If you're reading this because there's water coming through your ceiling right now, here's the order to handle it. We'll get to the rest in a minute.
The first 15 minutes
- Move what's directly below the leak. Furniture, electronics, anything porous. A leaking roof can dump a surprising volume of water — gallons, not cups — once the path forms.
- Put a bucket under it. Bigger than you think you need. If the water is coming through drywall, the drywall is going to sag and eventually burst. The bucket buys you time but doesn't solve the structural problem.
- Poke a small hole in the bottom of the sag if drywall is bulging. This sounds wrong, but a controlled hole into a bucket is much better than the drywall failing under accumulated weight and dropping a sheet of soaked gypsum on your floor. Use a screwdriver or a pencil.
- Turn off the electricity to that area if water is anywhere near a light fixture, outlet, or junction box. The breaker, not the switch. If you don't know which breaker, kill the main.
- Take photos. Now, before anyone touches anything. Wide shots, close-ups of the water source, photos of any damaged contents. Insurance will want these.
When to call us, when to call the fire department
Call 911 for: structural collapse, electrical sparking, gas smell, or anyone trapped/injured.
Call us at (423) 549-2065 for: active leak we need to stop, storm damage we need to assess and tarp, a tree on the roof, hail damage you need documented before insurance arrives. We answer during business hours; after-hours, leave a message and we'll call back first thing.
Tarping protocol (ours, after-hours, or if you're DIY-ing it)
A properly installed emergency tarp keeps water out for 2–6 weeks while a real repair gets scheduled. A poorly installed one ranges from useless to actively worse than no tarp.
Right way:
- Tarp 4+ feet beyond the damaged area on all sides. Wind catches small tarps and rips them off. Big tarps stay put.
- Anchor at the ridge. Run the tarp over the ridge and secure both sides with screwed-down 1×4 furring strips. Nails work too but pull loose more easily. Don't just lay the tarp on the slope — wind will balloon underneath it.
- Don't drive screws through unimpaired shingles. Every fastener you put through good shingles creates a future leak. The 1×4 along the ridge does the holding; the rest of the tarp lies loose.
- Slope it to drain. Water should run off the tarp the way it would run off shingles. Avoid pooling.
What we don't recommend: spray-foam in a hole. It's tempting in the moment but it makes the eventual repair significantly more expensive because we have to remove all of it cleanly.
Insurance: who to call when
If the damage is from a covered event (storm, hail, tree, fire), here's the order:
- Call us first if you can — we'll do a free post-storm inspection and document everything before the adjuster arrives. Our documentation helps your claim and costs you nothing.
- Then call your insurance. File the claim, get a claim number, ask when the adjuster will arrive. Most carriers send someone within 2–5 business days.
- Don't sign anything from anyone who shows up unannounced. Door-to-door "storm chasers" after a hail event are real and usually predatory. They'll claim to represent your insurance ("public adjusters") — they don't. They take 10–30% of your settlement and disappear after the work.
What we do on an emergency call
A typical emergency dispatch looks like this:
- 30 minutes after your call: we know when we'll be there. Same-day if you call before noon, next-morning if you call later. Active interior leaks get bumped to the top of the day.
- On-site: we walk the roof, photograph everything, identify the leak source, and decide whether the right move is tarp-and-schedule or stop-the-leak-now.
- Tarp installation: if needed, 90 minutes for a typical job. We use 6-mil reinforced tarps and the ridge-anchor method above.
- Documentation: we email the photos and a written assessment within 24 hours. If insurance is involved, this becomes part of your claim file.
- Repair scheduling: typically 1–2 weeks out for the real repair, depending on weather and material availability.
Emergency dispatch isn't separately billed by us. You pay for the actual repair when it happens; the inspection and emergency tarp are part of the engagement.
The honest truth about "emergency" roof companies
There are contractors in this market whose entire business is the emergency call — high markups, vague invoices, fly-by-night operations that depend on homeowners not getting second quotes when the ceiling is dripping. The signals: pricing significantly higher than peer quotes (we've seen oversized "emergency" tarp fees), refusal to provide a written scope, pressure to sign a contract for the full replacement "while we're already here."
If you're in the middle of an emergency, the right play is: stabilize the situation (bucket, photos, breaker if needed), call a contractor whose name you trust, and don't sign anything for the full repair until you've slept on it.
Have questions about your own roof? Book a free 20-minute on-site visit — Christian writes every estimate himself. Get your estimate →