Storm damage roof inspection in Seaton

Seaton is directly exposed to the south, with the beach only a few metres from the front row of Victorian and Edwardian terraces. There is no headland, no bay curve and no rising ground doing the town any favours here: a southerly gale arrives at full strength and the seafront properties take it first and hardest.

Behind the front, the large stock of post-war bungalows on the slopes and the holiday flats and chalets towards Colyford see a slightly softened version of the same weather, but shallow-pitched bungalow roofs are, if anything, more vulnerable to wind-driven rain than a steep Victorian slope, because there is less pitch helping the water run off before pressure forces it under a covering.

The wider Jurassic Coast designation covers this whole stretch, and a storm strong enough to move shingle on Seaton beach is reliably strong enough to be testing roof coverings at the same time, which is one reason a claim raised after visible beach erosion is worth checking the roof against even where nobody has separately reported a leak.

On the seafront terraces, rendered parapets and the natural slate behind them are the first thing salt and wind work on, with ridge and verge fixings loosening in the same pattern seen along most of this coast. Concrete interlocking tile on the bungalow stock fails more at the eaves and the low verge, where wind pressure gets under a tile edge that a steeper roof would shed cleanly.

Flat felt and single-ply roofs on bungalow extensions are a particular weak point after a storm. They rarely fail dramatically, more often losing a lap seam or blistering at an edge, which is easy to miss from the ground and easy to photograph clearly from directly above.

The Axe estuary marshes to the east and the Undercliff landslip woodland to the west mean Seaton sees more than its share of consecutive storm systems tracking through in a bad winter, so a flat roof that loses a seam in one storm is at real risk of losing more in the next before anyone has climbed up to check it.

A flown pass over both the seafront terraces and the bungalow estate behind gets the whole picture in one visit, dated to the storm being claimed for, rather than relying on whoever happens to notice a stain appearing on a bungalow ceiling some weeks later.

The Seaton Tramway runs the length of the Axe estuary behind the town, past marshland that floods well before any property does, and the EX12 postcode covers both the exposed seafront terraces and the more sheltered streets towards Colyford along the same route. Axminster, a short way up the valley, sees a distinctly quieter version of the weather that reaches Seaton's front row first.