Storm damage to your gutters, what to do first
After storm damage: keep people clear of anything hanging, photograph everything before it is touched, check from the ground only, and get the make-safe done before the permanent repair.
When a North Sea gale takes a gutter off, the first hour sets up how smoothly the next month goes. This is the order that works.
1. Safety before everything
A partially detached gutter is under tension and heavier than it looks. Keep people, pets and cars clear of the area below, and do not climb anything to look closer. If the damaged section overhangs a public pavement or a neighbour's drive, treat it as urgent: you are responsible for what falls off your house.
2. Photograph before anything moves
Insurers want evidence, and the best evidence is boring: wide shots of the elevation, close-ups of the damage, and the weather that caused it dated by your phone. Photograph everything from the ground before any repairer touches it. If water is coming in, photograph that too.
3. The ground-level damage check
Walk the property once, binoculars if you have them: sections visibly sagging or detached, downpipes pulled away from the wall, corners dripping that did not drip before, and debris on the ground that used to be on your roof, yours or the neighbour's. Note it all; the list becomes the repair scope.
4. Make safe first, repair second
Emergency work on Teesside starts from £120 and has one job: secure what is hanging, stop water getting in, and make the site safe. The permanent repair is quoted separately, in writing, once the damage is documented. Anyone who insists the full replacement must be decided today, in the rain, is not quoting, they are closing.
5. The insurance question
Genuine storm damage is often covered under buildings insurance, minus your excess. Against a £120 to £300 repair, the excess and the renewal loading often make claiming a loss; against a full elevation replacement it can be worth it. The photographed evidence supports either route.