Storm damage to a roof rarely waits for a convenient week. A line of thunderstorms crosses DeKalb County, a limb comes down near Buford Highway, and by the next day there are shingles in the yard and a brown stain on a bedroom ceiling. What you do in the first few days after storm damage affects three things: your safety, how much more water gets into the house, and how clear the record is if you file an insurance claim. The steps below are in the order they matter.
Step 1: Make sure the house and yard are safe
Safety comes before the roof. Walk the outside of the house from a distance and look for downed lines, hanging limbs and anything that has shifted. Georgia Power’s power line safety guidance says to always assume a downed power line is live and life-threatening, to stay away from it, and to report it to the utility or to local police or fire. That matters in Doraville, where mature trees and overhead lines share a lot of the same space along residential streets.
Inside, check ceilings for sagging or bulging drywall, which can mean water is pooling above it. Keep people out of any room where a ceiling looks heavy, and turn off power to that area at the breaker if water is near light fixtures and you can reach the panel safely.
Stay off the roof. Wet shingles are slick, storm-damaged decking may not hold weight, and a fall does far more harm than any leak.
Step 2: Stop the water you can stop from inside
Indoor water control is the part of the job a homeowner can do safely. Move furniture, rugs and electronics away from drips, set buckets or bins under active leaks, and lay towels to keep water off floors. If a ceiling has a water bubble, a small hole poked at its lowest point with a screwdriver lets the water drain into a bucket instead of bringing down a larger section of drywall.
Check the attic too, if it is easy to reach and the floor is sound. Wet insulation, stained decking and daylight through the boards all help pinpoint where the roof is open. Note what you see, but leave the structural work alone.
Step 3: Photograph everything before anything changes
Documentation is easiest in the first days, before debris is cleaned up and before repairs start. In its guidance after Hurricane Zeta, the Georgia Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire advised homeowners to write down and photograph all property damage, including damaged roofs, and to save every receipt because they will be useful to the insurance company later.
A useful photo set includes:
- Wide shots of each side of the house showing the roof from the ground
- Close-ups of shingles, ridge caps or pieces of flashing in the yard
- Dents in gutters, downspouts, vents and the hood of any car parked outside
- Fallen limbs where they landed, before they are cut up
- Every interior stain, drip and wet spot, with something in the frame for scale
- Receipts for anything you buy to protect the house, such as buckets, fans or towels
Write down the date of the storm and what you saw and heard. A short note made on the day is far more reliable than memory months later.
Step 4: Contact your insurance company and read your policy
That same guidance told homeowners to notify their insurance company of any damage right away. Calling early gets a claim number on file and an adjuster on the schedule, and it lets you ask what your particular policy covers and whether it sets a time limit for reporting. Policies differ, so the answers have to come from your insurer or your agent, not from a contractor or a blog post.
It also advised against attempting significant repairs before the damage is documented. Small steps that prevent further damage are usually expected; rebuilding part of the roof before the adjuster has seen it can complicate things. If you are unsure where that line sits for your claim, ask your insurer directly.
Step 5: Be careful who you let on the roof
Storms bring door knockers, and the days right after one are when they are busiest. The Georgia Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division advises homeowners to avoid door-to-door offers for home repair work, to ask friends and neighbors for referrals instead, and to steer clear of anyone who wants full payment up front, accepts only cash, or will not put the job in a written contract. It also recommends getting written bids from at least three contractors and being skeptical of a bid that seems too low.
A reasonable roofing company will inspect first, show you photos of what it found, and give you an itemized quote you can compare with others. Nobody should need you to sign anything on the driveway the day after the storm.
Step 6: Read the roof from the ground
You can learn a lot about storm damage without leaving the yard. Wind and hail leave different marks, and knowing which one you are looking at helps you describe the damage when you call your insurer and when you talk to a roofer.
Wind damage usually shows up at the edges first. Look for missing shingles, especially along the rakes and near the ridge, where gusts get under the tabs. Shingles that are still in place but show a straight, light-colored line across them have often been creased, meaning the wind lifted them and folded them back, breaking the seal that holds them down. A ridge cap that looks lifted or uneven, or a strip of exposed felt or bare wood, are signs of wind as well.
Hail is quieter. From the ground, it usually shows up on metal before shingles: small round dents in gutters, downspouts, vent caps and the flashing around the roof. Granules piled at the bottom of downspouts can be a clue, though old roofs shed granules too.
Fallen limbs are their own category. A large branch resting on the roof can hide a puncture in the decking, so leave it in place for the photos and let a tree service remove it. Cutting it loose from a ladder is one of the riskiest jobs a homeowner can take on after a storm.
Step 7: Get a documented roof inspection
A roof inspection after a storm turns guesses into a record. A careful inspection walks every slope, checks for hail bruising and creased or missing shingles from wind, looks at flashing, vents and gutters, and photographs each finding. For a house in Doraville near I-285 or Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, where storms often run through with strong gusts, wind damage to the edges and ridge deserves as close a look as hail.
That record is the starting point for our storm damage repair work. If you have opened a claim, our insurance claim assistance builds on the same photos: we document the damage, meet the adjuster on the roof, and submit supplements for items that were missed. Whether the claim is approved, and for how much, is always the insurer’s decision.
Getting the First Week Right
If you only manage three things after a storm, make them these: keep everyone safe around lines, limbs and sagging ceilings, take photos before anything is cleaned up or fixed, and call your insurer early with questions about your own policy. Everything else, from choosing a roofer to deciding between a repair and a replacement, goes better when those three are done. Resist the pressure to sign quickly. A roof that has been leaking for a few days can wait one more day while you compare a written quote.
When you are ready for someone to look at the roof itself, Roofing Doraville can walk you through our storm damage repair process and how we handle insurance claim paperwork, and the home page explains more about how we work.