Photograph before you clean
The natural impulse is to dry and tidy. Wait five minutes and take photos first: the tide mark showing how high the water reached, the puddle that will not drain, the ceiling stain while it is still wet. Those images are worth something to your insurer and to us.
A dry stain says almost nothing. The same stain wet, photographed with a timestamp, says where the water came in and how much of it.
What is only visible while it is wet
Walk the house looking at ceiling corners, window frames and the base of external walls. If there is a specific point of entry, it is marked right now. In three days it will not be.
On the terrace, look for standing water and where it sits. A puddle still there an hour after the rain stops marks the spot where the fall or the drain is not doing its job.
Telling water ingress from condensation
Not everything that shows up after a storm is a leak. With ambient humidity at its peak, condensation spikes and leaves marks on external walls and behind furniture, especially in closed properties.
The practical difference: a leak leaves an outline with a darker centre and usually has a high point of entry. Condensation appears spread out, in the cold spots, and often with surface mould. The treatment is nothing alike, so it is worth not confusing them.
Electrics and the garage
If water has come into a garage or a ground floor, do not touch the consumer unit standing in it. Isolate from outside if you can and wait. It is the one part of this list where hurrying does not pay.
Afterwards, check that low sockets and outdoor lighting work normally. An RCD tripping repeatedly after a storm usually means moisture in an outdoor junction box.
When to call and what to say
Call if water keeps appearing once the rain has stopped, if a drain sends water back instead of taking it, or if a ceiling stain is growing. Those three do not resolve themselves.
When you call, have the photos and the rough time it started. It saves a whole diagnostic visit.
