What To Do When A Storm Causes Damage To Your Roof
While a roof is designed to protect your home from water, it's possible for a storm to create enough damage that water starts coming into your house. You'll need to act quickly when this happens to limit the damage and get your home on track for a repair. Be sure to follow these three steps.
1. Look For Damage Inside Your Home
You will want to start by narrowing down where the water is coming into your home. This involves going up to the attic with a flashlight, and finding places where water is dripping in. One thing to keep in mind is that the place where you see water coming in may not be the exact spot where the roof is damaged, but it can help narrow down where the damage is located. The leak is going to be no lower on the roof's incline where the water is coming in but could be located higher up. Make a note of where the water is coming in and head outside.
2. Visually Inspect Your Roof
Start looking for places at or above the water leak where the roof can be damaged. Missing shingles will be incredibly obvious, but it is more likely that you have a cracked shingle, flashing damage, or another type of problem that is hard to see. If you can identify the exact part of the roof with the problem, you'll be good to go. If not, you can still move forward with covering the damage.
3. Cover Your Roof With A Tarp
The best way to immediately stop the water from coming in is to cover the damage a tarp. The trick is to get a tarp big enough that will reach down to cover the problem area and extend over the peak of the roof to the other side. Secure the tarp with four boards to prevent water from getting trapped and prevent the wind from ripping it off the roof. Place two boards horizontally along the bottom of the slope, with the tarp wrapping over the board so that the rainwater runs off the surface instead of getting trapped behind the wood. The other two boards run vertically along the side, but on top of the tarp so wind cannot get underneath it.
After following these three steps, you'll be set to contact a roofing contractor in your area that specializes in storm damage roof repair. They'll be able to get your roof patched and back to normal in no time.
