The first day after storm damage has three jobs and they are in this order: nobody gets hurt, the water stops where it can be stopped safely, and the evidence survives. Everything else, including the repair, belongs to the days after.
The order matters because the three jobs compete. The instinctive response to a leak is to mop, move things and cover them up, and every one of those actions destroys something an insurer, a warranty provider or a surveyor will later ask to see. Work through the steps below in sequence.
Step one: make people safe
Before anything is assessed, cleared or photographed, deal with the hazards.
- Move people out of any area where water is coming in, and keep them out.
- Treat water near light fittings, sockets or electrical panels as live. Switch off the circuits serving that area at the board if it is safe to reach, and call an electrician if it is not.
- Keep everybody away from a ceiling that is sagging or bulging. It is holding weight and it can fall.
- Look for glass, displaced fixings and anything that has come through a skylight or a rooflight.
- Rope off or barrier the area beneath the roof edge outside, because loose edge metal and displaced material fall later, not during.
- Keep everybody off the roof. Nothing that needs doing up there on the first day is worth doing in an unassessed state.
- If there are downed power lines, structural movement or a risk of collapse, that is a call to the emergency services and the utility, not to a roofer.
Step two: stop water where it can be stopped safely
All of this is done from inside. The roof is not the place to solve a leak on day one.
Move stock, equipment and documents out from under the water rather than covering them where they stand. Put containers under active drips and sheet the floor. Lift a ceiling tile next to the drip if it is safe and nothing above is loaded, so the water runs into a container instead of spreading across the ceiling grid. Where water is running along a beam or a duct, a length of plastic sheet taped to divert it into a bin will hold a surprising amount.
If the building has internal outlets that you can see discharging, note which are running and which are not. An outlet that has stopped running during heavy rain is a blockage, and on a flat roof a blockage during a storm is a structural load rather than an inconvenience.
Call for emergency attendance if water is entering fast enough to threaten the building or its contents, and say plainly that it is active and ongoing. Emergency work is temporary by design and should be described that way.
Step three: photograph before anything is moved or covered
This is the step that gets skipped and the one that cannot be repeated.
Photograph the water coming in, the stains, the damaged contents and the affected areas from far enough back to show where they are in the building. Then photograph the same things close enough to show what they are. Do it before the mopping, before the covers go on and before anything is carried out of the room.
Photograph the outside of the building from ground level on every elevation. Photograph anything that has arrived: debris, sheeting, branches, panels, where each of them landed. Photograph what you can see of the roof from a window or a neighboring building, without going up.
Check that every image is carrying its date. Then write your own date and time on the list as well, because a camera can be wrong and a written log is harder to argue with.
Step four: write down what the weather did and when
While it is fresh, record the facts that will be asked for later and cannot be reconstructed.
| Record | Why it is asked for |
|---|---|
| When the weather started and stopped | It fixes the event to a date |
| Wind direction and strength | Driven rain and lifted edges follow direction |
| Hail, and roughly how long it fell | It distinguishes impact damage from wear |
| When water was first noticed inside | The gap between event and entry is itself information |
| Where it appeared, room by room | It maps the damage before anything is cleaned |
| Who saw it and what they saw | A named contemporaneous account |
Save a copy of the local weather record for the date while it is easy to find. Keep this log with the photographs rather than in somebody’s inbox.
Step five: who to call, and in what order
- Emergency services and the utility, if there is a structural, fire or electrical hazard. Nothing else happens before this.
- The people in the building. Occupants, tenants, staff and anyone due to arrive. Say which areas are closed and why.
- A roofing contractor, for temporary protection. Describe what you can see, say whether water is still entering and mention any loaded ceiling. Ask for the temporary work to be described and priced as temporary.
- Your insurer or broker, to report it. Report early, state the facts and the date, and ask what they need from you. Your policy and your carrier decide what is covered, so ask them rather than asking the contractor.
- The mechanical or solar contractor, if their equipment on the roof has been damaged or displaced. It is their equipment and your roof, and the interface is where the argument starts.
- The landlord or the tenant, according to the lease. Report it in writing the same day whichever side you are on.
Step six: record the temporary work too
When a crew attends, photograph the roof before they start if they will share images, and photograph what they install when they finish. Get in writing what was done, whether it is temporary, and that they will return for a permanent repair.
Keep the invoice. Emergency work to prevent further damage is normally expected of a building owner, and the record of having done it promptly matters as much as the work itself.
What the second day is for
The second day is when somebody competent assesses the roof properly: what failed, where water entered, how far it has spread and what has to come out. That assessment is a different job from the emergency attendance, and it produces the document everything afterwards is built on.
Until then, do not clear the roof, do not let anyone strip material off it, and do not throw away damaged contents. Photograph, log, and keep.
Water still coming in? Start with roof leaks. Ready for the assessment? Read roof leak detection methods.
Common questions
Is it safe to go on the roof the morning after a storm?
Not until somebody competent has established that it is. A roof that has taken storm damage can have openings, loose sheets and weakened areas that look the same as sound roof from the hatch.
- Standing water hides holes, soft spots and displaced insulation
- Lifted edge metal and loose panels move again in the next gust
- Debris that arrived overnight may be sharp, heavy or live
- Wet membrane is slippery and the edges may no longer be obvious
Look from a window, from a taller building or from the ground with binoculars, and photograph what you can see from there. If you have to know what is on the roof before a roofer can attend, say so when you call, and let the assessment be somebody's job rather than an errand.
A ceiling is bulging with water. What do we do?
Clear the area beneath it, keep everybody out, and leave it alone. A ceiling holding water is a weight problem and it can come down without warning.
- Move people, stock and equipment out from under it and from around it
- Switch off the electrical circuits serving that area if it is safe to do so
- Do not stand under it to put a bucket down
- Do not pierce it yourself unless you have been told how by someone competent
Photograph it from a safe distance before anything is done to it, because once it has been released or has fallen, the evidence of how much water was up there is gone. Tell the roofer or the emergency attendance that there is a loaded ceiling when you call, because it changes what they bring.
How long should we wait before starting the cleanup?
Until the photographs are done and the area is safe. Cleaning up inside can begin as soon as the water and the damage have been recorded. Cleaning up on the roof waits for a competent assessment.
- Record the interior before mopping, moving stock or covering anything
- Photograph damaged contents before any of it is thrown out
- Nothing comes off the roof until somebody can work there safely
- Keep the damaged items somewhere they can be looked at again
A tidy building on the first evening is worth far less than a photographed one. Leave the damaged items where they are, or set them aside, until whoever is handling the claim has said they are finished with them.
Someone knocked on the door offering roof repairs. Should we use them?
Not on the first day, and not on a signature they want the same day. After a storm there are firms working an area who will be gone before the next one.
- Ask for the trading name, the address and how long they have held both
- Read anything they ask you to sign, especially about your claim
- Do not authorize work on a roof nobody has properly assessed
- Emergency protection is one thing, a permanent repair signed for today is another
You can accept genuine emergency protection from a competent contractor and still choose who does the permanent work later. Keep every document you sign and every invoice, and take the same photographs of temporary work that you would of the damage.
What should we write down about the storm itself?
The facts you will not remember in a month and cannot reconstruct afterwards: when it happened, what the weather did, and when the damage was first noticed.
- Date and time the weather started and stopped
- Wind direction, and whether there was hail and for how long
- When water first appeared inside, and in which rooms
- Who was in the building, who saw it and what they saw
Save a copy of the local weather record for that date while it is easy to find. Contemporary notes written on the day carry weight that a recollection written up weeks later does not, in a warranty claim, in an insurance claim and in any discussion with a tenant or a landlord.