Simple Roof Maintenance Tasks for Autumn

By Organising Craft Supplies in a Loft Space
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12 Aug 2026

Simple Roof Maintenance Tasks for Autumn

There is a brief window in autumn — after the growing season has finished, but before the first proper gales arrive — when a roof will quietly tell you exactly how it is doing. Half an hour spent looking up from the garden can save you a winter of brown tide marks on the bedroom ceiling, sodden loft insulation and the steady drip of a bucket in the spare room. The tasks below are all things a reasonably practical householder can either tackle or at least assess before deciding to call someone in.

Begin with a slow walk around the house

Binoculars are genuinely useful here, and a phone for photographs. Work your way round the building in one direction so you do not miss a face, and look for the following:

Slipped, cracked or obviously missing slates and tiles, and any gaps in the coursing.
Heavy moss growth, especially along the eaves and in the valley where two slopes meet.
Sagging or uneven lines along the ridge, eaves or verge — a sign that battens or fixings are tired.
Tide marks, green staining or blown render on the wall below a gutter, which usually means the gutter is overflowing.
Crumbling mortar around the chimney stack, or pots that have shifted out of line.

Write down roughly where anything is — "third course up, left of the front dormer" — before you forget. It makes a huge difference when you come to fix it or describe it to a roofer.

Clear the gutters before the leaves turn to mush

Blocked gutters are behind a surprising share of winter damp problems, because water that cannot run away ends up backing up under the eaves and into the loft. On a single-storey extension or a porch this is a safe job with a stand-off ladder and a pair of gloves. On anything taller, use a gutter cleaning pole from the ground and leave the ladder alone.

Scoop the debris out by hand or with a gutter scoop rather than flushing it downwards, which simply pushes the plug into the downpipe. Then check a few things:

That the gutter falls gently towards the outlet — standing water is a giveaway.
That joints and stop ends are sound, and that hopper heads are not cracked.
That each downpipe actually runs clear. A trickle from a watering can at the top tells you quickly.
That any water butt diverter is clean and the butt itself is not breeding mosquitoes.

Gutter guards can reduce the workload, but they are not a substitute for an annual clear, particularly under trees.

Check the flashing around chimneys, dormers and valleys

Flashing is the waterproofing at every awkward junction, and it is where most leaks begin. Lead should sit tight against the masonry and be dressed into a chased joint. Look for lifted, torn or corroded lead, cracked mortar fillets, and failed soakers at the sides of a chimney.

Pay attention to the chimney crown — that flat top — because a hairline crack there lets water straight down inside the stack, where it appears as damp patches on the ceiling below or as staining on the chimney breast itself. Check the flashing around dormer cheeks, roof windows and any soil vent pipe, and clear leaves and moss from valley gutters, which block easily and then overflow sideways under the tiles.

Replace cracked tiles and slipped slates

A single slipped slate can let in a surprising amount of water, because wind drives rain sideways and upwards. Individual slates can often be rehung with a slate hook or secured with a strip of copper, while cracked clay tiles should be swapped for matching replacements. On a period home, it is worth keeping an eye out for reclaimed tiles of the right size and colour — matching new ones stand out for decades.

Keep a small stock of spares in the loft. When something fails in January, you will be very glad of them. If a tile has gone high up, or the roof needs walking on, stop and get help; a fall from roof height is not a risk worth taking for the price of a repair. A self-adhesive flashing tape can hold a small area until spring, but treat it as a patch, never as a fix.

Look at the loft side of the roof too

Go up with a good torch after a day of rain. Check the underside of the roof covering, the rafters and any boarding for dark staining, damp patches or white fluffy mould. Look for daylight where there should be none, and check that any roof window seals and flashings are sound.

Be careful to tell leaks and condensation apart, though. In an older house with roofing felt or sarking, condensation is common when ventilation is blocked. Keep a clear gap of around 25mm at the eaves so air can move, and make sure insulation is not stuffed hard into the eaves or pressed against damp timbers. Damp timber should be dried, treated and monitored; if you find deep, cubical cracking or a mushroomy smell, stop work and get a specialist in.

Know when to put the ladder away

Some jobs are simply not worth doing yourself. Anything above two storeys, anything that needs a ladder resting against a gutter, chimney stack work, and any roof covered in brittle or suspect materials all belong to a professional with proper access equipment. Scaffolding is expensive, which is exactly why roofers would rather quote for the whole job at once — so if you have several small faults, get them dealt with together in one visit. A thorough check every few years, plus your own autumn walk-round, will keep most period homes dry, warm and ready for whatever the winter throws at them.

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5 Comments

Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply
- John Abraham says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
  
  I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
  Reply
  - Robert Sonnysays Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am
    
    I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
    Reply
Robert Sonny says Jul 21, 2024 at 10:00am

I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system
Reply

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