Do this first
What to do right now
- Photograph the opening and the interior damage before anything is covered, a tarp hides the evidence you may need.
- Move contents out of the affected rooms and protect what you cannot move.
- Contain the water indoors with buckets, towels and plastic sheeting.
- Call for a professional tarp. Wet roof surfaces and steep Florida pitches cause serious falls every storm season.
- Keep the tarp receipt, temporary mitigation is often part of a claim, but confirm that with your carrier.
- Book the permanent repair while the tarp is going on; tarps degrade quickly in our sun and wind.
What a proper emergency tarp involves
A tarp that lasts is not a sheet of blue plastic held down with cinder blocks. A professional dry-in in Fernandina Beach means a heavy-duty tarp run up over the ridge so water cannot get under the top edge, wrapped and secured on furring strips or battens, fastened into sound structure, and lapped so runoff travels over the seams rather than into them. Done properly it will survive routine Florida thunderstorms for weeks.
Done badly, it makes things worse. The two classic failures are fastening into the damaged area itself, which creates new holes in a section that was still keeping water out, and stopping the tarp short of the ridge, which lets wind-driven rain run straight underneath it.
How long a tarp lasts here
Less time than you would like. Florida UV degrades tarp material quickly, and sustained wind works at every fastener. Treat a tarp as a bridge to a permanent repair, not as a season-long solution, and expect to check it after every significant storm.
Documentation and licences
Photograph the damage before the tarp goes on, photograph the tarp once it is fastened, and keep the invoice. Temporary mitigation is frequently reimbursable, but the terms are set by your policy, ask your carrier directly and confirm the current deadline for reporting with them.
Check any contractor's licence at myfloridalicense.com before work begins. After a named storm, be especially wary of crews going door to door in Fernandina Beach offering free tarps in exchange for signing paperwork. We are an independent directory and referral service: we are not a contractor and we do not give insurance advice.
