BAY WINDOWS & LEAD ROOF LEAKS

A bay window can come in many shapes and sizes, quite often though the covering is either lead or felt. Typically when they start to leak the first sign is water dripping onto the window sill or water running down the internal window.

What causes leaks in lead bays?

Here’s an example of a lead bay with badly repaired fatigue cracks.

The most common cause, especially in old terraced houses is fatigue cracks. As the lead gets hot and cold it expands and contracts, this is quite normal and allowances would have been made when the roof was initially laid to allow for this.
However most leaking lead bays are original to the house being built, meaning they can be 50 to 100 years old. That’s a lot of expansion and contraction.

A fatigue crack is basically a split in the lead caused by the above process, once the crack is present and sufficiently big, it doesn’t take long for the water to find its way in.

Replacement

We offer High performance Fibreglass or new Lead roofs.

More people these days are opting to replace their old roof with Fibre glass due to the incredibly long lifespan, which whilst similar to lead is normally cheaper and has no scrap value for a thief. This is particularly useful on a low level roof where thieves may me tempted to steal the lead, and a lead free alternative is required.

Fibre glass roofs can be done in any colour and any design, from simple clean lines to the much more complicated.

A bay window replaced in fibreglass:

(Also see lead alternatives page)

A bay window replaced in lead:

Lead repairs

We offer a range of quality repairs, quite often as long as the roof isn’t too far gone whether it’s lead or felt there’s normally a low cost solution.

How NOT to repair a lead split or a felt roof

Quite often we see bitumen or other similar paint on repairs applied, these are a waste of time and money for the following reasons.

• It’s a very short term solution, any paint or sealer no matter what the manufacturers claim will either dry out and crack, or simply be pulled apart by the force of expanding and contracting. Unless it’s an emergency you may as well put your money down the drain.
• Very often it makes a good repair more difficult and therefore more expensive. A good rule of thumb is that any sort of paint-on roof sealer should be avoided in any circumstance.