Emergency Roof Repair in Broward County, FL

What to do in the first 4 hours after storm roof damage

We've handled emergency calls across Broward County for 25+ years. The homeowners who get their insurance claims paid in full — and the ones who protect their homes from secondary damage — are the ones who follow this sequence. Order matters.

• Document everything before you touch anything.

  Walk your entire property and record video — not just photos — of every point of damage. Broken tiles, missing shingles, lifted ridge caps, debris on the roof, water stains on ceilings, wet insulation in the attic. Get multiple angles. Your phone's timestamp is your best friend here. This is non-negotiable: the moment you move a piece of debris or cover a damaged area without documentation, you've given the insurance adjuster grounds to dispute the storm-caused extent of the damage.

• Call your insurance company and open a claim.

  Most Florida insurers have 24/7 claims lines. Call now, while the documentation is fresh. Give them the date and time of the storm event (check the National Weather Service archive if needed — it matters). Ask for a claim number, the adjuster's contact, and the expected timeline for their visit. Write everything down. Do not agree to any scope limitations over the phone — just open the claim.

• Call a licensed Broward roofer for emergency tarping.

  Once you have your documentation and your claim is open, the next priority is stopping active water intrusion. Emergency tarping is a "mitigation expense" under most Florida homeowner's policies — meaning it's reimbursable once the claim is processed, not money out of your pocket permanently. Don't wait for the adjuster to authorize it. Florida law requires you to mitigate further damage, and a properly secured tarp protects your claim, not just your home. Call us at (754) 354-5443 — same-day service available.

• Move valuables away from active leaks, but don't remove debris from the roof.

  Inside your home, protect electronics, furniture, and irreplaceable items from active water. Place buckets, lay down tarps on floors. Document the interior water damage with photos too — water-stained ceilings, saturated carpet, wet drywall. These are part of your claim. On the roof itself: do not remove broken tiles, shingle pieces, or storm debris. That material stays in place until the adjuster has seen it, or until you have a licensed contractor present who can document it before clearing.

The #1 mistake that voids your Florida insurance claim

Cleaning up the damage before documenting it. We see this on almost every disputed claim we encounter. A homeowner — understandably trying to get things back to normal — picks up broken tiles, removes storm debris from the roof deck, or has a neighbor patch a hole with leftover materials. By the time the adjuster arrives 3–5 days later, the visible evidence of storm damage is gone. The adjuster sees a patched area and has no way to verify the original extent of the failure. The claim is denied or severely reduced.

The correct sequence, in hard terms: Document → Open claim → Tarp → Wait for adjuster. Only after the adjuster has inspected (or has explicitly authorized in writing) should repairs beyond temporary tarping begin.

HVHZ reality: why "we'll fix it tonight" contractors cause bigger problems

After every major storm in Broward, contractors arrive from out of state. Some are legitimate roofers from Georgia or the Carolinas coming to help with a genuine labor shortage. Many are not. The consistent tell: they offer to start work immediately with no permit, no product documentation, and a price that seems too good given the visible damage.

Here's what they're skipping — and why it costs you more later:

All of Broward County is in the Florida High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ). This is the most stringent wind-design category in the Florida Building Code — it applies to all of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties and requires that roofing materials and installation methods meet specific Miami-Dade/Broward Product Control approval standards. These products are tested to TAS (Test Application Standard) specifications and must pass rigorous wind-uplift and impact tests. They cost more than standard residential roofing materials, and there is no compliant shortcut.

A contractor who shows up after a storm with a truck full of standard shingles from a Carolina home center and installs them without a permit has just created a problem you'll discover years later — when:

• You try to sell your home and the buyer's inspector flags the unpermitted repair
• Another storm damages the same area and your insurer finds prior non-compliant work
• Broward building code enforcement notes unpermitted work during a re-roof permit pull
• You discover the "repair" is failing after 18 months because the materials weren't rated for South Florida UV and wind load

We pull permits for every job that requires one. We only use Miami-Dade/Broward Product Control approved materials. Every repair we complete can be traced back to a permit, a product approval number, and a final inspection sign-off — which is exactly what your insurance company and future buyer will want to see.

Emergency tarping cost — and what insurance actually covers

The keyword is mitigation expense. Under most Florida homeowner's policies, emergency tarping to prevent further water damage is classified the same way as, say, boarding windows before a hurricane — it's a protective action you're required to take, and your insurer is required to reimburse it as part of the claim settlement, up to your policy limits.

What you need for reimbursement: (1) a written invoice from a licensed contractor specifying the square footage tarped, the materials used, and the date and time; (2) before-and-after photos showing the tarped area; (3) a record of when you opened the claim relative to when the tarping was done. We provide all three as a standard part of our emergency service.

When to expect the insurance adjuster — and what to do if they lowball

For a Florida CAT (catastrophic event) claim, expect 2–5 business days for the adjuster's visit after you've opened the claim — under normal post-storm conditions. After a major named storm that affects all of Broward County, that window can stretch to 7–14 days as every adjuster in the state is simultaneously backlogged. Florida law does require insurers to acknowledge a claim within 14 days and either pay or deny it within 90 days — but initial adjuster response timelines are not capped.

While you wait:

• Keep a log of all storm-related expenses: tarping, interior damage cleanup, temporary hotel stays if the home is uninhabitable
• Do not make any permanent repairs until the adjuster has inspected — or has provided written authorization
• Have a licensed contractor's written damage report ready for the adjuster's visit — this is your independent professional assessment, and it carries weight

If the adjuster's estimate is lower than your contractor's assessment

This is common, and it's not final. You have three options: (1) Submit a supplement — a licensed contractor can prepare a line-item supplement to your insurer documenting items the adjuster missed or undervalued; (2) Request a re-inspection — you can ask for a second adjuster visit, especially if your contractor has identified damage the first adjuster didn't access (attic deck condition, underlayment failure under tiles that weren't lifted); (3) File a complaint or hire a public adjuster — if the insurer continues to dispute a well-documented claim, a licensed Florida public adjuster works on your behalf (typically 10–15% of the additional settlement) and understands the CAT claim process in Broward specifically.

We write damage reports in the format Broward and Miami-Dade adjusters use. If you have a disputed claim, call us at (754) 354-5443 — a professional second opinion documented by a licensed Broward roofer has resolved hundreds of supplement disputes.

The Florida 25% rule — and how storm damage can trigger it

If your home was roofed before March 1, 2009, storm damage may trigger what's known as Florida's 25% rule: if more than 25% of a roof section is repaired or replaced within a rolling 12-month period, the entire section must be brought up to current Florida Building Code standards — including HVHZ requirements for your area of Broward.

For a homeowner with a 1990s tile roof, this can convert what seemed like a $2,500 storm repair into a $15,000–$25,000 full section replacement — because bringing a pre-2009 roof section to current HVHZ code means new HVHZ-rated underlayment, re-nailing or re-fastening the deck to current code, and approved product installation throughout. Insurance typically covers storm-caused damage to pre-existing conditions, but the code upgrade costs may or may not be covered depending on your policy language.

Understanding where your home's permit date falls — and what percentage of each slope is actually damaged — before agreeing to a repair scope is critical. We cover this in detail in our Florida 25% Roof Rule guide. On any assessment call, we check your permit date and give you an honest scope analysis before you commit to anything.

7 red flags of storm-chaser contractors in Broward County

After 25+ years in Broward, we know what the bad actors look like. Here are the warning signs that should make you pause and verify before signing anything:

• Out-of-state license plates on the work truck. Legitimate Florida roofing work requires a Florida state contractor's license. Out-of-state plates don't disqualify someone, but combined with any other flag below, it's a serious warning. Verify any contractor's license at the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) website before signing.
• No Florida contractor's license number on their paperwork. Every written estimate, contract, and business card from a licensed Florida roofing contractor must display their license number. If it's not there, they may not have one. No license = no permit capability = your problem later.
• Knocks on your door unsolicited within hours of the storm. Legitimate local roofers don't canvass storm-hit neighborhoods immediately after an event. Storm chasers do. They follow storm tracks and work neighborhoods systematically. Being approached this way is not inherently disqualifying, but your guard should be up.
• Demands more than 10% deposit upfront — or demands full payment before the job starts. Florida's Construction Industry Licensing Board limits contractor deposits to 10% of the contract price for jobs over $2,500. Any contractor demanding a large upfront payment — especially cash — before work begins is a red flag. This is how homeowners lose thousands to contractors who disappear.
• Offers to "work with your insurance" to waive your deductible. This is insurance fraud in Florida and a felony under Florida Statute 817.234. A legitimate contractor can accurately document and report your damages — they cannot agree to artificially inflate a claim to cover your deductible. Any contractor who makes this offer should be shown the door immediately.
• No written, itemized estimate — or a vague one-line estimate. You should receive a written estimate that specifies the scope of work, materials to be used (including product approval numbers for HVHZ compliance), labor costs, permit costs, and timeline. A one-line estimate ("repair storm damage — $4,500") is not a contract and is not sufficient protection.
• Pressures you to sign an Assignment of Benefits (AOB) form. An AOB transfers your insurance claim rights directly to the contractor, removing you from the process and giving them the right to negotiate and collect your claim payment. Florida has significantly restricted AOB abuse, but the pressure tactic still appears after storms. Never sign an AOB without having an attorney review it first.