Assessing and repairing wind-driven roof damage across the region, with the record an insurer will ask for taken at the same time.
Fastest: call (833) 751-2102. Or send this and we call you back.
Storm damage repair after a Philadelphia storm is mostly wind work: lifted membrane edges, stripped shingles, failed flashing and debris impact. The visit documents what the wind did, protects the building, and quotes the permanent repair. Calls to (833) 751-2102 are answered around the clock.
The regional storm record here is about wind and rain rather than hail. The National Weather Service's review of Tropical Storm Isaias on 4 August 2020 lists eight confirmed tornadoes across the area, including EF2 tornadoes in Philadelphia and Bucks County, alongside numerous tropical-storm-force gusts and a few at hurricane force.
Smaller events do most of the cumulative damage. The Weather Service described a series of at least four microbursts with gusts of 60 to 70 mph crossing far southern Montgomery County, West Philadelphia and South Philadelphia in roughly half an hour, and was clear it was straight-line wind rather than a tornado.
No county hail history for Philadelphia was found in the sources used for this site, so hail is not claimed here as a local risk. What the roofs in this region actually suffer is uplift at edges, debris impact, and water driven into details that would be fine in ordinary rain.
Do not go up to look. A storm-damaged roof has lost exactly the fixings and edges that make it safe to walk, and insurers do not require you to photograph it from the roof. Keep clear of anything hanging off the building, of fallen branches resting on a roof and of downed lines, and treat any cable on the ground as live. Stay out of rooms with sagging ceilings or water near electrics. Clearing debris can wait until the damage is photographed; your safety cannot. Call (833) 751-2102 and have it assessed by someone with the right equipment.
If water is getting in now, temporary protection goes on before anything is measured. On a low-slope roof that usually means a sealed temporary patch rather than sheeting, because a tarp on a near-flat roof holds water instead of shedding it.
The damage is photographed as found, including the debris on the ground and the direction things were lifted. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department advises photographing damage before cleanup, and that record is hard to recreate afterwards.
Wind that lifted one edge has usually stressed others. The roofer checks every perimeter, flashing and penetration, plus the gutters and outlets, because debris blown into a drain causes a leak two storms later.
An honest assessment says which damage the storm caused and which was already there. That distinction is the heart of a claim, and overstating it is how homeowners end up in disputes they did not create.
The permanent repair follows in dry conditions. Where the scope reaches replacement, the permit goes through Licenses and Inspections in the city or the local office outside it, and receipts and photographs are kept for the claim.
Stay off the roof. Look from the ground and from inside the top floor, photograph what you can see including debris where it fell, move belongings away from any active drip, and call your insurer and a roofer. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department advises reporting damage promptly and photographing before cleanup.
Temporary repairs to prevent further damage, such as tarping, are what the regulator expects you to arrange, and it advises keeping receipts for them. Protecting the building does not count against a claim.
If a ceiling is sagging or water is near electrics, treat that room as out of bounds until someone has looked at it. Our emergency roof repair page covers what happens on an out-of-hours call.
By pattern and by direction. Wind damage is usually concentrated on exposed edges, corners and one side of a roof, with fresh breaks, clean tear lines and displaced material on the ground. Age shows as uniform wear across whole slopes, curling, lost granules and old repairs that have simply given up.
Both can be true on the same roof, and a careful assessment separates them rather than lumping them together. That is in your interest as much as the insurer's: a claim built on an overstatement is a claim that gets argued over, and the dispute lands on you.
Dates and weather records help. For a major event like Isaias there is a published National Weather Service review to point to, with the tornado count and the wind reports; a regional newspaper put the Philadelphia-area tornado at 115 mph, on the ground for roughly twenty miles from Northeast Philadelphia to Doylestown. Our Isaias roof damage guide collects that detail.
Anyone who turns up uninvited promising to maximise your insurance payout or pressing for an immediate decision. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department has warned about exactly that behaviour, and its advice is never to pay in full or sign a completion certificate before the work has actually been done.
The department also points out that a public adjuster is not an employee of your insurer, which is worth knowing when someone presents themselves as part of the claims process. Take the time to check who you are dealing with, and keep your own copies of everything.
Pennsylvania's home improvement law requires a written contract and limits deposits on larger jobs; the Attorney General's office holds the current rules, and that is the place to check them rather than taking a figure from a doorstep. Our storm damage insurance claims guide walks through the paperwork.
Not usually. Most wind damage is concentrated and repairable: a re-terminated membrane edge, replacement courses on a slope, new flashing or coping. Replacement enters the picture when uplift has opened a large area, the deck is damaged, or the covering was already near the end of its service.
The distinction matters for the claim as well as the cost, because an insurer is responding to storm damage rather than to the age of the roof. A roofer who reaches for replacement on every storm call is not doing you a favour.
Where the scope does reach replacement, the permit sequence applies as normal: most roof replacements need a permit filed by the contractor, and in the city L&I inspects after the old roofing is off and the new material is on site, with the new membrane not laid until it passes.
Edges and corners go first on a parapeted roof, because that is where the pressure is highest and where the membrane is only as good as its termination. A lifted edge may look minor and leave the whole sheet vulnerable to the next gust.
Shingles gone from a slope, a ridge opened up or a rake edge peeled. The exposed area needs protecting quickly, and the surrounding courses are checked because fixings elsewhere on the slope have often been worked loose.
A limb through a slope or resting on a low-slope deck is both a roof repair and a structural question. The timber gets assessed before the covering is made good, and the branch is removed by someone equipped for it rather than pulled off the roof.
The sourced storm story for this region is tropical and convective wind. Isaias on 4 August 2020 is the benchmark event, with the Weather Service's eight confirmed tornadoes including EF2s in Philadelphia and Bucks County, and the storm track from Northeast Philadelphia out toward Doylestown.
Microbursts hit narrow corridors hard. The Weather Service account of at least four microbursts gusting 60 to 70 mph covered far southern Montgomery County around Lower Merion and Narberth plus West and South Philadelphia, which is why neighbouring blocks can have completely different damage.
Tree cover decides how much of the damage is impact rather than uplift. The wooded lots of Mount Airy, Chestnut Hill, Cheltenham and the Main Line produce limb strikes and debris loads, while the open rowhouse blocks nearer the river mostly suffer edge and flashing uplift.
Call any hour and explain what is going on. You get a clear price before any work starts.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Round-the-clock calls for roofs that are letting water in now: temporary protection first, permanent repair after.
A documented look at the roof, its drainage and its details before you buy, after a storm, or before you commit to work.
Slope repairs, replacement courses and flashing work on pitched asphalt roofs across the suburbs and the twin-house neighbourhoods.
Sealing the upstands, copings and party-wall terminations where a Philadelphia rowhouse membrane meets masonry.
After a storm in Pennsylvania, report roof damage to your insurer promptly, photograph it before cleanup, make temporary repairs such as tarping, and keep every receipt.
Tropical Storm Isaias crossed the Philadelphia area on 4 August 2020.
Not for protection. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department advises making temporary repairs such as tarping to prevent further damage and keeping receipts, while photographing the damage before cleanup. Permanent repairs are better agreed once the claim is under way.
No county hail record for Philadelphia was found in the sources used for this site, so hail is not presented here as a local risk. Wind, tropical-storm gusts and debris are the documented causes of roof damage in this area.
Yes, particularly the edges, flashing and outlets. Microburst damage runs in narrow paths and uplift often leaves a termination loosened rather than visibly displaced, which then fails in the next ordinary storm.
What a roofer provides is the assessment, the photographs and a clear scope with costs, which is what an adjuster needs. The claim stays yours, and anyone promising to maximise the payout is doing what the state regulator has warned about.
Leave it. Removing a limb changes the load on a damaged structure and can open a small puncture into a large one, so it is taken off by someone equipped for the job, with the roof protected as the weight comes off.
Yes, including Camden, Pennsauken, Collingswood and Cherry Hill. Permits for follow-up work there come from the municipality, and New Jersey's insurance regulator is its Department of Banking and Insurance rather than Pennsylvania's department.