Emergency

Emergency Roof Tarping

A roof leak emergency in Watertown does not wait for an adjuster. Call (920) 285-0877 and we will get it covered — and tell you what to do in the next ten minutes.

Call (920) 285-0877

Right Now

Emergency Roof Tarping In Watertown: What To Do Right Now

Emergency roof tarping in Watertown: call (920) 285-0877, move what you can, contain what you cannot, photograph everything, and stay off the roof. We photograph first, tarp over the ridge, say whether a water mitigation company is needed, and the permanent repair waits for the adjuster. Tarping is emergency mitigation your policy expects and usually covers.

If a storm has opened your roof, the priority is preventing further damage — to the decking, the insulation, the ceilings and everything under them. Most homeowner policies do not merely permit emergency mitigation, they require it, in the Duties After Loss section, and the insurer can decline the water damage that follows if you did nothing.

Tarping does not weaken your claim. Photographs taken before we cover it protect the claim, and we take them as a matter of course. Emergency mitigation is normally a covered expense on a storm claim, so keep our invoice with the rest of the file — the first forty-eight hours lays out what goes in it.

The Next Ten Minutes

What To Do Before The Roofer Arrives

Move what you can

Furniture, electronics, anything on the floor under the drip. Pull back rugs. A bucket and a towel buy time; a tarp over the furniture buys more.

Contain what you cannot

If a ceiling is bulging with water, put a bucket under it and pierce the lowest point with a screwdriver. A controlled drip beats a collapsed ceiling.

Photograph everything

The ceiling, the floor, the attic if you can reach it safely, and the outside from the ground. Your phone dates every one, and the claim is built on them.

Do not go on the roof

Wet shingles, wind and a ladder are how a roof problem becomes a hospital problem. Nothing you can do up there tonight is worth it.

The Call

What We Do On An Emergency Tarping Call

Photograph first

Every slope, the interior damage, and the source. Documentation before mitigation, so the claim has a record of what the storm did before anyone touched it.

Tarp and secure

Properly fastened over the ridge where possible, not weighted down with whatever is in the yard. A tarp that blows off overnight is worse than none.

Interior triage

Where water is already inside, we will tell you what needs a water mitigation company rather than a roofer, and when to call them.

Then the claim

Once the house is dry we walk you through the claim and the permanent repair. No pressure to use us for the repair, and Wis. Stat. § 100.65 means we could not handle the claim for you even if you asked.

Straight Answers

Emergency Roof Repair Questions

There is a cost to an emergency service call and materials, and it is normally recoverable as part of a storm claim as mitigation. We will tell you the number before we come out, not after, and we ask you to acknowledge the emergency work in writing — Wis. Stat. § 100.65(6) is specific that this is the one charge a contractor may keep if you later cancel after a claim denial, and only when it was acknowledged that way.

Weeks, not months. A properly fastened tarp will hold through weather while a claim is settled, but ultraviolet light degrades it and every additional storm tests the fastenings. If the adjuster visit is more than two or three weeks out, tell us and we will check it. The claim deadline page explains why a tarp is a bridge and not a plan.

Call. If we cannot get there before daylight we will tell you what to do inside in the meantime — move what you can, contain what you cannot, and photograph everything. The four steps above are the whole of it. A roof that is tarped at seven in the morning has lost very little to a roof tarped at midnight, and nobody has fallen off a ladder in the dark.

Normally, yes. Homeowner policies require you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage after a loss, and the cost of doing so — the tarp, the service call, the labor — is claimed as part of the loss rather than paid out of your pocket. Keep our invoice and the photographs taken before the tarp went on with the rest of the file; the claims section explains where it goes in the sequence.

If you want us to, and there is no obligation either way. Once the house is dry the next step is a proper inspection and a written estimate, whether the outcome is a repair or a replacement. The permanent work waits for the adjuster; the tarp does not.

All roofing services

Replacement, repair, storm work, inspections, ice dams and ventilation, and how they fit together.

Roofing services

The questions we get asked

Cost, timing, permits, insurance and warranties, answered plainly on one page.

Roofing FAQ

Storm damage repair

What comes after the tarp: the claim sequence, the adjuster and the repair, in order.

Storm damage

Insurance claims

The statutes that govern a Wisconsin roof claim, quoted, with the deadlines computed from the storm date.

Claims