Restoration services
Storm damage restoration starts with closing the building — tarping, boarding and drying — and then divides into repairs that are frequently governed by different policies. Wind, hail and flood are commonly separate perils, and which one caused a given piece of damage often decides whether it is paid under your homeowners policy, a separate flood policy, or not at all.
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. Get the envelope closed before you shop for a contractor. An open roof or a broken window keeps adding damage every hour it rains, and policies generally require you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage. Emergency tarping and board-up is a separate, small, time-critical job — you are not committing to whoever does it for the permanent repair. 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
Some storm damage announces itself. The expensive kind frequently does not, which is why the inspection matters more than the first glance.
The inspection has two jobs: find all the damage, and establish what caused it. The second is what a claim is decided on.
Downed power lines, unstable trees and compromised structure come before anything else. If there is any doubt about the building, stay out and get it assessed.
Photographs and video of every elevation and every affected interior area, dated. Note the storm date. This set is the backbone of the claim, and nobody else will take it for you.
Emergency tarping and board-up of every breach. This is separate emergency work with its own small invoice, and it is normally expected of you under the policy.
Contact the insurer, and where flood may be involved, the flood insurer as well. Two perils can mean two claims and two adjusters.
A full water mitigation scope with a stated drying goal and daily readings, exactly as in any water loss. Wet insulation and saturated assemblies are frequently the hidden part of storm damage.
Wind, hail, flood or something pre-existing, documented per area. This is what determines which policy pays for which repair.
Roof, envelope and interior repairs written up in detail. Take the time here — the emergency phase is over and you are no longer under pressure.
Written scopes from local, licensed, insured companies with a verifiable local address and history. This is the step storm chasers exist to make you skip.
Permanent repairs, with permits where required, matched materials where possible, and a warranty from an entity that will still exist next year.
The photographs, drying log, scopes, invoices and warranty. Storm damage frequently generates follow-on questions and a second claim in the same region within a few years.
Which peril caused the damage is the part people get wrong, and it is worth understanding before you speak to an adjuster. The same puddle on the same floor can be a covered loss or an uncovered one depending on the route the water took to get there.
| Wind | A named peril on most standard homeowners policies. Damage from wind removing roof covering, breaking a window or bringing a tree down is typically the most straightforward storm claim. |
|---|---|
| Hail | Also commonly covered on standard homeowners policies, but frequently subject to a separate and higher deductible in hail-prone regions, sometimes calculated as a percentage of the dwelling limit rather than a flat sum. Check your declarations page for a wind/hail deductible before you assume. |
| Flood | Generally excluded from standard homeowners policies and written separately, commonly through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood policy. Flood coverage typically carries a waiting period before it takes effect, which is why it cannot be arranged when a storm is already forecast. |
| Wind-driven rain | Rain forced into the building through an opening the storm created — a torn-off shingle, a broken window — is commonly treated as wind damage under a homeowners policy. Rain entering through an existing defect, or water rising from the ground, is treated very differently. |
| Rising water | Water that arrives by rising from outside — overflowing waterways, surface runoff, storm surge — is generally the definition of flood and generally outside the homeowners policy, however it felt at the time. |
| Sewer or drain backup | Commonly excluded from standard policies and available as an endorsement. Storms cause it frequently, and many people discover the gap afterwards. |
| Why the distinction is fought over | After a major storm, damage often has more than one plausible cause, and which one is recorded decides which policy responds. This is why documentation at the time — photographs, dates, the weather event — matters more here than in any other kind of loss. |
Storm work spans emergency services, mitigation and construction, and the deductible structure matters more here than in most losses.
| Factor | Why it changes the number |
|---|---|
| Emergency tarping and board-up | Priced by openings and area, invoiced separately, and normally expected promptly. Small relative to the repair and disproportionately important to the claim. |
| Extent of envelope damage | Whether the roof needs repair or replacement, how many elevations of siding are affected, how many windows. The single largest variable. |
| Water mitigation | A full drying scope — equipment count times days — sitting inside the storm claim wherever water got in. |
| Interior repairs | Ceilings, walls, insulation and flooring below every breach. Frequently underestimated at first glance because the wet area exceeds the stained area. |
| Tree and debris removal | Its own trade, and policies treat removal of a tree that hit the structure differently from removal of one that fell in the garden. |
| Your deductible structure | A separate percentage-based wind or hail deductible can change what you actually receive by thousands. Read the declarations page before you decide whether to claim at all. |
| Demand after a major event | Labour and materials tighten across a whole region after a large storm. It is a real cost driver and also the pressure that storm chasers exploit. |
| Code upgrades | Rebuilding may trigger current code requirements that the original construction did not meet. Some policies include ordinance-or-law coverage for this and some do not. |
| Matching materials | Whether a discontinued shingle or siding profile can be matched, and what happens to undamaged elevations if it cannot, is a genuine and frequently disputed cost. |
HyreRestore publishes no average price for this work. Category of loss, affected area, how long equipment runs and local rebuild costs move the number far enough that a single figure would mislead more than it helped.
How standard homeowners policies commonly work, not what your policy says. Storm coverage varies more by region than almost anything else — read your declarations page.
| Wind and hail are commonly covered | Both are typically named perils on standard homeowners policies, with the caveats below. |
|---|---|
| Separate wind or hail deductibles | Common in hail-prone and coastal regions, frequently expressed as a percentage of the dwelling limit rather than a flat amount. On a substantial home this can be a large number, and many people first learn of it during a claim. |
| Hurricane deductibles | Some coastal policies apply a distinct deductible triggered by a named storm. The trigger conditions are specific and worth reading before the season, not during it. |
| Flood is a separate policy | Generally excluded from homeowners cover and written separately, commonly through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private insurer, typically with a waiting period before it becomes effective. |
| Two perils can mean two claims | A storm that tore the roof and flooded the basement may involve your homeowners insurer and your flood insurer, each covering a different part. Two adjusters and two sets of paperwork is normal, not a mistake. |
| Sewer and drain backup endorsements | Backups caused by storm loading are commonly excluded from the base policy and available as an add-on. Check whether you have it. |
| Maintenance and wear | Insurers distinguish storm damage from deterioration. An older roof at the end of its life may be settled on a depreciated basis or disputed. Documenting the roof’s condition before a storm season is genuinely useful. |
| Your duty to mitigate | Reasonable steps to prevent further damage are normally required, which is exactly why emergency tarping matters and why its invoice is normally accepted. |
| Additional living expenses | Where the home is uninhabitable, many policies cover the extra cost of living elsewhere. Keep receipts from the first night. |
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.
Before you sign anything in a storm zone: check the address. Not the phone number, not the truck livery — the physical business address, the state licence, the insurance certificate, and how long that entity has been trading in your county. A company that is here for the season will be unreachable when a repair fails next winter, and the warranty document will be worth exactly nothing. Take the day. The tarp is already on.
The full ten-point checklist is on choosing a restoration company.
After a major storm, out-of-area crews canvass whole neighbourhoods within days. Some are competent. The structural problem is that they are not here next year, so the warranty depends on an entity that has left the state, and by the time a repair fails the phone number is dead. Verify the physical address and the local trading history before you sign anything.
It generally is not. Flood is written separately and typically has a waiting period before it takes effect, so it cannot be arranged when a storm is forecast. Discovering this after the water has gone down is one of the most common and most expensive surprises in this trade.
Quotes are for the permanent repair, which can wait. Every hour an opening stays uncovered adds interior damage, and an insurer can reasonably ask why reasonable steps were not taken. Emergency securing and contractor selection are separate decisions and should be made on separate timescales.
Ask for dated photographs from the inspection, ideally taken while you are present or with the images timestamped. Damage that appears in a report but not in a photograph you can place in time is a problem for your claim and occasionally a sign of something worse.
A percentage-based wind or hail deductible can exceed the cost of the repair. Knowing that figure before you file changes whether filing is the right move at all, and it is on your declarations page today.
Ruined contents, damaged fencing, the tree that came down — all of it is evidence. Photograph and inventory before clearing. Debris removal feels like progress and is one of the most common causes of a reduced settlement.
Partly, and the part matters. Wind and hail are commonly named perils on standard homeowners policies, so a roof torn by wind or dented by hail is usually the more straightforward claim. Flood is generally excluded and written separately. Sewer and drain backup is commonly excluded and sold as an endorsement. So the honest answer is that a single storm can produce damage covered by one policy, damage covered by another, and damage covered by neither — which is why establishing the peril for each area is the central task.
Route, not severity. Water that comes in from above or through an opening the storm created — through a torn roof, a broken window, wind-driven rain forced past the envelope — is generally treated as wind damage under a homeowners policy. Water that rises from outside, from overflowing waterways, surface runoff or storm surge, is generally flood, and generally outside the homeowners policy. The same amount of water on the same floor can be either.
It is a separate, usually higher deductible that applies specifically to wind or hail losses, common in hail-prone and coastal regions. It is frequently expressed as a percentage of the dwelling coverage limit rather than a flat sum, which on a substantial home can mean thousands more than your standard deductible. It is on your declarations page, listed separately from the all-perils deductible. Look for it now rather than during a claim.
Check things that are hard to fake and easy to verify: a physical business address in your state, a contractor licence you confirm with the state licensing body yourself, a current certificate of insurance obtained directly from the insurer, and a trading history in your county that predates the storm. Then ask which legal entity carries the warranty. Legitimate companies do travel to disaster areas and some do good work — the risk is not the travelling, it is that the warranty and the accountability travel away with them.
No, and this cuts both ways. Genuine hail damage to a roof is frequently not visible from the ground, which is why an inspection matters. Equally, roofs are frequently declared damaged from the ground by someone who wants the job. The most reliable indicators are impacts on soft metals — gutters, vents, flashing, air conditioner fins — which record whether hail struck and roughly what size it was. Ask for dated photographs of what was found, not a verbal verdict.
Promptly. Policies generally require notice within a reasonable time, and states set outer limits on how long you have, but the practical reason for speed is evidence: connecting damage to a specific weather event gets harder as time passes and as other storms follow. Document immediately, secure the building immediately, and file once you have a basic picture. You do not need a contractor scope in hand to report a loss.
Generally no. Flood policies typically carry a waiting period before coverage takes effect, which exists specifically to prevent buying cover when a storm is already on the way. This is the single most important thing to know about flood insurance, and the only time to act on it is when nothing is happening. Checking your flood risk and your coverage at the start of a season costs nothing.
Generally no. Insurers run preferred vendor programmes and those companies are frequently perfectly good — after a major event they may also be faster to mobilise. But in most cases you choose who works on your property; what the insurer controls is what it will pay. If you go outside the programme, the scope still has to be agreed with the adjuster in the same way.
Treat it as a safety problem before a property problem: keep people away, watch for power lines, and do not attempt removal near the structure yourself. Have the building assessed for structural damage before reoccupying the affected part. On the claim side, policies commonly treat a tree that struck the structure differently from one that fell without hitting anything, and removal costs may be limited — worth asking your insurer specifically rather than assuming.
It transfers your rights under the insurance claim to the contractor, who then deals with the insurer directly. It is legal in most places and sometimes genuinely convenient. It has also been abused enough after major storms that several states have legislated to restrict it. Read it, take it away with you, and treat willingness to let you do that as the test — a reputable company will wait while you read a document that transfers your claim rights.
Usually because the two scopes differ rather than because the prices do — a difference in what has to come out, whether a partial roof repair is viable, whether matching materials exist, or whether code upgrades are included. The productive move is to compare the two scopes line by line rather than the two totals. Genuine disagreements are normal and are resolved with documentation; supplements for damage found after work begins are routine.
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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