Emergency Roof Repair and Tarping

What to do right now, before anyone arrives

• Do not go on the roof. Not to look, not to clear snow, not to put a tarp down. Falls from residential roofs are one of the leading causes of serious injury in BC, and a wet or icy roof at night is the worst version of it.
• Get the water into a container and away from the electrics. A bucket and a towel buy you hours.
• If the ceiling is bulging, pierce it. That sounds wrong. A small hole at the low point drains it into your bucket in a controlled way. Leaving it lets the drywall hold gallons until it comes down in one go.
• Move what matters. Furniture, electronics, anything on the floor under the drip, and anything stored in the attic.
• Take photos now. Dated photos of the water coming in are worth real money in an insurance claim, and you cannot recreate them later.
• If it is the wind and shingles are on the lawn, leave them where they are and photograph them. That is your evidence the damage was weather caused.

What we do when we get there

First job is stopping water getting in, not fixing the roof. Those are two different visits and trying to do the permanent repair in the dark in a storm produces bad work.

• Tarp or temporary weatherproofing over the entry point, fastened so it does not become a sail in the next gust. A tarp thrown over a ridge and weighted with bricks lasts about one night here.
• Find where the water is actually getting in, which is often not where it is coming through your ceiling. Water runs along rafters before it drops.
• Photograph everything, for you and for your insurer.
• Tell you plainly what is temporary and what still needs doing, and roughly what that will cost, before we leave.

Then the permanent repair is quoted separately in daylight, once we can see the whole roof rather than one corner of it by torchlight.

Hours and response

We are on roofs 7 AM to 6 PM. We answer the phone until 10 PM, seven days a week, and if we miss you we call back.

We get back to every enquiry within 24 hours. In a storm week that is the promise we can actually keep, and we would rather say it and keep it than quote you a number of hours we will miss when half the valley calls at once. Being based in Chilliwack means a call in this city is a short drive, not a trip across the valley.

What emergency work costs

Tarping and temporary weatherproofing typically run $500 to $2,500, depending on pitch, area and how much of the roof has to be covered. A steep cut up roof in the wet takes longer and carries more risk than a low slope section.

The inspection is free. The emergency call out is not, because it is real work at a real hour, and we would rather tell you that up front than pretend otherwise and load it into the repair.

Insurance claims

Storm damage is usually covered. Wear and tear is usually not, and the difference is decided on documentation. What helps a claim: dated photos of the damage and the water, debris left where it landed, a written assessment from a contractor saying what failed and why, and the weather event named.

We put that together as part of the visit and you get a copy whether or not you use us for the repair. We do this work and we are happy to talk to your adjuster. We are not going to inflate a scope to chase a bigger claim, and if what happened is not covered we will say so rather than let you find out from the insurer.

After the storm

Two things worth knowing. The first is that door knockers follow storms into this valley, and some of them are fine and some of them are gone by spring with your deposit. Ask who you are talking to, whether they are local, and whether the warranty will still exist in three years.

The second is that a storm often exposes something that was already failing. If the wind took shingles off one slope and the rest of the roof is twenty years old, the honest conversation is about the whole roof rather than that one slope, and we will give you both numbers and let you decide.