There is a specific kind of panic that comes with hearing something hit your roof in the middle of a storm. The instinct is to wait for morning. That instinct costs money.
Water that gets past a compromised roof does not stop at the attic. It runs the framing, saturates insulation, soaks drywall, and finds flooring. A few hours of unchecked intrusion routinely turns a contained roof repair into a multi-room interior job.
The first hour: what actually helps
Your goals in order are safety, containment, and documentation. Nothing else matters yet.
- Get everyone out from under the affected area and kill power to that part of the house if water is anywhere near fixtures or outlets
- Move furniture, electronics, and anything absorbent out of the path of the water
- Put buckets or bins under active drips and lay towels to control spread
- If a ceiling is bulging with trapped water, puncture the low point with a screwdriver over a bucket — a controlled release beats the whole ceiling coming down
- Photograph and video everything before you clean up anything
Stay off the roof
This is the part people get wrong. A wet roof at night with structural damage you cannot see is genuinely dangerous, and a homemade tarp job usually does not survive the next gust anyway.
Tarps held down with bricks and cinder blocks fail the moment the wind picks back up — and then you have loose debris on a compromised roof. Proper emergency tarping means the tarp is mechanically fastened and the edges are sealed so wind cannot get underneath.
Why tarping matters for your insurance claim
Almost every homeowner policy contains a duty to mitigate — you are required to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage after a loss. Emergency tarping is the textbook example of meeting that obligation.
There is a second benefit. When we tarp a roof we photograph the original damage before covering it. That gives your adjuster a clear record of what the storm did, taken before anything was disturbed, which removes the usual back-and-forth about what was pre-existing.
What happens after the tarp
A tarp is a bridge, not a repair. Once the property is dry and secure, we come back in daylight and inspect the entire roof — not just the obvious opening. Storms that break through one section usually loosen shingles and flashing across the whole slope.
From there you get a written estimate for the permanent repair or replacement, with the insurance documentation already assembled. No pressure while you are still dealing with the aftermath.
We answer at any hour
I and G Construction Inc runs 24/7 emergency tarping across McDonough, Atlanta, Newnan, Griffin, and the surrounding communities. If your roof is open to the weather right now, call (678) 255-7075.