Emergencies
Your Roof Is Leaking Right Now
The first six things to do, in order — including the one most people skip.
Limited time offer 4 point home inspection or wind mitigation with any new roof See what is includedIf your roof is leaking right now, deal with electricity first: switch off the breaker for that room and stay away from anything wet. Then catch the water and move what it would ruin. Do not stand under a bulging ceiling. Photograph everything before anyone touches it, then call a licensed roofer.
If water is coming in as you read this, do these in order. The first three are about not getting hurt and not making the damage worse. The fourth is the one people skip and regret.
Deal with electricity first
If water is anywhere near a light fitting, a ceiling fan, an outlet or a fuse box, treat it as dangerous. Turn off power to that area at the breaker if you can do so without standing in water, and do not touch a wet fixture. Nothing else on this list matters more than that.
Catch it and move things out of the way
Buckets under the drip, and shift furniture, electronics and anything with sentimental value out of the room rather than covering them up. Water spreads along ceilings and comes down where you were not expecting it.
If a ceiling is bulging, do not stand under it
A sagging or heavy-looking ceiling is holding water. It can come down all at once, and it is heavier than it looks. Keep people out of that room. A small hole at the lowest point, made from the side rather than underneath, lets it drain in a controlled way — but only if you are confident doing it.
Photograph everything before anyone touches it
Dated photographs of the water coming in, the stained ceiling, the wet insulation and every damaged belonging are what a claim is argued from, and this is the step people skip. Once the repair happens, that evidence is gone. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a claim and an argument.
Stay off the roof
A wet roof is slippery and a leaking one may have soft decking that will not hold you. Decking that has been wet for a while looks exactly like decking that has not. Whatever is up there will still be up there when someone with a harness arrives.
Cover it, but do not repair it yet
A tarp over the opening stops days of further damage and is worth doing when it is safe. A permanent repair before the property has been assessed removes the evidence of what happened. Keep receipts for tarps and materials — those are usually claimable.
Then call
Call us on 239-414-9100 and tell us what you can see and whether water is still coming in. In Florida the thing that turns a leak into a much larger bill is the moisture that stays in the structure afterwards, so the sooner it is covered the smaller the job.
We do emergency tarping and after-hours call-outs for leaks. Call 239-414-9100 during business hours and we will respond the same day. We photograph everything as we go, which is what an insurance claim later rests on.
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