How quickly can you get an emergency roof tarp installed?

We dispatch rooftarp.com crews day or night and aim to be on site within hours of your call. Actual timing depends on distance, how many calls a storm has generated in that metro, and whether conditions are safe to work in — we will not put a crew on a roof during active lightning.

Can you tarp a roof in the rain?

Usually yes, and that is often exactly when it is needed. Steady rain is workable. Active lightning, high wind or ice is not, and we will say so rather than risk a crew. In those cases we schedule for the first safe window and talk you through interior containment in the meantime.

Will an emergency tarp stop the leak completely?

A correctly installed tarp stops water entering through the breach it covers. If there is a second failure point elsewhere on the roof, that one needs covering too — which is why we look at the whole roof rather than just the obvious hole.

Does homeowners insurance cover emergency roof tarping?

Emergency mitigation is commonly covered, and most policies actually require you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage. Coverage specifics vary by policy, so confirm with your carrier. Keep the invoice and the photographs either way.

What does an emergency roof tarp cost?

It depends on the area to be covered, roof pitch and height, how the tarp has to be anchored, and whether debris has to be removed first. We give you a figure before work starts, not after.

Emergency Roof Tarp | 24/7 Emergency Roof Tarping

Why an emergency roof tarp is time-critical

Water does not wait for business hours. Once wind lifts a section of shingles or a limb punches through the decking, the roof has an open path to the structure below. A single overnight storm can move water through the attic insulation, into the ceiling gypsum and down inside a wall cavity. By morning the visible damage is a stained ceiling; the actual damage is wet cavity insulation that will hold moisture for weeks.

That is the entire argument for an emergency roof tarp. It is not a repair and it does not pretend to be one. It is a controlled, watertight cover that buys you the time to arrange a proper repair, get an adjuster out and order materials, without the loss growing every night.

When to call for emergency tarping immediately

Visible sky or daylight from inside the attic
A tree limb or debris resting on or through the roof
A large section of shingles stripped by straight-line wind
Active dripping into living space during rain
Decking exposed where the covering peeled back
Storm forecast within 24–48 hours on a roof already compromised

What we do on an emergency call

The first conversation happens on the phone, before anyone is dispatched. We ask what happened, roughly how large the opening is, whether anything is still on the roof, and whether water is entering living space right now. That tells us what to bring — the tarp size, whether a second crew member is needed for a limb, and whether the roof is safe to walk at all.

Safety assessment first. A roof with compromised decking is not automatically walkable. If the structure is unsound, the tarp is anchored from the perimeter and the ladder rather than by crossing the damaged plane.
Find the full extent of the breach. The visible hole is often smaller than the compromised area. Lifted shingles either side of an opening will let water in just as readily.
Size the tarp past the damage. A tarp that stops at the edge of the hole channels water under its own edge. Coverage runs well past the breach in every direction, and over the ridge where the damage is near the top of a slope.
Anchor and seal. Anchoring method depends on the roof — see our roof tarp installation page for how that decision gets made.
Document everything. Photographs before, during and after. Insurance carriers ask for evidence of the original damage and of the mitigation step, and a tarp installed without documentation can complicate a claim.

Emergency tarping and your insurance claim

Most homeowner policies include a duty to protect the property from further damage after a covered loss. In practice that means a carrier can reduce or dispute the portion of a claim caused by water that entered after the initial event, if nothing was done to stop it. Emergency tarping is the step that satisfies that obligation.

Keep the documentation: the date and time of the call, photographs of the damage before the tarp went on, and the invoice. We photograph the work as a matter of course and provide the images, because they are frequently what an adjuster needs to see.

How long an emergency tarp stays on

An emergency tarp is sized for the gap between the damage and the repair. If that gap is a week, a standard poly tarp properly anchored is the right answer. If permitting, materials or an insurance process is going to push the repair out by months, the correct answer is different — see long-term roof tarping, which uses heavier material and a different anchoring approach built to survive UV exposure and repeated wind loading.

We will tell you honestly which situation you are in. Putting a lightweight emergency tarp on a roof that will not be repaired for four months is setting up a second failure.

Texas storm damage, and why the calls cluster

Emergency tarping demand in Texas is not evenly spread through the year. Spring hail along the I-35 and DFW corridors, summer and autumn tropical systems on the Gulf coast, and high-wind events across the Panhandle and West Texas each produce their own concentrated wave of calls. After a significant event, every roofer in the affected metro is booked out for weeks — which is exactly when tarping matters most, because the repair genuinely cannot happen quickly.

We work across the state rather than in a single metro, which means crews can be moved toward wherever the weather actually hit. Find your area on the service areas page.

Emergency Roof Tarp Service