If water is coming in right now, tell us what is happening and we will take it from there. We assess what has opened up, whether at the roof or elsewhere on the exterior, get it watertight so the damage stops spreading, document it properly for your insurer, then schedule the permanent repair. Homes, commercial and multi-family buildings, all handled by in-house Red Seal certified crews.
Two things matter in the first ten minutes. Stop the water doing more damage inside, and record what is happening while it is still happening. All of it can be done from indoors. None of it involves going up on the roof.
Request a CallbackPut a bin or bucket under the drip, with a towel under that to kill the splash. Water travels along framing before it drops, so check the rooms either side of the obvious one, and move the container as the drip moves.
Furniture, rugs, electronics, anything sitting on the floor. Lift what you can and move the rest out of the room. Soaked drywall and insulation keep releasing water for hours after the rain has stopped.
If water is running near light fixtures, outlets or the electrical panel, keep everyone out of that area. Shut off power to the affected circuit only if you can reach the panel safely and dry.
A drywall bulge is holding water and it is far heavier than it looks. Keep people and pets clear of it, and let the crew relieve it properly rather than having it come down on someone.
Wide shots of the room, close shots of the damage, and the water itself while it is still there. Insurers pay on evidence, and a mopped floor is not evidence. Phone video counts.
A wet roof is slick, a hail-bruised one has lost its footing surface, and an iced one has no footing at all. Nothing you can do up there is worth the fall, and the roof is the part we are equipped for.
Keep anything that comes loose, a torn shingle or a length of trim, somewhere dry. It costs nothing to hold onto and it is useful evidence later.
The test is whether waiting makes it worse. A lifted shingle in a dry week can go on the schedule. Water already inside the building cannot, because every hour it runs it soaks more insulation, drywall and framing that were perfectly sound when it started.
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Emergency work attracts crews who are good at the first hour and gone by the second week. We are a Calgary roofer with in-house Red Seal certified crews, COR safety certification and $10M liability coverage, and the crew that makes your roof watertight is the same one that comes back to repair it properly. Serving Calgary and the surrounding communities since 1999.
Four things happen on an emergency call, in this order. Nothing gets skipped because the weather is bad.
The first priority is stopping water entering the building. Tarping, sealing and temporary flashing over the opening, whether that is on the roof or elsewhere on the exterior, sized and fastened to hold through the rest of the weather rather than until the wind picks up again.
Water almost never enters where it appears. It runs along decking, rafters, flashing and roof penetrations, or behind siding and around a window or door opening, before it shows up somewhere else entirely. We trace it back to the real entry point instead of sealing the ceiling stain and hoping.
Dated photos of the damage, the water inside and the emergency work itself, written up while the work is happening. Recorded at the time, because a leak cannot be photographed after it has been fixed.
Flat and low-slope systems fail differently to a shingle roof, usually at a seam, a flashing or a blocked drain, and a leak over tenants or stock has a clock on it. Same crews, same approach, different methods.
No, and it is not meant to be. A temporary repair has one job, which is to stop water entering the building today. The permanent repair happens once the roof is dry, the weather cooperates and the full extent of the damage is visible in daylight. Permanent work attempted in the middle of an active storm produces a repair that fails, usually in the same spot, usually the following season.
Find what is open, get it covered and sealed, and check inside for where the water has already travelled. This is the visit that stops the damage growing.
The full picture once it is dry. What actually failed, how far the water got into the deck and insulation, and whether the surrounding roof is still sound.
A written scope with a real timeline. Sometimes a section repair, sometimes a full replacement, and we tell you plainly which one you are looking at.
If water is not currently entering the building, you are looking at a scheduled job rather than an emergency, and our roof repair page covers that properly. If it is coming in at a window, a siding joint or elsewhere on the building rather than the roof itself, our exteriors page covers that work. For the wider picture see residential roofing and commercial roofing. If a storm caused the damage, our hail and storm restoration page walks through the claim side in more detail.
Calgary is not gentle on a roof, or on anything around it. Most of the urgent calls we take trace back to three weather patterns, and each of them can move fast enough that a building which looked fine on Monday is leaking by Tuesday.
Calgary summer storms build and land in minutes. Hail bruises shingles and fractures the granule surface, and the wind alongside it lifts and tears. A roof can be opened up inside a ten minute window.
Rain does not need a hole. Driven sideways it finds whatever has already given, a lifted shingle edge, a loosened flashing, a window or door opening, a siding lap, a failed caulking joint, or a soffit and fascia junction that has pulled away. This is the leak that shows up during a storm and stops the moment it passes, and it is not always the roof that let it in.
A chinook melts the roof through the afternoon, the temperature drops overnight, and the melt refreezes at the cold eave. Water then backs up under the shingles instead of draining. The same thing happens at scale in spring, when a heavy melt meets blocked eavestrough and drainage that cannot take it.
It depends on your policy, but the general shape in Alberta is that sudden storm damage is often covered while gradual wear and deferred maintenance generally are not. The part most people miss is that policies also expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage once you know about it. Emergency containment is exactly that, which is why documenting the emergency work matters as much as documenting the damage. Confirm the specifics with your own insurer, because wording varies and we do not speak for them.
Request a CallbackPhotos and video of the damage and the water while it is still there. Once the ceiling has dried and the floor is mopped, the evidence is gone and the conversation gets harder.
Tarps, containers, a hotel night if a room is unusable. Costs you take on to limit the damage are often claimable, but only where you can show them.
Most policies carry a reporting expectation, and a delay is one of the easier reasons for an insurer to push back. Call them once the water is contained and everyone is safe.
Five steps, and you know where you stand at each one.
Tell us what you are seeing and where. We work out what is happening and what you should be doing in the meantime.
Tarp, seal and temporary flashing over the opening, so the interior stops taking damage.
Trace the leak back to where water is actually entering, not to where it happens to be showing up.
Dated photos and a written scope for your insurer, recorded while the evidence is still in front of us.
The proper repair, scheduled and confirmed in writing, then walked through with you once it is finished.
Active water coming into the building, a section of roof opened up by wind or a fallen branch, a structural sag, or storm damage that has left the interior exposed to the next round of weather. The test is straightforward: if leaving it until a normal appointment would let water keep entering or cause the damage to spread, it is an emergency.
Contain and document. Put a container under the drip, move furniture and belongings clear, and lift anything valuable off a wet floor. If water is near light fixtures or an electrical panel, treat that as an electrical hazard and shut off power to the affected area. Photograph everything before you clean up, because that is what an insurer will want. Do not go onto the roof, especially not a wet, iced or hail-damaged one.
No, it is doing a different job. A temporary repair stops water entering right now so the damage stops getting worse and the interior is protected. The permanent repair is scheduled once the roof is dry enough and the weather allows the work to be done properly. Trying to complete a permanent repair in the middle of an active storm generally produces a repair that fails.
Sudden storm damage is often covered while gradual wear generally is not, and most policies expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, which is exactly what emergency containment is. Coverage depends on your policy, deductible and the adjuster assessment. We document the damage and the work so you have the evidence a claim needs, but confirm the specifics with your insurer.
We assess the full extent in daylight and dry conditions, show you what was found, and set out what the permanent repair involves. Emergency containment is the first step, not the fix. It also gives you time to deal with your insurer without water continuing to come into the building while that gets sorted.
Yes. Our in-house crews work on residential roofs and on commercial flat and low-slope systems, so an urgent leak in either gets the same assessment and containment approach. The methods differ because the roof systems differ, but the priority is the same: stop the water, document the damage, then plan the permanent repair.
Tell us what you are seeing and where the water is coming in. We will tell you what to do next.
Serving: Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, Chestermere. Flexible financing available.