Storm damage roof inspection in Bude

Bude sits on the open north Cornish coast with low cliffs either side and exposed farmland behind the town, and an Atlantic storm arrives here with nothing to slow it down first. Among every town covered on this site, Bude sees as unbroken a wind and salt exposure as any of them, on a par with the most exposed stretches of the north Devon coast a little further east.

That exposure is part of what built the town as a surf destination, but it is hard on a roof: gales here regularly strip ridge tiles outright rather than just loosening the bedding, and shallow-pitch coverings on the cliff-top approaches lift under wind pressure that a steeper roof further inland would shed more easily.

Summerleaze and Crooklets beaches, either side of the canal mouth, sit directly beneath the most exposed run of clifftop holiday accommodation, and a storm big enough to close the beaches to swimmers is reliably big enough to have already found any weak point in the roofs immediately above them.

A large stock of holiday lets, bungalows and chalets sits on the cliff-top approaches to the beaches, many with flat felt roofs on extensions and outbuildings that are the first thing to fail in a genuine Atlantic blow. Because so many of these properties are let rather than owner-occupied, storm damage is often first reported by a guest rather than the owner, sometimes well into a booking rather than on the morning after the storm.

The Victorian and Edwardian resort villas nearer the centre carry natural slate and concrete interlocking tile, and see the more familiar pattern of ridge and verge failure under uplift, worsened here by how consistently strong the prevailing wind is even outside a named storm.

For a letting agent managing several Bude properties, a flown survey after a storm can cover a run of addresses in one visit, giving each owner a dated record that does not depend on a guest's account of what they noticed partway through their stay.

Given how often ridge tiles are stripped outright here rather than simply loosened, the photographic record of exactly what is missing and where matters directly for a repair quote as well as for the claim itself, since a roofer working from a clear image needs fewer return visits to establish the full extent of what came off.

Compass Point and the Bude Sea Pool, both on the exposed clifftop stretch south of the canal, sit close to a good deal of the holiday-let stock this page has covered, all within the EX23 postcode area. Holsworthy and Launceston, both inland, see a far gentler version of the wind that strips ridge tiles on Bude's cliff-top estates.