Emergency tarping: doing it, and who pays.

Get the opening covered as soon as the weather allows, and keep the receipt. Most policies require you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage once you know about it, and the cost of doing that is normally part of the claim rather than something you absorb.

The corollary is the part people miss: damage that happens after you knew about the hole, and did nothing, is the part an insurer can decline.

What tarping is actually for

It buys weeks, not months. The goal is to stop water entering while a permanent repair is scheduled, and after a bad storm the queue for permanent repairs can be long.

The other goal is evidentiary. A house that was tarped promptly presents as a homeowner who mitigated. A house with a tarp thrown loosely over a hole in March, still there in June, presents as neglect and invites an argument about what damage happened when.

If you are doing it yourself, and it is safe to

Only for a single story, low slope, dry, still conditions, with someone else present.

What you need: a heavy duty tarp much larger than the opening, several lengths of timber batten, nails or screws, and a ladder someone is holding.

The method that holds:

1. Run the tarp from above the ridge if you can, so water cannot run under the top edge. This is the single most important detail and it is the one people skip.
2. Roll the top edge around a batten, then fasten the batten through the tarp into the decking. Rolling it means the fastenings are not the only thing holding it.
3. Repeat down the sides. Do not fasten the bottom edge, so water that gets behind can escape.
4. Leave no loose flapping edge anywhere. Flapping is what destroys tarps and what pulls fastenings out.

What does not work: weighting a tarp down with bricks, blocks, or tires. The wind gets under it, the weights move, and you now have a tarp and several projectiles on a damaged roof.

Yes, fastening a tarp puts holes in the roof. Those holes are trivial compared with the water, and the roof is being replaced anyway.

Inside is sometimes the better answer

If the roof cannot be worked on safely, cover from inside instead: plastic sheeting stapled to rafters, channeling water into a bin, with the room below cleared. It is less effective and much safer, and for a small opening in bad weather it is often the right call.

Containing water coming through a ceiling covers the rest of that, including what to do about a ceiling holding a pocket of water.

Getting it done by someone

After a significant storm, board up and tarping is a service in its own right. Things worth knowing:

• Ask what it costs before they start, in writing if possible, including whether there is a per square foot rate and a minimum service call.
• Ask whether they bill the insurer directly, and if so, what you are signing to allow it. An assignment of benefits hands over your rights under the policy, and the doorstep after a storm is exactly where one gets put in front of you.
• Get the tarping quoted separately from the repair. They are different jobs and bundling them is how a mitigation invoice grows.
• Photograph the damage before it is covered. Once the tarp is on, nobody can see what was underneath, including the adjuster.

Telling the insurer

Call the same day, and say the words: you have an opening in the building envelope and you are arranging emergency mitigation. Ask two questions:

• Is emergency tarping covered, and up to what limit?
• Do you need to inspect before it is covered, or should I proceed?

Most insurers will tell you to proceed, because they would rather pay for a tarp than for a month of rain. Get the name of who told you that and write down the date.

Living with a tarp

• Check it after every wind event. A tarp that has lifted at one corner is worse than no tarp, because water is now being funnelled under it.
• Watch the ceiling below for new staining, which means it is not holding.
• Chase the permanent repair. Tarps degrade in sunlight and most are done after a few months.
• Keep photographing. A dated series showing the tarp intact is the record that you maintained the mitigation.

The short version

Cover it as soon as it is safe, from inside if the roof is not safe to work on. Over the ridge, battened, no loose edges, never weighted with bricks. Photograph before covering, keep the receipts, and tell the insurer the same day that you are mitigating.