Need Emergency Roof Repair? Tips For The First 24 Hours

Most people who need emergency roof repair right after a storm reach for a tarp first. That instinct is backwards, and it can cost you money on the claim.

The Louisiana Department of Insurance's own post-storm guidance puts documentation first: file your claim, then photograph or video the damage, and only then make the temporary repairs that protect the house from further loss. The order matters because an adjuster who shows up three days later is working from what exists, not what you remember. A tarp that goes up before a single photo is taken can cover up the exact evidence that supports a fuller claim.

This is what we tell every homeowner who calls us in the hours after a storm, in the order we'd tell a family member.

Document everything before you make a single repair

Walk the exterior and, if it's safe, the attic, and photograph or video:

• Every section of missing, lifted, or cracked shingles, shot from a few different angles
• Any exposed decking or felt underlayment
• Debris on the roof or in the yard, gutters, and downspouts (a broken branch on the roof tells the adjuster something a clean roof doesn't)
• Interior water stains, ceiling bulging, or active drips, with something in frame for scale
• The date and rough time, since most phones already timestamp this automatically

Do this before you touch anything. The Department of Insurance is explicit that documentation comes before cleanup and before repairs, and that you should keep any removed or damaged materials rather than discarding them, since an adjuster may want to see them directly.

Then file the claim. Louisiana's guidance is to contact your insurer or agent first, with your policy number ready and a general description of the damage. You don't need a contractor on site to do this step.

Why the edges of your roof are the real story

If you only have time to photograph one area closely, make it the perimeter, the eaves, rakes, and the first few feet in from every edge, rather than the middle of the roof field.

That's not a Baton Rouge quirk. It's how wind actually loads a roof. FEMA's own wind retrofit guidance for residential buildings singles out the outer four feet of a roof edge as a distinct zone that requires closer fastener spacing than the field of the roof, because that's where uplift pressure concentrates in high wind. It's also why a drip edge at every eave and gable isn't decorative trim, FEMA's guidance treats it as a required detail, not an option. When a roof starts failing in a storm, it very often starts at these edges first, and that's exactly where light glancing across the shingles will show you the lift and cracking most clearly.

If your roof is older or the shingles were already brittle from UV exposure, this edge damage can look minor from the ground and still be the first sign of a bigger problem underneath. That's a separate question from streaking or algae, which is cosmetic. Granule loss, lifted edges, and exposed nail heads are wear indicators, not cosmetics, and they're worth a closer look either way.

Tarping comes after documentation, not instead of it

Once the damage is photographed, a temporary repair, tarping exposed decking, covering a hole, sealing an active leak point, protects the house from a second round of damage while the claim moves forward. The Department of Insurance specifically recommends this step and tells homeowners to save every receipt for materials and labor, since reasonable temporary repair costs are typically reimbursable.

A tarp job done right covers the full damaged area with enough overlap to shed water downhill, is fastened through the tarp into structural framing rather than just the shingles, and doesn't puncture more roof than the damage already has. It's meant to last through the claim process, not through the next big wind event.

Who you let on the roof matters as much as what they do

Storms bring legitimate local crews and they also bring out-of-state trucks that follow the damage from town to town, take a deposit, and are gone before the work is inspected. The second group is the reason so much post-storm advice exists in the first place.

Before anyone gets on your roof, three quick checks tell you which one you're dealing with: an active Louisiana contractor license for jobs over $7,500, a certificate of insurance sent by the insurance agency rather than a phone screenshot, and who's pulling the permit, since only a licensed, in-good-standing contractor can legally do that. If someone offers to waive or cover your deductible to get the job, that's not a discount. It's insurance fraud under Louisiana law, and it's one of the clearest red flags there is.

The Department of Insurance's own fraud warning after major storms names this pattern specifically: people posing as contractors or adjusters who show up fast, ask for money up front, and disappear. Ask for identification, and if you want to verify an adjuster's license independently, the LDI runs its own lookup tool at 1-800-259-5300.

What happens after the tarp goes up

Once the immediate damage is documented and covered, the claim runs its normal course, an adjuster inspects, produces an estimate, and the scope gets finalized. You're entitled to see that full estimate, not just a summary, and it's normal for a contractor to file a supplement once the roof is actually opened up and something the adjuster couldn't see from the ground turns up.

If the damage adds up to a full replacement rather than a repair, a permit and photo-documentation are required for reroofs anywhere in East Baton Rouge Parish, and pulling that permit is the contractor's job, not yours. If you're trying to get a sense of what a full replacement costs before that conversation happens, we've put real 2026 ranges in writing here.

Emergency roof repair starts with one phone call

None of the steps above replace having someone qualified on site. We document storm damage the way an adjuster needs to see it, put on a tarp that actually holds, and tell you plainly whether you're looking at a repair or a full replacement before we ever talk about a contract. Call us or request a free inspection at the first sign of damage and we'll walk the roof with you, in the driveway, with a written estimate, not a pressure pitch.