Emergency Roof Leak Repair
Put a bucket under it, poke a small hole in the center of the ceiling bulge so the water drains instead of dropping the whole sheet, and move anything electrical out of the room. Then send us the form with a photo. Emergency roof leak repair in Tuscaloosa means a tarp today while there is daylight and a real fix in the first dry window this week.
We do not leave a tarp on and disappear. The tarp is step one of a repair you already have a written price for.
Do this in the next 30 minutes
Catch the water. A bucket, a trash can, a storage bin. Put a towel in the bottom so the drip does not splash.
Drain the bulge. If the ceiling is sagging with water, push a screwdriver through the lowest point over the bucket. A controlled drain beats a ceiling collapse.
Kill the power to the room if water is anywhere near a light fixture or ceiling fan. Breaker, not the switch.
Photograph everything: the ceiling, the drip, the room, and the outside of the house from the yard if it is safe. You need these for us and possibly for your insurance.
Stay off the roof. Wet shingles in the wind are how homeowners end up in the DCH emergency room. That part is our job.
What counts as an emergency
Water actively coming through a ceiling. A tree limb or trunk on the roof. Shingles or decking visibly missing after a wind event. A tarp from a previous storm that has torn loose. A flat-roof drain backed up with water standing over a living space. A ceiling that has come down.
A stain that showed up after last night's rain but is dry now is urgent, not an emergency. We will still get there within 24 to 48 hours, but it goes on the regular leak repair schedule at regular pricing, which saves you money.
Tree strikes are their own category. The older neighborhoods in Tuscaloosa, Forest Lake, The Downs, Druid City and the streets off Hargrove Road, are full of 70-year-old oaks and pines with limbs over the roof, and a spring front brings a few of them down every year. If a limb is on the roof and you cannot tell whether it went through, treat it as an emergency; a limb that cracked the decking will leak at the next rain whether or not you can see daylight.
Tarp first, then the real fix
Our emergency tarp is not a blue sheet with bricks on the corners. We use reinforced poly, run it from above the ridge or at least 4 feet above the damage down past the eave, and fasten it with 1x3 battens screwed through to the decking so a 50 mph gust does not peel it. On a tree strike we cut and clear what has to come off to get the tarp down flat, and we photograph the decking damage underneath for your adjuster.
Within the same visit or the next morning you have a written price for the permanent repair: new decking if it is punched through, new underlayment, matched shingles, and whatever boot, vent or flashing the storm took with it. Most tarped emergencies in Tuscaloosa are permanently repaired within 3 to 5 days of the tarp.
While we are up there we photograph the damage before the tarp covers it: the hole, the decking, the shingles, and the limb or debris that caused it. Those photos are what your adjuster will ask for, and once a tarp is on, nobody can take them. We email them to you the same day.
Storm-night response times
On a normal night, a form sent before 4 pm gets a same-day tarp in daylight anywhere in Tuscaloosa or Northport. After dark we come at first light; a roof we cannot see is a roof we cannot safely tarp. During a major spring outbreak, when half the county is calling at once, we work in the order the forms came in, prioritize active water over a house that is already dry, and tell you an honest time window instead of a promise we cannot keep.
Cottondale, Holt, Coker and Brookwood are usually within an hour of a Tuscaloosa call. Moundville, Vance, Lake View and Samantha, add 30 minutes.
You will not be left guessing. When the form comes in you get a reply with a time window, and if the window moves because the roof before yours turned into a tree job, you get a message before the window passes, not after. On a bad night that is the difference between a crew you can plan around and one you have to keep texting.
After-hours pricing, straight
An emergency tarp in Tuscaloosa runs $275 to $650 depending on size and whether there is tree work to clear first. Weekend and holiday tarps add $150. The tarp charge is credited toward the permanent repair when we do it. There is no trip fee, no diagnostic fee, and no number that changes once we are on the roof. If your deductible is 1 to 5 percent of dwelling value, which is typical on Alabama wind and hail policies, we will tell you whether the repair is worth a claim before you call your agent.
If the tarp has to go on a roof we cannot safely walk, a three-story walkup near campus in a 40 mph wind, for example, we say so and come back at first light rather than charge you for a tarp that will not hold.
Water coming in right now?
Send the form with a photo and the address. We answer during business hours within minutes and after hours first thing, and the tarp goes on in the first daylight we have.