Storm damage is the one roofing situation where the order you do things in changes the outcome, both for safety and for what an insurer will pay. This is that order.
1. Make the inside safe
- Keep everyone out from under a ceiling that is sagging, bulging or dripping. Wet plasterboard fails suddenly and a saturated ceiling is heavy enough to injure someone.
- Turn off power to affected circuits at the switchboard if water is anywhere near lights or outlets. If you are not sure which circuits, turn off the main.
- Move furniture and anything valuable out of the room, and put buckets down. A bucket under a drip is fine; a bucket under a bulge is not, because the bulge is the thing to get away from.
2. Photograph it before you touch anything
This is the step people skip and later regret. Insurers assess the claim from the state of things immediately after the event, so photograph the ceiling, the water on the floor, the damaged contents and, from ground level only, whatever is visible of the roof. Wide shots first so the location is obvious, then close-ups. Note the date and time. Once a tarp goes on and the room is cleaned up, that evidence is gone.
Photograph before you mop. It sounds callous when there is water coming through a ceiling, but it is the difference between a claim that is paid without argument and one that is not.
3. Get a temporary make-safe
A make-safe is not the repair. It is a tarp or temporary sheeting to stop more water entering while the weather is still bad and while a proper assessment is arranged. Most policies cover reasonable emergency make-safe costs, and most expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, so leaving a hole open through a week of rain can itself become a problem with the claim. Keep the receipt.
4. Do not go up there yourself
A wet roof after a storm is the most dangerous surface a homeowner is ever tempted onto. Tiles that were sound are now loose, metal is slick, and the damage that caused the leak has often weakened exactly the spot someone would stand on to reach it. Storm work also frequently sits near powerlines and fallen branches. If there is anything on or near the roof that is electrical, treat the whole area as live and call the network operator, not a roofer.
5. Then arrange the permanent repair
The proper repair happens once the weather clears and the roof can be seen dry. That is not a delay tactic. Assessing storm damage on a wet roof produces an incomplete scope, and a permanent repair done in the rain is a repair that gets done twice. A make-safe holds the position until it can be done once, properly, with a written quote.
