After a Storm: A Roof Damage Checklist for Hartford County Homes

What should you do in the first hour after a storm hits your roof?

Make sure everyone is out from under any sagging ceiling, keep away from downed wires and fallen trees, and look at the house from the ground and from inside. Do not climb onto a wet or snowy roof. Contain any leak, move belongings, and take photographs before you clean up anything.

The first hour is about people, then about the house. If a limb has come through a roof or a wire is down across the yard, stay clear and call the utility or emergency services. A tree resting on a roof is carrying weight that is hard to judge from below, and removing it is a job for someone with the equipment and training to do it.

Inside, check the ceilings of the top floor and the attic hatch if you can reach it. A brown stain, a bulge in the plaster, drips, or a sagging ceiling tile are all signs that water is getting in. Put a bucket under the drip, move furniture, and lay towels around the base of a wet wall. If water is near a light fixture or a ceiling fan, switch off that circuit at the panel with dry hands, or leave it off and call an electrician.

Once the house is as safe as you can make it, call a roofer. Say what you can see, where it is, and whether the weather is still bad. Roofers work around the weather and around each other, so ask for help when a roofer is free, and be ready for the answer to depend on how many other homes were hit.

What can you check from the ground without going on the roof?

From the ground you can often spot missing or lifted shingles, bare patches, debris and branches, bent or detached gutters, displaced ridge caps, damaged chimney caps and flashing, and a vent or satellite dish knocked loose. Binoculars help, and a phone camera zoomed in on a roof slope can record details you cannot see by eye.

Walk the perimeter slowly, keeping away from overhead wires and from any tree split by wind. Look up one slope at a time and photograph each one, then shoot the whole house. A shingle blown onto the lawn tells you which side of the roof it came from.

Check the downspouts and gutters for granules, the sand-like grit that sheds from asphalt shingles. A few are normal, but a drift of them after a storm, along with bare dark patches on the roof, is worth mentioning to the roofer. Look at the siding and fascia near the eaves for impact marks, which can show where a limb struck. Look at the chimney and any dormers, where wind and falling debris often act first.

• Missing, curled or creased shingles, and strips of exposed underlayment or plywood
• Sections where the ridge cap or hip cap has lifted or slid
• Gutters pulled away from the fascia, crushed by a limb or packed with debris
• Chimney caps, crowns or flashing that look cracked, loose or out of line
• Vent hoods, plumbing stack boots and satellite mounts that are bent or missing
• Fresh dents, scrapes or broken branches where a tree touched the roof
• Daylight or wet insulation visible from the attic hatch, if you can look in from the opening

What should you photograph and write down?

Photograph every damaged area before you move or clean anything, with wide shots and close-ups, plus the date and time. Write down when the storm hit, when you first noticed damage, and each step you took afterward. Keep receipts for tarps, buckets or other emergency purchases. These records help your insurer and your roofer.

Start a note on your phone with the date and the weather, then list each room or area affected. Take one wide photo of each space, then close-ups of every stain, drip or broken item. Photograph any fallen limb from several sides before anyone moves it.

If wet insulation or a ceiling tile has to come out, photograph it first. Do not leave wet material in place for long, because water damage worsens over time, and ask your insurer on the first call what it wants to see.

We cannot say what any insurer will decide or whether a particular loss will be covered. What we can say is that a dated record, kept in one place, makes every later conversation easier. Our page on roof insurance claim help goes through how a documented inspection fits in.

How do you keep water out until a roofer can come?

Contain the water inside the house, and if the weather and a roofer allow, have a temporary cover placed over the opening. Do not climb onto the roof yourself to lay a tarp. A temporary cover limits further damage while the repair is scheduled, and the roofer will tell you what the real repair involves.

A tarp is a stopgap, not a fix. It needs to be fastened properly, over the ridge or well above the opening, and anchored so wind cannot lift it. A badly placed tarp can flap in the wind and tear more shingles loose, so most homeowners are better off containing water indoors and asking the roofer about a temporary cover.

Indoors, protect what you can. Lift furniture off wet floors, move electronics and papers, and open interior doors so that air can move. If you can safely reach the attic, look at where the water is coming from. If you cannot reach it, leave it. Wet insulation looks harmless and holds a lot of water. A roofer or a water-damage contractor will look at it, and drying it promptly matters more than tidying it.

If the storm is still active, the practical answer may be to wait, since a roofer should not work on a wet, windy roof. Our page on storm damage roof repair describes how a roofer approaches the job once the weather allows.

What kinds of storms have damaged Connecticut roofs before?

Connecticut roofs have been hit by tornado, tropical-storm wind, microburst and heavy early snow. Notable events include the October 1979 Windsor Locks F4 tornado, the October 2011 nor'easter, the May 2018 microburst north of Hartford and Tropical Storm Isaias in August 2020. Each stressed roofs in a different way.

The damage a roofer finds depends on what kind of storm it was, and wind, falling trees and snow load each leave a different pattern. Most storms in this area are far milder than these examples.

The 1979 tornado was rare and local, but it shows how wind can lift roofs. The 2011 storm was a snow event that brought down so many limbs that more than 800,000 customers lost power.

How do you avoid storm-chasing contractors and rushed contracts?

Slow down. Ask any contractor for a Connecticut Home Improvement Contractor registration number and check that its status is Active in the state's eLicense database. Insist on a written contract for any job above $200, and remember that a three-day right of cancellation applies to door-to-door sales. Never pay in full upfront or sign under pressure.

After a big storm, people go door to door offering to tarp or repair roofs. Connecticut gives you tools to check them. Home improvement contractors must register with the Department of Consumer Protection for work on homes of six units or fewer, condominiums and common interest communities once contracts exceed $1,000 in 12 months. Registration needs at least $20,000 in liability insurance and proof of a $15,000 surety bond or participation in the Home Improvement Guaranty Fund, and you can check the status in the CT eLicense database, where it should read Active.

A written contract is required for jobs over $200, and a door-to-door sale carries a three-day right of cancellation. Ask what the contract covers, what it excludes and how changes will be priced. We have a whole guide on checking a roofer's Connecticut registration with the steps in order. A roofer who cannot tell you who will do the work, or who wants a large payment before anything is delivered, deserves more questions, not fewer.

What happens after the roofer has looked at the damage?

The roofer should describe what is damaged, what is a temporary measure and what is a full repair, and give you a written scope and price. Compare that scope with your photos and your insurer's instructions, ask who applies for any permit, and keep every document. A small repair and a re-roof are different jobs.

The written scope should match what you photographed. If it proposes a full replacement, ask what it is based on: the extent of the damage, the age of the roof, or the number of layers already there. A full re-roof needs a building permit under the 2022 Connecticut State Building Code, while minor repairs such as replacing a few shingles typically do not, and permit rules differ from town to town.

If you have a claim open, tell the adjuster before the roofer starts, so the adjuster can see the damage if they wish. Keep the damaged materials if the adjuster asks. If you are not sure whether the roof is older than the storm, our guide on when to replace the roof on an older New England home explains how age, layers and attic evidence change the picture.