What happens when you call after a storm outside business hours

A storm comes through Bryan at nine on a Saturday night and you can hear water somewhere it should not be. You look up a roofer and you call. What actually happens next?

Here is the honest answer, because a vague one helps nobody at nine on a Saturday.

Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm. We are closed Saturday and Sunday. If you call outside those hours, leave a message with your address, your name, a number to reach you, and a short description of what you are seeing. You will get a call back on the next business day, and the messages left overnight are the first thing worked through in the morning.

If water is actively coming into the building and it cannot wait for the next business day, say exactly that in the message and call (979) 406-5431. Describe where the water is and how fast. That is the information that determines what happens and how quickly.

We would rather tell you our hours than imply a promise about the middle of the night that we do not keep. A company that answers every call at 3:00am either has a staffed overnight desk, which is rare and expensive in a market this size, or it has an answering service that takes your details and passes them to the same morning queue. The second one is common. It is not dishonest, but it does mean the outcome is the same as leaving a message, and you should know which one you are getting.

What to do while you wait

Most of the useful things a homeowner can do after a storm happen inside the house, at night, in the dark, safely. None of them involve a ladder.

Do not get on the roof. A wet roof at night, in wind, after a storm, is the single worst combination there is. Nothing you would find up there changes what happens tomorrow morning, and people are seriously injured doing this every storm season.

Move what water can reach. Electronics, paper, anything on the floor beneath an active leak. This is the highest value thing you can do in the first ten minutes.

Contain it. A bucket, and a towel in the bucket to stop the splashing. If a ceiling is bulging and holding water, that water is going to come down. Putting a container underneath and making a small hole at the low point releases it in a controlled way rather than bringing down a section of ceiling. That is a judgement call and if you are unsure, leave it and move your belongings instead.

Cut power to the affected area if water is anywhere near a fixture, an outlet or a panel. If you cannot do that safely from the breaker, leave it and stay out of the room.

Photograph everything, with timestamps. Wide shots and close shots, inside and out, before you clean anything up. Photograph the ceiling, the floor, the affected belongings and anything visible from the ground outside. These images are the record of what the storm did, and they are far easier to take now than to reconstruct later. Whether and how you use them with your insurer is a conversation for you and your carrier.

Write down the time the storm passed. It sounds trivial. It is routinely asked for and routinely forgotten.

What happens the next morning

When we call back, the conversation is short and it covers four things: where the building is, what you are seeing, when it started, and whether the water is still coming in. That determines the order in which we get to people, because after a significant storm there is always an order.

Then we come and look. An inspection tells you what actually happened, which is frequently not what it appeared to be at night. Water travels along framing and shows up a considerable distance from where it entered, so the stain on the ceiling is often nowhere near the opening in the roof.

If the roof needs to be made watertight before a full scope can be scheduled, that is a separate and immediate step, and it comes first. What follows is usually a roof repair or, when the damage runs through the deck, a replacement.

Why we publish our hours

Because a roof is a decade long relationship with whoever installs it, and that relationship starts with whether the first thing a company told you turned out to be true.

We are in Bryan, TX 77808. The number is (979) 406-5431. Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm, and a call back the next business day on anything left outside them. EV Roofing & Construction carries a 10 year workmanship warranty on roofing work, and the warranty schedule is published. You can also send the details and photos for a call back.