Storm Claim in Kinsale: From Drone Photos to Insurance Payout (Job Log)

What did the storm do to this Kinsale roof?

A period terrace above Kinsale harbour, natural slate roof, lead flashings, cast-iron rainwater goods. The kind of house that has weathered a hundred winters and only complains when something actually breaks. Names omitted with the homeowner's permission. Everything else is from the job sheet.

A named storm came in off the Atlantic on a Tuesday night and took a run of slates off the west-facing elevation, shifted a section of ridge, and lifted the chimney apron flashing. Wednesday morning there were slates in the front garden, a damp patch spreading on the upstairs ceiling, and a homeowner on the phone asking two questions: is it safe, and will the insurance cover it.

The answer to the first question governs everything else. You make the roof safe before you argue about money. The second question is paperwork, and paperwork is most of this job log. If you own a harbour-town house, the wider maintenance context is the coastal Cork salt erosion cycle: this claim was a storm event, not salt, but the same marine air decides what materials the permanent fix needs.

Why does the make-safe come before the claim?

Every Irish home policy expects you to limit the damage. An open roof in showery weather turns a slate claim into a slate-plus-ceilings-plus-plaster claim, and the insurer can reasonably ask why you let it. So the first visit is not about the claim at all. It is about getting the hole covered.

Wednesday afternoon, ladders up the front, fall-arrest harnesses on. We photographed everything before a single slate was moved: the stripped run, the shifted ridge, the lifted apron, the debris field in the garden. Those photos are timestamped and they anchor the whole claim. Then a heavy-duty tarp over the stripped section, battened down at the eaves and ridge so it would survive the next band of rain. Emergency tarp and make-safe runs €180-€350 in our 2026 Cork pricing, and because this was a storm-week callout outside normal hours, the out-of-hours surcharge added €80-€150.

One practical note: do not throw the fallen slates in a skip. The loss adjuster may want to see them, and on a period terrace the sound ones go back on the roof. We stacked them in the garage.

What goes into the drone photo report and scope of works?

Thursday morning, the drone went up. A drone roof inspection is €100 fixed, and on a claim it earns its keep ten times over. The report set: wide shots of the whole roof for context, close-ups of every damaged element, the neighbouring elevations to show the damage is confined to one storm-facing slope, and the ridge and chimney from angles no ladder gives you. Every photo dated and filed in order.

Alongside the photos goes the written scope of works. This is the document the insurer actually prices against, so it reads like an estimate, not a letter. Line by line: strip and salvage sound slates on the affected elevation, re-fix with marine-grade stainless fixings, re-bed the shifted ridge section, re-dress the chimney apron in new code 5 lead, check the battens and underlay under the stripped run, clear storm debris from the gutters, remove the tarp on completion. Each line priced separately so the adjuster can query one line without holding up the rest.

The photo report and scope went to the homeowner's insurer the same day, with our public liability certificate attached. Insurers ask for that on roof work, and ours is €6,500,000 through AXA, so it never slows a claim down. The full process we follow on claim jobs is set out on the insurance roof repairs Cork page.

What did the insurer ask, and how long did it take?

The loss adjuster came back with three queries, which is about typical for an older roof. First, maintenance history: had the roof been inspected recently, and was any of this pre-existing. Second, the wear-and-tear question: insurers cover sudden storm damage, not gradual perishing, and on a period slate roof they look hard at the difference. Third, the materials spec: why stainless fixings and code 5 lead rather than standard.

The drone report answered the first two. Storm damage has a signature: one elevation, fresh fracture faces on the slates, debris on the ground, surrounding slates sound. Perishing looks different: widespread, slow, both slopes. The photos showed a storm, not neglect. The materials query answered itself: Kinsale takes marine air all year, and coastal flashing is code 5 or code 6, never reused code 4. Putting code 4 back on a harbour house would just start the clock on the next claim.

The adjuster visited the following week, walked the ground with our report in hand, and the scope was approved in full. The payout went to the homeowner, the permanent fix was booked for the next dry window, and the tarp stayed on until the morning we started. From storm night to approval was a matter of weeks, most of it waiting on the insurer's side, not the roof.

What does a storm claim repair cost in 2026?

The figures below are our 2026 Cork job-log bands, VAT included at the 13.5% rate that applies to qualifying roofing work (Revenue Commissioners). On a claim job, the make-safe and the permanent fix are separate scopes: the tarp goes on immediately, the repair waits for approval and dry weather.

What the claim covers is between the homeowner and the insurer, and no two policies are the same. What we control is that every line in the scope is a real band from the job log, so the adjuster is never pricing fresh air.

The permanent fix: A4 fixings and code 5 lead

Two dry days the following month. The sound salvaged slates went back on the stripped run, re-fixed with A4 marine-grade stainless nails, the spec we use on every harbour-town repair. The shifted ridge section came up, got re-bedded, and went back level. The chimney apron was re-dressed in new code 5 lead, chased into the brick and dressed over the slates. Battens and underlay under the stripped run were sound, which the drone report had already suggested, so no strip-back line was needed.

Gutters cleared of storm debris, tarp off, final photo set taken for the claim file so the homeowner could close it out with a before-and-after record. The whole job carried the standard 20-year written workmanship guarantee, issued as a PDF certificate.

Storm claim work across Kinsale and the harbour towns

The same claims process runs in Cobh, Crosshaven, East Ferry and the city suburbs: make-safe, drone report, written scope, adjuster queries, permanent fix. Coastal jobs carry the coastal materials spec, stainless fixings and code 5 or 6 lead, because the marine air that drives the storms also eats standard materials. For slate, lead and period housing in the town itself, our roofers in Kinsale page covers the full service, from emergency make-safe to permanent repairs.