Restoration services
Board-up and tarping is the work of closing a damaged building envelope — covering a breached roof, sheeting broken windows, securing open doors and unsafe openings — so that nothing else gets in. It comes before drying, because a building still taking on water is not being dried, it is being billed. It is a temporary measure measured in days and weeks, not a repair, and it is commonly covered as a reasonable step to prevent further damage.
HyreRestore is not a restoration contractor and not an insurance adjuster. We dry nothing, remediate nothing and rebuild nothing. This page explains the work so you can read a scope, judge the company that wrote it, and follow your own claim.
If this is happening right now. Do not climb onto a storm-damaged roof. Wet, broken and partially detached roof coverings fail without warning, and a fall from a roof is the kind of injury that ends far worse than the water damage would have. From the ground: shut off power to any area where water is entering near electrics, move what you can out of the path of the water, put containers under active drips, and photograph and video every opening and every wet room before anyone covers anything. Then get the building closed. Once the property is safe and the source is stopped, you can reach HyreRestore on (866) 582-8523 — but we are a research desk, not an emergency line, and a local company will always be faster.
The short version
The test is simple: is the building still letting something in, or letting something out. If either is true, that is the first job.
Covering an opening is easy. Deciding whether it is safe to and whether the cover will hold is the part that takes judgement.
Electrical and structural hazards identified and isolated. Nobody goes onto a damaged roof until someone competent has decided it will hold.
Photographs and video of every opening from inside and out, wide and close, before anything is sheeted over. Once the tarp is on, the original damage exists only in those images — and the adjuster may not attend for days.
Cover the opening, or where that is not yet possible, divert and contain: containers, plastic sheeting, controlled release of a bulging ceiling from below by someone who knows what is above it.
Tarp or shrink-wrap over the damaged area, lapped and fastened so wind cannot get underneath. A weighted tarp is a next-storm problem; a fastened and battened one is a temporary repair.
Windows, doors, wall breaches. Fixed from the outside where practical so they cannot simply be pushed in.
Temporary bracing where an element has lost capacity, on competent advice rather than judgement from the ground.
Locks changed or fitted, fencing or lighting where the building cannot be closed, and a record of who now holds keys or access codes.
Photographs of what was done, the materials used, and the date. This is the evidence that the mitigation duty was discharged, and it is what the covering invoice is checked against.
Only once the envelope is closed does drying start. The permanent repair is a separate scope and a separate decision — see reconstruction.
Several different measures get bundled under the same heading, and the estimate is much easier to read when you know which of them you are being charged for.
| Roof tarping | Reinforced sheeting fastened over the damaged area, usually battened at the edges rather than merely weighted, and lapped so water runs off rather than under. Expect to see fasteners and battens on the invoice. |
|---|---|
| Shrink-wrap roofing | Heat-shrunk membrane over a larger or more complex roof. Costlier than a tarp, lasts considerably longer, and the usual answer where the permanent repair is months away. |
| Window and door board-up | Plywood or panel fixed over openings. Closes the building to weather, animals and people, and cuts the daylight in a way that surprises people living alongside it. |
| Temporary glazing | Clear panel in place of plywood where the property is still occupied or trading. More expensive, considerably more liveable. |
| Structural shoring | Temporary props or bracing where an element is unsafe. This is an engineering decision, not a handyman one, and sometimes has to be signed off by the building department. |
| Fencing and site security | Temporary fence, lighting or monitoring where the building itself cannot be closed. Common after fire and after major structural damage. |
| Debris removal for access | Clearing a tree or debris field so the opening can be reached and covered at all. Frequently a separate contractor and a separate line. |
Emergency securing is priced by access, area, materials and time of day. It is normally a small line beside mitigation and reconstruction, and it is also the line most likely to be padded, because it is bought under pressure with no comparison available.
| Factor | Why it changes the number |
|---|---|
| Area covered | Square footage of tarp or board, and how many separate openings need closing. |
| Height and access | A single-storey roof with a clear approach is one job. A steep, high or debris-covered roof needing fall protection or lift equipment is another. |
| Tarp or shrink-wrap | Shrink-wrap costs more and lasts longer. The right choice depends on how far away the permanent repair really is. |
| Out-of-hours response | Work at night or in weather carries a higher rate. Legitimate, and it should be stated on the estimate rather than discovered on the invoice. |
| Structural shoring | Engineered temporary support is a different level of work and is priced accordingly. |
| Debris removal for access | Clearing a fallen tree to reach the damage, often a separate trade with separate equipment. |
| Site security | Fencing, lighting or monitoring, usually rented by the week. |
| Re-tarping | A temporary covering that has to be renewed because the permanent repair has not happened. A real cost, and a reason not to let the repair drift. |
| Making good the fixings | Fasteners driven into sound roofing to hold a covering create penetrations that get repaired later. Small, but it belongs in the rebuild scope rather than appearing as a surprise. |
HyreRestore publishes no average board-up or tarping price. Access, height, area and hour of the day move it too much. What is checkable is the structure of the line: area, materials, labour hours and any out-of-hours rate, stated separately.
How standard homeowners policies commonly handle this, not what yours says. Read your own declarations page, and where the answer matters, put the question to your insurer in writing.
| Your duty to mitigate | Policies generally require you to take reasonable steps to protect the property from further damage once you know about it. Covering an open roof is the textbook example. Failing to do it can reduce what is paid for the damage that follows. |
|---|---|
| Reasonable emergency measures | Commonly covered, and frequently paid even where the underlying repair turns out not to be. Keep the invoice and the before-and-after photographs together. |
| Notify the insurer | You do not usually need permission to take emergency steps, and you should not wait for it while water is coming in. Tell the insurer as soon as practical and keep a note of when you did. |
| Temporary and permanent are separate | The tarp is a claim line; the roof repair is another. Do not let one document commit you to both unless you intend it to. |
| Damage after the loss | Water that entered after you could reasonably have secured the building can be treated differently from the original loss. This is the mechanism through which delay becomes uninsured. |
| A tarp left too long | At some point a temporary measure that was never made permanent starts to look like deferred maintenance, and continuing damage can be argued on that basis. There is no universal deadline; act as though there is. |
| Vandalism and theft while open | Commonly covered, sometimes with conditions attached to an unoccupied property. Many policies restrict cover once a dwelling has been vacant beyond a stated period, which is exactly the situation after an evacuation. |
| What you are asked to sign | An emergency authorisation should authorise emergency work. If the document also assigns your claim benefits or commits you to the full restoration and rebuild, that is a different document — see assignment of benefits. |
Coverage is decided by your own policy and the peril, not by what is typical. Read the declarations page, and where the answer matters, put the question to your insurer in writing.
Secure now, decide later. Getting the building closed is urgent and choosing a restoration company is not. Those two things can be separated: authorise the emergency measure in writing, limited to the emergency measure, and take the time you need on everything after it. A company that will not write a limited authorisation has told you something useful about the rest of the job.
The full ten-point checklist is on choosing a restoration company.
Storm-damaged roofing is unstable, slippery and often partly detached, and a covering that looks attached from the ground frequently is not. Whatever the covering costs, it costs less than this. Work from the ground and leave the roof to people with fall protection.
Once a tarp is on, the original opening is invisible, and the adjuster may not attend for days or weeks. The photographs taken in the first hour are the only record that the damage was what you say it was.
Tarps tear, fixings work loose and wind gets underneath. It is a measure for days and weeks. Letting it run for months invites both fresh damage and an argument that the continuing damage was maintenance rather than the storm.
The emergency is the covering, not the choice of contractor. Authorise the emergency work in writing and limit it to that. Anyone unwilling to work that way is relying on the pressure of the moment.
A tarp held down by timber and bricks is a sail waiting for a gust, and it can leave the roof in worse condition than it found it. Properly lapped and fastened is the difference between a temporary repair and a gesture.
An unsecured property after a storm or a fire attracts theft and trespass, and you retain a duty of care to people who come onto it. Ground-level closure and site security are part of the job, not an upsell.
Commonly, yes. Standard homeowners policies generally require you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage after a loss, and the reasonable cost of doing so is typically covered — often even where parts of the underlying claim are disputed. You usually do not need permission before acting in an emergency. Notify the insurer as soon as practical, keep the invoice, and keep photographs of the damage before and after the covering went on. Your own policy wording is what decides it.
Think in days and weeks rather than months. A properly lapped and fastened tarp can hold through ordinary weather for several weeks; it is not designed to survive another storm and it degrades in sun and wind. Shrink-wrap lasts considerably longer and is the usual answer where the permanent repair is genuinely months away. Either way it is a temporary measure, and the clock on the permanent repair starts the day it goes on.
Not if it means getting onto a storm-damaged roof. Damaged roofing is unstable and partly detached, and falls after severe weather cause serious injuries every season. Things you can safely do from inside and from the ground: move belongings out of the water’s path, contain drips, turn off power to affected circuits, and photograph everything. Covering the roof is a job for people with fall protection and the right fixings.
Because drying a building that is still taking on water does not converge. The equipment runs, the readings do not come down, and the mitigation invoice grows by the day with nothing to show for it. The drying phase is measured against a goal, and that goal is unreachable while the envelope is open. Closing the building is the precondition for every phase after it — see structural drying.
Generally no, provided the document you signed was an emergency authorisation rather than a full restoration contract or an assignment of benefits. This is exactly why the wording of what you sign at the kerbside matters. Read it, keep a copy, and if it covers more than the emergency measure, ask for one that does not. A reputable company will write a limited authorisation without argument.
A temporary repair keeps weather, people and animals out while decisions are made — tarps, shrink-wrap, board-up, shoring. A permanent repair restores the building element to a proper, code-compliant condition, which for a roof means the covering, the underlayment, the flashings and any damaged decking. Insurers expect the first quickly and the second properly, and they are separate scopes with separate documents.
Report it immediately and photograph it. Coverings fail, and additional damage after a covered loss is usually still part of the claim provided the mitigation steps taken were reasonable. What creates a problem is a failure nobody reported and nobody fixed for weeks, because at that point the question changes from what the storm did to what was allowed to continue. Keep a dated record of each inspection of the covering.
Usually, but check. Many policies restrict or exclude certain cover once a dwelling has been vacant or unoccupied beyond a stated period, which is exactly the situation after an evacuation or a fire. Tell your insurer the property is unoccupied, ask specifically what changes, and get the answer in writing. Securing the building and arranging site security is also part of what makes that conversation straightforward.
Commonly, yes. Firefighters cut ventilation openings, break windows and open walls and ceilings to reach hot spots, and that damage is normally treated as part of the fire loss rather than as something separate. It also means a fire-damaged building is frequently far more open than the fire alone left it, so securing it is usually a larger job than people expect. See fire and smoke damage restoration.
You are, in most respects. An unsecured building after a storm or fire attracts theft, trespass and animals, and you retain a duty of care towards people who come onto the property. That is why closing ground-level openings, changing or fitting locks, and recording who holds access are part of the emergency scope rather than extras. Where the building genuinely cannot be closed, temporary fencing and lighting do the same job.
Information on this page is general and may vary by state, by policy, by peril, by building and by your own circumstances. It is not insurance, legal or medical advice, and it is not a substitute for professional assessment of a damaged property. HyreRestore is an independent restoration information resource and connection platform, not a restoration contractor, insurer or public adjuster, and does not perform, supervise or warrant any restoration work.
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