Temporary Repairs After a Storm
Most policies require it to prevent further damage, like tarps or boarded windows, and reimburse reasonable costs with receipts.
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Keep Every Receipt
Save receipts for tarps, plywood, fasteners, and any contractor paid to board up or cover the roof. Your insurer reimburses reasonable costs for preventing further damage, but without proof of what you spent, the claim slows down or gets reduced.
Photograph Before and After
Take pictures of the damage before you touch anything, then more once the temporary repair is in place. This protects you if the insurer questions whether the repair was necessary or whether the damage happened before or after the storm.
What Counts as Reasonable
A tarp over a hole or plywood over a broken window counts as reasonable. A full roof replacement doesn't, since that's permanent repair work handled through the claim itself. Your adjuster decides what crosses that line, so stick to stopping the damage from spreading.
Separate Wind or Hurricane Deductible
If your state or insurer applies a separate wind, hail, or hurricane deductible, it usually applies to the full claim, including temporary repair costs, not just the final roof or siding repair. Your declarations page shows whether that separate deductible applies and what it is.
A wind or hurricane deductible is often a percentage of the home's insured value, not a flat dollar figure, so a modest-looking number can still mean several thousand dollars out of pocket before coverage starts. What each policy sets that percentage at, and how it handles temporary repair costs against it, varies enough between insurers that comparing them now is worth the time.
How Long Can Temporary Repairs Stay Up
A tarp or boarded window is meant to last until the permanent repair happens, not indefinitely. Insurers expect the homeowner to move the claim forward at a reasonable pace, get an adjuster out, get estimates, and schedule the real work. If a tarp sits on a roof for months because the claim stalled, that delay can become a problem of its own. A second storm can get under it and cause new damage that overlaps with the first, and that overlap can complicate the claim.
Weather and contractor availability after a major storm often push timelines past what anyone would consider ideal. A hurricane or a widespread hailstorm can leave every roofing crew in the area booked for weeks. Insurers generally account for this, and an adjuster who sees a tarp still up three months after a regional disaster understands why. What they're watching for is neglect, not the reality of a backed-up repair market. Keeping the claim file updated, documenting calls to contractors, and noting any delays helps show the gap wasn't from inaction.
If the temporary repair itself fails, a tarp tears loose in a second windstorm, or plywood comes off a window, that's typically treated as new damage tied to the same event or a separate claim, depending on timing and cause. Re-securing it falls under the same duty to prevent further loss. The same rule applies here too. Keep the receipts, take the photos, and don't wait to address it. Letting a failed temporary repair sit creates the same exposure as never making one in the first place.
Once the permanent repair is scheduled, the temporary costs get folded into the overall claim rather than treated separately. The contractor doing the roof replacement or siding repair accounts for what was already spent on tarps or boarding. The insurer then settles the claim against the deductible as a whole. This is where it matters whether a separate wind or hurricane deductible applies, since that figure, not the standard deductible, is what the full claim gets measured against. Checking how an insurer defines a reasonable timeline is worth doing before a storm hits, not after one already has.
Who Pays for the Temporary Repair Itself
The homeowner pays upfront for the tarp, the plywood, the fasteners, or the contractor who boards up a broken window. That cost gets submitted as part of the claim and reimbursed once the insurer processes it, not before. For a lot of homeowners, that means a few hundred dollars out of pocket on a credit card right after a storm, while the claim itself is still being opened.
Permanent repair work goes differently. A contractor doing the roof replacement or siding repair often bills the insurer directly, or works with the homeowner after an adjuster has approved an estimate. Temporary repairs don't wait for that approval, because the point is to stop the damage from spreading before anyone from the insurance company shows up. Acting first and getting reimbursed later is the trade-off for being allowed to act at all.
If the temporary repair is small, a tarp and some lumber, it may not be worth filing as its own line item separate from the larger claim. It gets folded in once the full damage is assessed. But if a contractor was paid to board up multiple windows or tarp a large section of roof, that bill can run into real money. It's worth flagging to the insurer early rather than waiting to mention it when the adjuster asks for receipts.
Some policies cap how much they'll reimburse for emergency or temporary repairs separate from the dwelling coverage limit, often under a line called emergency repairs or debris removal depending on the policy. That cap is usually high enough to cover a tarp and boarding. A homeowner who hires a full-service emergency board-up company after a major storm, when prices spike from demand, should check that figure against what's being spent. The declarations page or the insurer's claims line can confirm the limit before the bill gets any bigger.
Before the next storm
Find the emergency repair limit and the wind or hurricane deductible on your declarations page now, so you know both figures before you're standing in front of storm damage trying to find them.
