Roof leak: what to do in the first hour (and what not to)

If water is actively dripping, you have about an hour where what you do changes the bill by thousands. Contain the water, document everything, get the leak stopped from the attic side if you can reach it, and do not go on the roof while it's wet. The roofer comes after, not instead.

The first 15 minutes: contain it

1. Catch the water. Bucket, trash can, or a plastic bin under the drip. Put a towel or a piece of cardboard in the bottom so the splash doesn't spread.
2. Relieve the ceiling bulge. If drywall is sagging or a water bubble is forming in the paint, poke it with a screwdriver and let it drain into the bucket. A controlled 1-inch hole beats a 4-foot section of ceiling landing on the floor.
3. Move or cover what's under it. Furniture out, electronics unplugged, a tarp or plastic sheeting over anything heavy.
4. Kill power to the room at the breaker if water is near a light fixture, fan, or outlet. Water running through a ceiling fixture is an electrocution risk, not a cosmetic one.

Next 15 minutes: document for insurance

Before you fix anything, photograph everything — the drip, the ceiling stain, the wet floor, the damaged belongings, and the time on your phone. Take a short video of water actively coming in. Insurers pay for sudden damage and deny slow leaks; a time-stamped record of a storm-day leak is the difference. Save receipts for every tarp, bucket, and fan from this point forward; mitigation costs are usually reimbursable.

Minutes 30–60: find the source from inside

Water rarely comes through the ceiling directly under the hole in the roof. It runs along rafters and sheathing and drops at the lowest point. Go into the attic with a flashlight:

• Look uphill from the wet spot on the insulation for a wet streak on the rafters or the underside of the roof deck.
• The most common entry points, in order: around plumbing vent boots (the rubber cracks), chimney flashing, skylight edges, valleys where two roof planes meet, and anywhere a nail has backed out through a shingle.
• Mark the spot with a Sharpie or push a nail up through the deck so it can be found from above later.

If you find the entry point and can reach it from the attic, a bead of roofing cement pressed into the gap or a piece of flashing tape on the underside will often stop the drip until a proper repair.

Should you tarp the roof?

Only if all of these are true: the roof is dry, it's a walkable pitch (you can stand on it without holding on), it's single-story, and you have a second person on the ground. Otherwise, no. A fall from a roof is the single most common way a $600 repair turns into a hospital stay.

If you do tarp: use a 6-mil poly tarp sized to run from past the leak up and over the ridge, secured with 1x3 furring strips screwed through the tarp into the roof — not just weights or staples. The tarp must go over the peak or water runs under it.

If you can't safely tarp, a roofer will do an emergency tarp for $150–$400, often same-day. That is money well spent.

What a repair actually costs

| Cause | Typical repair | 2026 price (pro) | |---|---|---| | Cracked vent pipe boot | New boot + sealant | $150–$350 | | Lifted or missing shingles | Replace 5–20 shingles | $200–$600 | | Flashing at chimney or wall | Re-flash and seal | $300–$1,200 | | Valley leak | Replace valley metal/underlayment | $500–$1,500 | | Skylight seal | Reseal or re-flash | $300–$800; new unit $1,200+ | | Ice dam damage | Remove dam, repair, add ventilation/insulation | $400–$2,500 |

DIY on a dry, walkable roof: a boot is $15, a bundle of shingles is $35, roofing cement is $8. The parts are cheap; the risk is the roof.

When to call a pro — not later, now

• Any roof you can't stand on comfortably, any wet roof, any roof over one story. Non-negotiable.
• Multiple leak points or water coming in across a wide area. That's a failing roof, not a spot repair. See repair or replace.
• A leak around the chimney or a skylight. Flashing done wrong leaks again in the next storm; done right it lasts 20 years.
• Signs of mold, a sagging roofline, or water that's been coming in for weeks. Structural, not cosmetic.
• You're filing an insurance claim. Adjusters take a licensed roofer's report seriously; they do not take a homeowner's YouTube repair seriously.

Most roofers will do a leak inspection for $100–$250, credited toward the repair. Get two quotes — pricing on the same leak varies more than any other trade. The Find a Pro page pulls local bids in a day.

After the drip stops

Run fans and a dehumidifier on the wet area for several days before you close anything up or paint. Interior ceiling repair is a separate job, usually $150–$500 for a pro or an afternoon of DIY once everything is dry. And put "walk the roof perimeter with binoculars" on your seasonal checklist — this one was probably visible from the ground a season ago.