Storm Damage Roof Checklist for Durham Homes
Durham's storm season runs from the first May thunderstorm to the last tropical remnant in October, and the peak is right now. September is when a system comes up from the Gulf or in off the coast, drops four to six inches of rain over two days, and then the wind arrives on ground that can't hold a pine anymore. Fran did it in 1996. Florence and Michael did it in 2018. Most years something smaller does it in one neighborhood and not the next.
This is the checklist we'd hand a neighbor the morning after. Work it from the ground first; the roof can wait until it's dry.
Before you go outside
- If water is coming through a ceiling light or fan, turn off that breaker.
- Put a bucket under any active drip and poke a small hole in the center of a bulging ceiling to let the water out before the drywall comes down in one piece.
- Note the time. Insurers want to know which storm.
From the yard
Walk the whole perimeter of the house with your phone. Photograph everything, time-stamped, before you touch or move anything.
- Shingles or pieces of shingle on the ground. Note which side of the house they're on. That tells you which slope to look at.
- Granules piled at the downspout outlets — a heavy wash of granules after one storm means the shingles took a beating, even if none came off.
- Limbs on the roof, or limbs that were on the roof. Pine limbs skid down a slope and leave a trail of broken shingles you can't see from the ground. Photograph where the limb landed and where it ended up.
- The trees themselves. Look up at every loblolly pine and willow oak within falling distance. A pine leaning that wasn't leaning last week, or a root plate lifting out of the wet clay, is a second storm waiting for the next gust. Call a tree service before it decides.
- Gutters pulled loose or hanging — often the first thing a limb hits.
- Flashing visibly bent at the chimney or where a porch roof meets the wall.
- Siding and windows on the windward side. Wind that damaged the siding damaged the roof above it.
What wind damage actually looks like here
Hail is the storm damage people read about, and Durham gets a real hail roof maybe once every few springs — soft-metal dents on the vents and gutters, bruises on the west slope. What we see after nearly every storm is wind:
- Creased shingles. The gust lifted the shingle, folded it back, and it lay back down. The crease broke the fiberglass mat. From the ground the slope looks fine. Up close there's a horizontal line across the shingle an inch or two above the bottom edge. Every creased shingle leaks eventually and every one is a legitimate claim item, which is why we chalk them for the adjuster.
- Lifted tabs with the seal strip broken. The shingle isn't creased but it's no longer glued to the one below. It'll go in the next storm.
- Missing shingles and, under them, torn underlayment. Urgent — that's bare deck.
- Ridge cap shingles gone. The ridge takes the most wind and the cap shingles are the first to go on an older roof.
From the attic
Once the rain stops, go up with a flashlight. Look for wet streaks on the underside of the deck, drips off nail tips, and daylight. Wind-driven rain from a remnant can get under shingles at every weak flashing without any shingle damage at all, and the attic is where you find out. Our post on finding a roof leak from inside has the full method.
If a tree is on the house
Call in this order: a tree service, a roofer, your insurer. Nothing about the roof can be assessed until the trunk is off, and the tree crew needs to know the decking under it is probably broken so nobody steps through. We coordinate with tree crews across Durham and tarp the same day the weight comes off. Don't let anyone cut the tree off the roof by standing on the roof.
Tarping
A tarp on exposed decking is a $300–$700 emergency repair, and the cost is normally covered under the claim as mitigation. Keep the receipt. If you tarp it yourself, screw battens through the tarp into the rafters, don't nail through the shingles below the damage, and remember that a wet two-story roof after a storm is not a place to learn.
Calling insurance
Read your declarations page first. Many North Carolina policies now carry a separate wind and hail deductible of 1–2% of the dwelling coverage, which on a $400,000 house is $4,000–$8,000. If the damage is a few lifted shingles, a $500 repair against that deductible isn't a claim. If a slope is creased or a tree came through, it is. We give you a repair price first so you can compare, and our storm damage page explains how we document the claim.
Two things to refuse in the first week: any contractor who knocks on the door offering a "free inspection" and asks you to sign something, and any offer to "handle your deductible." The NC Department of Insurance has a consumer line for the second one.
The 48-hour list
- Breakers off where water is coming through fixtures
- Photos from the yard, time-stamped
- Trees checked, leaning ones called in
- Attic checked with a flashlight
- Tarp on any bare deck
- Declarations page read, deductible known
- Repair estimate from a local roofer before the claim call
- Nothing signed on the doorstep
If you've worked the list and there's damage, call us. If you've worked the list and there isn't, you're done, and you're ahead of most of the street.
Need roof work in Durham?
Call for a free estimate. Mon–Sat 7am–7pm.