Roof Leaking During a Storm? What to Do Before the Roofer Arrives

Quick answer: what to do when your roof is leaking during a storm

1. Move people and valuables away from the drip, especially electronics, rugs, artwork and anything on the floor below.
2. Catch the water with buckets, pots or a storage bin. Lay towels under them to stop splashback from soaking the floor.
3. Check the ceiling. If the drywall is sagging or bulging, read the next section before doing anything else.
4. Cut power at the breaker to any circuit with water near a light fixture, ceiling fan or outlet, but only if you can reach the panel while standing on a dry floor.
5. Take photos and a short video of the leak, the ceiling and anything wet, with the time visible if your phone shows it.
6. Go into the attic only if it is safe: a floored attic with a light, no standing water near wiring, and no lightning close by. A bucket or a sheet of plastic over the insulation directly under the drip can save a lot of drywall.
7. Call for a roofer so you are in line as soon as the storm passes.

A bulging ceiling: relieve the water before it lets go

When a ceiling stain starts to sag, water is pooling on top of the drywall. Left alone, the board can tear open all at once and drop a lot of water, wet insulation and drywall onto whatever is below. A controlled drain is far better than a collapse.

1. Make sure power to any fixture in that ceiling is off.
2. Put a large bucket or bin directly under the lowest point of the bulge.
3. Standing to the side, push a screwdriver or nail through the lowest point to make a small hole. The water will come out in a steady stream.
4. Widen the hole slightly if it drains too slowly, and keep emptying the bucket.

Why you should stay off the roof, and why the roofer may wait too

Climbing onto a roof in the rain to throw a tarp over the leak is how homeowners get hurt. Wet shingles are slick, concrete and clay tile crack underfoot and get slippery, and a ladder against a gutter in gusting wind can kick out with no warning. In Central Florida thunderstorms, lightning is the bigger danger: a person on a roof with a metal ladder is the highest point around.

The same rules apply to professionals. No roofer goes up in lightning or high wind, and during a named storm the wait may last until the winds die down. Phones are answered 24/7, and a roofer is sent as soon as it is safe to work. After a typical afternoon cell that window usually opens within hours; after a hurricane, the steps above may need to hold longer.

Where storm leaks start on Winter Park and Maitland roofs

Wind-driven rain finds weak spots that a calm shower never touches. These are the usual suspects on homes under the oak canopy:

• Valleys packed with oak leaves. Debris dams the valley, water backs up sideways and runs under the shingle edges. This is the most common storm leak in older Winter Park and Maitland neighborhoods.
• Pipe boots and roof vents. The rubber collar around a plumbing vent cracks in the Florida sun, and a hard rain finds the gap.
• Wall and chimney flashing. Where a roof slope meets a second-story wall or a chimney, wind can push rain behind old or loose flashing.
• Tile roofs with tired underlayment. On older tile roofs, the tile sheds most of the water but the felt underneath does the waterproofing. Once it wears thin, heavy storms get through even though the tiles look fine.
• The tie-in between a flat Florida room roof and the main roof. Low-slope additions leak where they meet the sloped roof, especially when water ponds against the joint.
• Fresh limb damage. A broken oak limb can puncture a shingle or crack a tile in a single gust.

Not every storm drip is the roof. Wind-driven rain can come through a window frame or a stucco crack, and an overflowing AC condensate line can stain a ceiling during the same afternoon. The roofer checks for these too. Our roof leak repair page explains how the source is traced once things dry out.

Document the leak while it is happening

Photos taken during the storm show things that disappear later: the active drip, the size of the wet area, and water on floors and furniture. A record helps the roofer and helps you.

• Photograph the ceiling, walls, floors and damaged belongings, then step back for a wide shot of each room.
• Write down when the leak started and roughly how heavy the rain was.
• Keep receipts for buckets, fans, tarps or a hotel night if you need one.
• Do not throw away damaged items or debris until they have been photographed.
• After the storm, take photos of the roof from the ground, including any shingles, tile pieces or limbs in the yard.

Coverage for storm leaks depends on your policy, the cause of the damage and your deductible. In Florida, damage from a declared hurricane usually falls under a separate hurricane deductible that is a percentage of your dwelling coverage, while a regular thunderstorm falls under the all-other-perils deductible. Check your policy or talk to your agent about what applies to your home.

What the roofer does when the weather clears

The first visit is about stopping the water. The roofer inspects the roof, finds the entry point, and puts on a temporary dry-in, usually a heavy tarp fastened over the damaged area and run past the ridge so water cannot get under it. A small leak at a pipe boot or flashing joint can sometimes be sealed temporarily instead. Our emergency roof repair page covers how tarping is done and how long it holds.

Once the roof is protected, the roofer takes photos, explains what failed, and gives you a written price for the permanent repair before any of that work starts. Every roofer we send is licensed and insured in Florida. If the storm did wider damage, such as missing shingles across a slope or broken tile in several places, the storm damage roof repair process applies.

After the storm: drying out and preventing the next leak

Wet insulation and drywall can start growing mold within a day or two in Central Florida humidity. Run fans and a dehumidifier, pull back wet carpet pads, and have soaked insulation checked. A ceiling that dried with a brown ring may still have damp insulation above it.

Most storm leaks under the canopy trace back to things you can watch for: leaf-filled valleys, limbs over the roof and brittle pipe boots. A look from the ground after big storms, and branches trimmed back from the roofline, catch a lot of problems early. Our guide to oak limb roof damage in Winter Park goes further into the canopy side of things.

From the roof: what the roofer checks first on a storm leak

The first questions come before anyone climbs a ladder: which room, which corner, which way the wind was blowing, and whether the drip started at the peak of the rain or an hour in. A leak that only shows up with a west wind points somewhere different from one that drips in every shower.

Uphill from the stain, not straight above it

Water rarely drips straight down. It runs along a rafter or the back of the underlayment and falls at a low point, sometimes several feet from where it got in. The roofer starts at the stain and works uphill, checking valleys, flashing, pipe boots and old fastener holes in that line. In the attic, dark trails on the decking, rusty nail tips and wet insulation mark the path.

Tarp or spot seal: the honest tradeoff

• A spot seal with roofing cement or tape on a cracked pipe boot or open flashing joint is quick and adds no new holes, but it only works if the roofer is sure that is the entry point.
• A full tarp covers a wider area when the source isn't certain, but it needs fasteners or weighted battens, and on tile the roofer has to step carefully so the tarping doesn't break more tile than the storm did.
• Both are temporary. Florida sun and wind wear a tarp down, so schedule the permanent repair while it still holds.

When a storm leak can't be pinned down on a dry day, the roofer may run a controlled water test one section at a time rather than patch the wrong spot.

The bottom line on a roof leaking during a storm

While the storm is overhead, your work is inside the house: catch the water, drain a bulging ceiling, cut power to wet fixtures and take photos. The roofer's work starts when the lightning moves on and the roof is safe to walk. The first visit stops the water with a tarp or a spot seal, and the permanent fix comes with a written price once the roof is dry. If water is coming in right now, emergency roof repair and tarping is the next step. If the drip stopped with the rain, have the entry point found before the next storm reopens it.