Emergency Roof Tarping & Dry In
When the roof opens up at 9 pm, the goals are simple: keep people safe, slow the water, and buy time for a proper repair without overpaying in a panic.
By the Georgetown Roof Guide editorial team · Updated July 15, 2026
It is 9 pm, the storm has not finished, and water is coming through the ceiling fan box in the back bedroom. Nobody plans for this hour, so here is the plan, in order. Roof work happens tomorrow. Tonight is about people, power, and slowing the water down.
Everything on this list happens inside the house. The roof can wait for daylight and dry shingles. Your drywall, flooring, and electronics cannot, and they are what tonight is for.
Tonight, before any crew arrives
- Stay off the roof entirely while weather is active, no exceptions
- Keep everyone out of rooms with sagging or heavily dripping ceilings
- Flip the breaker for any room where water is reaching fixtures or outlets
- Move furniture and electronics, then lay towels and set containers
- Drain a bulging ceiling with one small hole at the center, bucket underneath
- Photograph and video the damage and the water path before any cleanup
- Write down when the damage started and what the storm was doing
- Save every receipt, from fans to tarps, for the claim file
When a tarp is actually warranted
Tarping earns its cost when water has a working path into the house: opened decking, a limb puncture, shingles stripped to bare felt across a section, or a leak that pours instead of drips. The job is stopping active damage, nothing more. Missing shingles over intact underlayment on a dry forecast can often wait a few days for a permanent repair at normal prices, and a good roofer will say so when the honest answer is that no tarp is needed. Ask for that judgment call over the phone, with photos, before paying an emergency rate for a problem that is not one.
What a proper dry in looks like
There is a difference between a tarp thrown over a hole and a dry in that survives three weeks of weather. A proper job uses heavy poly sized well past the damage, run up and over the ridge so wind driven rain cannot get under the top edge, with wood battens fastening the perimeter instead of loose bricks and hope. Fasteners go where the permanent repair will already be working, keeping new holes inside the damage zone. If the crew is gone in 20 minutes and the tarp luffs like a sail, you paid for the appearance of mitigation rather than the thing itself.
The insurance logic
Your policy almost certainly requires reasonable steps to prevent further damage after a loss. Adjusters call it the duty to mitigate, and tarping is its textbook example: the cost is normally reimbursable, the photos are your proof, and the alternative reads as neglect. One caution runs the other way. Mitigation is not a repair contract, and signing a full replacement agreement at midnight because a crew is already on your roof is exactly the sequence to avoid. Our storm restoration guide lays out how the next steps should unfold in daylight.
After the tarp
The tarp buys weeks, not a solution, so spend them in order: document, inspect, decide claim versus out of pocket, then permanent work, using the post storm checklist as the worksheet. If the leak turns out to be small and traceable, our leak repair guide covers the diagnosis. Glance at the tarp after every storm that follows, because a shifted or torn tarp protects nothing and insurers expect maintained mitigation, not a one time gesture. The most expensive thing a tarp can do is work so well you forget it is up there.
Questions homeowners ask
Not during the storm, and for most people not after it either. Wet shingles, wind, ladders, and adrenaline are the standard recipe for an injury that costs more than any tarp crew. Work from inside the house and leave the roof to people with fall protection.
Published industry cost data for the Georgetown area puts most residential tarp jobs between $300 and $1,200, driven by size, pitch, and timing. Middle of the night calls and steep two story work price toward the top. Get the number stated clearly before anyone climbs.
Normally yes, as mitigation under a covered storm claim. Photograph the damage before and after the tarp goes on, and keep the invoice. Policies expect you to prevent further damage, so a reasonable tarp bill is usually among the least argued lines on a claim.
A properly battened tarp should handle several weeks of ordinary weather, which usually covers the insurance and scheduling queue. Sun and wind chew on it the whole time, so treat 90 days as borrowed time and push for permanent repair well before then.
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