Water coming in? Call, do not email.
A 24-hour assessment window on an active leak, anywhere in Bergen County, year-round. We get the building dried in first and scope the permanent repair second — in that order, because a repair made on a wet roof in the dark is a repair you pay for twice.
Four things worth doing in the first hour.
None of them involve going outside, and none of them cost anything.
Move what is under it
Furniture, rugs, anything electrical, anything paper. Water tracks along a joist and comes down where it likes, so clear more than the patch you can see.
Drain a bulging ceiling on purpose
A sagging ceiling is holding several gallons. Put a bucket under the low point and make one small hole in it with a screwdriver. Draining it in one place you chose is far cheaper than the ceiling coming down in the place it chooses.
Photograph it before you clean up
The stain, the ceiling, the puddle, the time. If there is ever a claim or a dispute about when this started, those photographs are the only record and they cannot be taken later.
Stay off the roof
A wet roof is a genuinely dangerous place and a leaking roof is usually a wet one. Nothing you can do up there in the dark improves the outcome, and people are hurt doing it every year.
Dry it in first. Diagnose it properly second.
Those are two different visits on most jobs, and saying so up front is the difference between a repair that holds and a repair that gets redone in April.
Visit one — stop the water
- Find the opening, from inside first where the attic allows it
- Close it: a targeted repair where the opening is small, a properly fastened cover where it is not
- Check the rest of the slope for anything else that has moved, because whatever did this rarely did it in one place
- Photograph everything, including what we could not reach
- Tell you what it is, in plain words, before we leave
Visit two — repair it for good
- In daylight, on a dry roof, with matched material on the truck
- New flashing formed rather than the old flashing re-bedded in sealant
- Any decking that has been wet long enough to soften, replaced
- A written scope beforehand, so the cost is agreed rather than discovered
- The temporary work removed, not left under the permanent repair
A tarp is not automatically the right answer.
It is the visible one, and on a badly opened roof it is correct: run over the ridge, fastened along battens, not weighted down with whatever was in the yard. A cover held by bricks lifts in the first gust and takes courses with it.
But a cover is a hundred new fastener holes in a surface that was watertight an hour ago, and on slate, cedar or standing seam those holes are their own repair job. Where the opening is small, closing the actual entry point stops the water tonight and leaves nothing to undo. Which one your roof needs is a judgment made on the roof, and we will explain which we chose and why.
What we will not do is smear roof cement over a crack and call it a repair. Cement over a moving joint cracks again, and the next contractor has to cut it out before the real fix — a cost you pay twice for something that was never a repair the first time.
Three things that feel urgent and are not.
Calling them in as emergencies costs you a call-out fee and buys nothing. Call them in as repairs and you get the same crew in daylight for less.
A stain that appears and dries
A mark that darkens in heavy rain and fades again is a real fault worth finding, but the house is not being damaged tonight. Book it as a repair.
Granules in the gutter
A roof shedding grit is aging, not failing. It is a reason to get the roof looked at and an inspection will tell you where in its life it is.
One shingle missing on a dry day
A tab off a sound roof is a repair, and a cheap one. It is worth booking before the next spell of rain rather than tonight, and booking it as a repair costs you less than booking it as an emergency.
Water at one window after wind
Water appearing at a window head or a corner, only when wind drives rain from one direction, is more often the wall, the window or the gutter than the roof. Same fault, different trade, and we would rather tell you that than sell you roof work.
What counts as an emergency?
Water entering the house now, or a roof left open — a section lifted off, a limb through the surface, a skylight broken. Those get the 24-hour window. A stain that appears after heavy rain and dries out again is a genuine problem and worth a call, but it is a repair appointment, not an emergency, and treating it as one costs you money for no benefit.
What does a 24-hour window actually mean?
That someone gets eyes on it and the building gets dried in within a day of your call, year-round. It does not mean the permanent repair happens that afternoon. A proper repair often needs a dry roof, matched material and daylight, and doing it badly at nine at night in the rain is how a roof gets patched three times. We will tell you on site which stage you are at.
Which areas does the 24-hour window cover?
All of Bergen County, from our office in Edgewater, and the Hudson waterfront just south of the county line in Hudson County, including Hoboken and Weehawken. It runs year-round, weekends included. If you are not sure whether your street is covered, call and ask.
What should I do before you arrive?
Move what is underneath, put something down to catch water, and if the ceiling is bulging, put a bucket under it and make one small hole at the low point with a screwdriver so it drains in one place instead of bringing the whole ceiling down. Photograph everything before you clean up. Do not go on the roof.
How is an emergency call charged?
As a call-out for the visit and the drying-in, itemized, and then the permanent repair is quoted separately once we can see what we are dealing with. You get the call-out figure before we set off, not after. We do not price a permanent repair while standing on a wet roof in the dark, because that price would have to carry the risk of everything we cannot yet see.
Will you tarp the roof?
If that is the right answer for the night, yes — properly fastened and run over the ridge, not weighted with bricks. On many roofs a better temporary is a targeted repair to the actual entry point, which stops the water and does not put a hundred new fastener holes in a sound surface. Which one it is depends on how big the opening is and what the roof is made of.
Do you work on slate, cedar and metal in an emergency?
Yes, and it matters more in an emergency than at any other time, because the wrong temporary fix on those materials creates a second job. Roof cement smeared on slate has to be cut out before the real repair, and a tarp fastened through standing seam puts holes in panels that were watertight.
Where this usually goes next.
Roof repair
The eight places a Bergen roof actually leaks, and what each fix involves.
Details →Roof inspection
A written, photographed report on what the rest of the roof is doing.
Details →Roof replacement
When repair stops being the right answer, and how to read two quotes.
Details →In the Journal
Where roof leaks in North Jersey actually come from.
Read →If it is coming in now, use the phone.
A form is the right way to book a repair and the wrong way to report a flood. Call and you speak to someone who can tell you what to do while we are on the way.