What to do in the next ten minutes
- Move what you can out from under the water — furniture, electronics, anything on the floor beneath the stain.
- Put a container down, with a towel in it to stop the splashing.
- If a ceiling is bulging, it is holding trapped water and can come down all at once. Pierce it deliberately at the lowest point of the bulge with a screwdriver, with a bucket underneath, and let it drain in one controlled place.
- Kill the power to that area at the breaker if water is anywhere near a light fitting or outlet.
- Photograph everything before you clean up. Wet ceiling, wet floor, damaged contents. That is claim evidence and it disappears the moment you mop.
Do not get on the roof. Not in the rain, not after, not to look. Wet or hail-glazed shingle is genuinely dangerous and roof falls are a leading cause of serious home injury.
What emergency tarping does
A tarp is not a repair. It is a controlled stop, and it does two jobs.
The obvious one is keeping water out of the house until the roof can be properly worked on. The less obvious one matters more: it stops the loss growing. Water that keeps coming in for three days turns a roof claim into a roof, drywall, insulation, flooring and contents claim — and most policies expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage. Tarping is that step, and it is normally covered.
A tarp installed properly is fastened above the damage and run over the ridge or well past the failure point so water cannot track underneath it. One weighted down with bricks will move in the next wind and can make things worse.
What happens after the tarp
Once the house is stable, the sequence is the same as any storm claim: a full inspection with a dated photo report, an itemised estimate, and a decision about whether this is a repair or a replacement.
Keep every photograph you took during the leak and every receipt for anything you bought to contain it. Both belong in the claim file. Our guide to roof insurance coverage in Texas walks through the rest.
The leaks that were avoidable
Most emergency calls we see were not sudden. They were a pipe boot that had been split for two seasons, or flashing that had lifted and was letting a little water in every storm until the decking finally gave up.
The failure is sudden; the cause rarely is. That is the argument for an inspection at the fifteen-year mark rather than waiting for a ceiling stain — and it is why the inspection is free.