to have ready:
This information helps a roofer decide whether the job is a straightforward call-out or whether it requires pre-arranged access equipment, and it allows a more accurate initial estimate to be given before anyone has set foot on the roof.
Once the roofer is on site, the process on a commercial building is more involved than a domestic call-out. Access to the roof surface may require a mobile elevated work platform (MEWP) or scaffold, particularly on taller buildings or where roof edge protection is required. A RAMS (Risk Assessment and Method Statement) should be produced before any work starts - this is standard on commercial sites and any contractor willing to skip it is not working correctly.
The roofer should identify not just the obvious failure point but the underlying cause. A split at a membrane seam is a symptom - the cause might be inadequate bonding at installation, movement in the deck, or a drainage problem creating prolonged ponding at that point. A repair that addresses only the symptom is likely to fail again.
Expect the roofer to give you a clear account of what they have found, what the repair will involve, and what the alternatives are if the damage is more extensive than a simple patch repair can address.
If your commercial premises in March has an active leak or storm damage, call Ely Roofers to arrange an urgent site survey. Tell us the building type, the roof system if you know it, and what access is available. Do not put it off waiting for the weather to improve; the next rain will only worsen what is already a live problem.
No obligation · We usually respond within 2 hours
Storm damage, active leak, damaged ridge - we aim to be on-site within 24 hours.
