Emergency roof repair · Metro Vancouver & the Fraser Valley
Emergency roof repair across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley
If water is running into the house, call (236) 477-6888. Then move what water can ruin, put a bucket under the drip, pierce any bulging ceiling over that bucket so it drains in one place, and cut power to circuits the water is reaching. Do not go up on a wet roof.
Triage
Emergency now, or Monday?
Call now
- Water running into the house, not dripping
- A ceiling bulging, sagging or coming down
- A tree or a branch on or through the roof
- Roofing torn off in a windstorm, sheathing visible
- A flat roof holding water with no drainage
- Water reaching light fixtures, fans or an electrical panel
- Anything structural that has visibly moved
This can wait for a weekday
- A stain that is not growing
- A slow drip a bucket is comfortably handling
- A few shingles on the lawn, nothing coming in
- Moss, a blocked gutter, granules in the downspout
- A flat-roof seam you noticed but that is not leaking
- Anything you first saw three weeks ago
None of the second list is fine to ignore — all of it becomes the first list eventually. It just does not get repaired better at two in the morning, and night work on a wet roof is more dangerous for everyone on it. Book those as an ordinary roof repair.
The first hour
Everything here is done from inside.
Move what water ruins
Electronics, paper, photographs, rugs, upholstery. This is usually the most expensive part of the loss and the easiest part to prevent.
Contain the water
A bucket with a towel in the bottom, so it does not splash and you can hear how fast it fills. Swap it before it overflows.
Drain a bulging ceiling deliberately
A sagging ceiling is holding several litres. Pierce the lowest point of the bulge with a screwdriver, over the bucket, and let it out in one controlled place. Left alone, the whole sheet comes down at once.
Kill the power to the area
If water is anywhere near a light, a fan or an outlet, switch the breaker rather than testing the switch.
Photograph before you clean up
The drip, the stain, the damaged contents, the outside of the house, anything on the lawn. Timestamped photographs are what an insurance adjuster asks for first.
Stay off the roof
Wet shingles, wet moss and wet membrane are all slippery, and after storm damage you cannot trust what is underfoot. Nothing you could do up there tonight is worth the fall.
Temporary work
What a tarp does, and what it does not.
A tarp or a temporary patch is not a repair. It is a way of getting the building through the weather with less damage than it would otherwise take, and that is a real and worthwhile job. It is not the fix.
- It does stop most of the water entering an opening, protect exposed sheathing from soaking further, buy days or weeks, and give you something concrete to show an insurer that you acted to limit the damage.
- It does not stop every drip, particularly in wind-driven rain that comes in sideways under the edges.
- It does not repair the failed detail underneath, which is still failed.
- It does not last. Tarps chafe, fasteners work loose in wind, and a tarp left for a season becomes its own problem.
- It does not dry out what is already wet. Insulation, sheathing and framing that have taken on water need to dry before anything is closed back up.
Emergency work is quoted in writing before it is done, even at midnight. Nothing about an emergency justifies deciding the price while the water is running.
The permanent fix
Why the real repair waits for a dry window.
Roofing materials bond to dry surfaces. That is not a preference, it is how they are manufactured to work.
Peel-and-stick membrane will not adhere to wet plywood. Shingle sealant strips need warmth and dry contact to bond down. Torch-on needs a dry deck and a dry substrate before a flame goes anywhere near it. Install any of them onto a saturated roof in the middle of a storm and you get a repair that looks finished from the ground and fails quietly, usually somewhere you will not notice until the ceiling tells you.
So the honest sequence in a Lower Mainland winter is: stop the water tonight, dry the assembly out, and complete the permanent repair in the next dry window. Between October and March that is usually a matter of days, not weeks — the forecast, not the calendar, sets the schedule. Environment and Climate Change Canada's public weather alerts for British Columbia are the same source we watch when a wind warning is coming.
When we come back, the detail gets rebuilt rather than sealed: custom 26-gauge flashing bent for the job, peel-and-stick at every penetration, synthetic underlayment, and vents sized to the roof. Workmanship is warranted ten years on shingle, metal, cedar and composite work and five years on torch-on and flat membrane.
Where we work
Emergency roofers near you, across the Lower Mainland.
Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, North and West Vancouver, New Westminster, Langley, Delta, Tsawwassen, White Rock, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Abbotsford, Mission, Chilliwack and Anmore. WorkSafeBC registered, five million dollars in liability coverage, GAF certified, ICBA and BBB members.
Questions
Emergencies, plainly answered.
What counts as a roofing emergency?
Water actively running into the house, a ceiling that is bulging or sagging, a tree or branch through the roof, roofing torn off in a windstorm and exposed sheathing, or a flat roof holding water with no drainage. Anything where the building is taking on water faster than it can be contained, or where something structural has moved, should be handled now rather than on Monday.
What can wait until a normal weekday?
A stain that is not growing, a slow drip you can catch in a bucket, a few shingles on the lawn with no water coming in, moss, a blocked gutter, and granules in the downspouts. These all need attention, but nothing about doing them at two in the morning makes the repair better, and night work on a wet roof is more dangerous for everyone.
What should I do in the first hour of a roof emergency?
Move everything water can ruin, contain the drip in a bucket, pierce the low point of any bulging ceiling over that bucket so it drains in one place, and switch off power to any circuit water is reaching. Then photograph everything before you clean up, and call. Do not climb onto a wet or storm-damaged roof.
Does a tarp fix a roof leak?
No. A tarp or a temporary patch buys time and stops further interior damage. It is a controlled way to get the building through the weather until conditions allow a permanent repair. Anyone describing a tarp as the fix is describing a bill you will pay twice.
Why can't the permanent repair be done right away?
Because roofing materials bond to dry surfaces. Peel-and-stick membrane, shingle sealant strips and torch-on all need the deck dry to work as designed. Installing them onto a wet roof in a storm produces a repair that looks finished and fails quietly, so the permanent work waits for a dry window, which in this region is usually days rather than weeks.
Should I go up on the roof myself?
No. Wet shingles, wet moss and wet membrane are all extremely slippery, storm damage means you cannot trust what is under your feet, and roof work at night without fall protection is how serious injuries happen. Everything useful in the first hour is done from inside the house.
Will insurance cover emergency roof repair?
Home policies in Canada generally respond to sudden and accidental damage rather than to wear, aging or deferred maintenance, and they generally expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage once you know about it. Photograph everything before it is moved, keep receipts for temporary measures, report it promptly, and confirm the specifics with your own insurer or broker.
Is there such a thing as 24 hour roofing?
There is 24 hour response and there is 24 hour repair, and they are not the same thing. Response is real: an emergency gets triaged and attended to as soon as someone can safely get there. What does not happen at three in the morning is a permanent roof installation, because it cannot be done safely or correctly in the dark on a wet roof. Treat any company promising a finished roof overnight with caution.
Do you charge to come and look?
The inspection and the written estimate are free, and the estimate is a fixed price rather than a range once we have been on the roof. Temporary emergency work is quoted before it is done, in writing, so nothing is decided while water is running.
Next
Once the water has stopped.
When the emergency is over, the question becomes what the roof actually needs. Type your address and we measure it from satellite imagery, then price the work against what is up there now.