Emergency response

Stop the water first. Decide everything else afterwards

A tarp is not a repair and it is not meant to be. It is a controlled way of keeping the weather out of the building until the roof can be worked on properly and safely.

What to do before anyone arrives

1. Contain it. A bucket under the drip, and a container under the edge where water is running along a beam. Move furniture and anything porous out of the path.
2. Relieve a bulging ceiling. A ceiling holding water will eventually fail all at once. A small hole at the lowest point of the bulge, with a bucket under it, drains it in a controlled way and usually saves the rest of the ceiling.
3. Kill the power if water is near a fixture. Water in a ceiling box is a live hazard. Switch the circuit off at the panel rather than trying the light switch.
4. Get air moving once the water has stopped. In this climate a wet ceiling cavity grows mold in days, not weeks. Fans and dehumidification matter more here than almost anywhere.
5. Photograph everything. The wet ceiling, the wet floor, the affected contents, and the time. Do it before you mop.
6. Do not go up on a wet roof. More people are injured after storms by getting on their own roof than by the storm.

What tarping actually involves

A tarp that works is fastened so the wind cannot get under it, and lapped so water runs over the top of it rather than into the seam. That usually means the top edge is secured above the damage and, on a roof where it is possible to do so without adding damage, the tarp is wrapped over the ridge rather than terminated on the slope.

A tarp thrown over a hole and weighted with bricks lasts until the first gust. It is also how a small area of damage becomes a large one, because a loose tarp beats the roof surface all night.

After a regional storm, the rules change

When a tropical system crosses the whole metro, every roofing company in the region has more calls than crews on the same morning, and tarps and materials run short. Two things follow from that. The first is that containing the water inside the building matters even more, because it may genuinely be the only thing happening for a day or two. The second is that this is exactly the window in which somebody will knock on your door, offer to tarp it now, and ask you to sign something while they are standing there. A tarp is worth having; a contract signed in a driveway during an emergency is not.

What happens next

1. The building gets dried out

   Wet insulation does not recover and wet drywall grows mold, faster in this climate than most. Interior drying is usually a restoration trade rather than a roofing one, and it should start quickly.

2. The roof gets diagnosed

   Once the weather allows, the actual defect is found and photographed. A tarp hides the evidence, so the inspection under it matters.

3. The date gets established

   If this came out of a storm, Storm Check shows what NOAA recorded near your ZIP code and when, which is the date any claim conversation starts from.

4. A permanent repair is scoped

   Repair or replacement, with the reasoning written out. The emergency work and the permanent work are separate pieces, and they should be described separately.