Gwinnett & DeKalb County
Emergency Board-Up & Tarping in Gwinnett County, GA
When a building is open to the weather, everything else waits. Tarping a roof and boarding an opening is the cheapest work we do and it protects the most — because the loss you already have is fixed, and the one the next rainfall adds is not.
Your policy almost certainly requires this
Not as a suggestion. As a condition — and it is the part of a claim people most often fall foul of without realising.
Standard property policies contain a duty on the policyholder to take reasonable steps to protect the property from further damage after a loss. It is usually worded as something like “protect the property from further damage” or a duty to mitigate. What it means in practice is straightforward: once you know there is a hole in your building, damage that happens through that hole afterwards may not be treated the same way as the original event.
So if a limb comes through the roof on Tuesday and it rains again on Thursday, the Tuesday damage is the claim. The Thursday damage is a conversation about whether you did what the policy asked of you in between.
The reassuring part: emergency mitigation is normally a covered cost, which means tarping is generally something the policy expects to pay for rather than something you are absorbing to protect it. We are not your insurer and wording varies — but “I did not want to spend money on a tarp” is a bad position to be in on a claim, and an unnecessary one.
What we secure
Two different problems, often at the same property, and they need different answers.
Roof tarping
Reinforced tarp run over the damaged section and up over the ridge where possible, battened down rather than weighted, so it sheds water and does not lift in the next gust.
Window and door board-up
Cut panels fixed over the opening. Keeps weather and people out, and stops a broken opening becoming a bigger structural problem.
Wall and structural openings
Larger breaches from impact or collapse, framed and sheeted where needed rather than simply covered over.
Skylights and roof penetrations
Common failure points that are easy to miss from the ground and account for a lot of ongoing water entry.
Temporary fencing
Where debris or an unstable structure makes the area around the building a hazard as much as the building itself.
Securing the interior
Covering and moving what sits under an opening, so the ceiling that is about to be worked on is not dripping onto furniture in the meantime.
What a tarp does and does not buy you
Worth being blunt, because “it is tarped” makes people relax more than it should.
What it does
- Stops the loss growing every time it rains
- Buys the weeks it takes to get a roofer scheduled and materials ordered
- Satisfies the mitigation duty in your policy
- Lets the drying work start, which cannot happen while water is still arriving
What it does not
- Repair anything — it is temporary by design and by material
- Last indefinitely. Sun and wind degrade it, and it needs checking after each storm
- Dry the building. The water already inside is a separate job
- Make the roof safe to walk on. It is still a damaged roof under there
Document before we cover it. Once the tarp is on, the evidence of how the water got in is underneath it. Photographs of the opening, the debris and the damage go first — it takes two minutes and it is what a storm claim is built on.
What happens when a building is left open
The next rain is worse than the first
The first event soaked what was under the opening. The second arrives with the material already saturated, so the water travels further into the structure rather than being absorbed near the entry point.
The mold window starts running
An open building in a Georgia summer is warm, wet and full of organic material. The 24-to-48-hour window applies to everything the water reaches, not just to what you can see.
Animals get in
Squirrels, birds and insects find an open roof fast, and what they do to insulation and wiring in an attic is a separate claim nobody wants to make.
And the claim gets harder to argue
Every day between the loss and the mitigation is a day an adjuster can ask about. Tarping the same day removes that question entirely.
Then what?
Board-up is the first hour of a longer job, and it is worth knowing what follows so nothing sits waiting.
- 1
The building is closed
Water stops arriving. Everything else becomes possible, and the loss stops growing.
- 2
Water already inside comes out
Extraction first, then removal of anything saturated beyond saving.
- 3
The structure is dried
Structural drying to a documented standard, with daily readings. This runs while the permanent repair is being scheduled.
- 4
Permanent repair, then interior
The roof or the opening is properly repaired, then the inside is rebuilt — in that order, and only once the readings say the structure is dry.
Where we do this work
Nine cities across Gwinnett and DeKalb County — see the full coverage area.
Questions about board-up and tarping
How long can a tarp stay on?
Weeks rather than months. A properly fixed tarp handles ordinary weather, but sun degrades the material and every storm tests the fixings. If the permanent repair is going to be delayed, it needs checking periodically and sometimes re-doing — that is normal, not a failure.
Can I just put a tarp on myself?
On a low, dry, accessible roof with someone spotting you, possibly. On a wet, storm-damaged roof, no — damaged decking gives way without warning and this is how people get seriously hurt. The saving is not worth it.
Will boarding up my windows make the house a target?
It is a fair worry and the honest answer is that an open window is a far bigger invitation than a boarded one. Where a property is going to stand empty for a while, temporary fencing and boarding together are worth discussing.
Do you do this if I have not decided who is doing the repair?
Yes, and you should not delay the tarp while you decide. Mitigation and repair are separate pieces of work, and nothing about accepting emergency board-up commits you to using anyone for the permanent job.
Is the tarp going to damage my roof?
Fixings go into the damaged section wherever possible, and any fixing points are part of what the permanent repair addresses. A correctly installed tarp does far less harm than several more weeks of rain through an open roof.
What if the damage is to a commercial building?
Same principle, larger scale, and usually more urgency about keeping part of the building operating. Tell us what has to stay open and we will work around it — see commercial restoration.
Building open to the weather?
This is the call that stops the loss growing. Photograph the damage first, then call — and do not wait for the next forecast to decide for you.