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How To Handle Rain Damage Ceiling Repair in New Jersey
3/16/2021 (Permalink)
Dealing with the water damage from roof leaks during heavy rains can more extensive than most homeowners in New Jersey would think!
When heavy rains or strong storms hit New Jersey, you may discover that your roof is leaking and causing water damage to the ceilings inside of your home. Here, we will review what to do when your roof leaks during a rainstorm and the best steps for rain damaged ceiling repair.
How To Handle Rain Damage From A Leaking Roof
1. Contain the Rain Damage
The first thing you should do when your home springs a leak is try to contain it. This way, you can help prevent extensive water damage from spreading across your home.
Grab towels, buckets, pans, or bowls and place them under the ceiling leak or roof leak to capture water. Move any items that are under the leak to an undamaged area of your home. Once you've contained your rain leak, you should be sure to clean up any standing water or wet areas.
2. Try to Find Your Leak
Unfortunately, you're not likely to get much help from a roofing company to stop or repair your roof leak while it's still raining, as it's dangerous for roofing contractors to climb on to a wet roof during a storm. But while you're waiting for the storm to pass, you can try to find the source of the rain leak yourself.
To find the source of your rain leak, go into your attic and see if you can see where water is getting inside of your home. If you're unable to find a leak inside your attic, go outside and take a look at the roof for signs of missing shingles or hail damage.
If you're still unable to identify where rain is entering your home, your gutters may be to blame. When gutters are clogged during heavy rains, water is unable to properly navigate away from your roof and causes the gutters to backup and overflow. When this happens, water can seep in through the external walls of your home, through fascia boards, or even through deteriorated shingles near the gutters.
3. Call a Local Roofing Contractor
You shouldn't try to patch any holes or leaks in your roof by yourself. For roof leak repair, you should always call a professional to make sure that repairs are properly performed to prevent damages inside of your home again.
Even if your roofing contractor can't immediately make the needed roofing repairs, they can take steps to temporarily protect your roof by tarping it or boarding it up.
4. Call a Water Damage Restoration Company in NJ
Depending on how long your roof was leaking for and how much rain damage there is inside of your home, you may need help from a water restoration company in New Jersey to restore your home to pre-damage conditions.
Times you should call a professional to help with rain damage include:
- When there's already visible mold growth
- Ceilings or floors are buckling or bending
- Rain damage is affecting multiple floors of the home
In these cases, you should always call a professional to ensure your home is properly cleaned and dried to prevent further damages in the future.
5. Consider Filing an Insurance Claim
One small leak from rain can actually cause extensive damages to your home that requires you to file an insurance claim. If the cost to repair your rain damaged ceiling and roof exceeds your insurance deductible, it's a good idea to go ahead and file an insurance claim.
While your roof repair may not always be covered by insurance, most of the time the water damage caused by it will be. This makes it easy to call a local water damage restoration company to handle all water cleanup, drying your property, and preventing mold growth.
Common Causes of Roof Leaks
- Missing or damaged shingles
- Damaged flashing
- Protruding nails
- Clogged gutters
- Cracked vent boots
- Skylight seal failures
- Ice dams
- Storm damage such as high winds or hail
For Rain Damage Repair in New Jersey, SERVPRO of Greater Hunterdon County Can Help 24/7
As local water damage restoration specialists, SERVPRO of Greater Hunterdon County can immediately respond to your call to save your property from rain water damage.
- We Handle the Insurance Process For You
- Free Damage Restoration Estimates
- 24/7 Emergency Services
- IICRC Certified Water Damage Restoration Specialists