Guide
Making a roof damage claim
A roof claim is a documentation exercise. The damage matters, but what you can prove about it matters more.
Get it looked at
Three questions, and up to three Corona contractors. Free either way.
Your request is in.
We are matching it now against roofing contractors working in Corona and the surrounding area.
- Today, usually within the hour. The first contractor calls or texts the number you gave us. ASAP requests go out first.
- Up to three of them, no more. We cap it at three so you can compare without your phone melting.
- They come and look. Estimates are given after somebody has been on the roof, not over the phone.
- You decide, or you do not. There is nothing to cancel and nothing to pay us.
If you do not hear anything today, check your voicemail and spam folder — contractors often call from a mobile number.
Read anything before you sign it
An assignment of benefits hands control of your claim to a contractor. There are legitimate uses for it and it is also the single most common way homeowners lose control of a claim. Never sign one on the doorstep.
Know what your policy actually pays
Replacement cost pays what it costs to replace the roof today. Actual cash value pays that minus depreciation, which on a fifteen-year-old roof can be most of it. Find out which you have before you file, along with your deductible.
Photograph everything, immediately
Wide shots that show the house, close shots that show the damage, and pictures of the inside where water came through. Dated, before anybody touches anything. An adjuster can work with photographs; they cannot work with a description.
Stop further damage, and keep the receipts
Emergency mitigation is normally recoverable and routinely forgotten. Save the paperwork for the tarp as carefully as the paperwork for the repair.
Get an independent assessment first
Filing a claim that turns out to be under your deductible costs you nothing but is on your record anyway. Find out the scale of the damage before you pick up the phone.
Mind the deadline
Report promptly even if you have not decided what to do. The clock in the policy runs from the date of the event, not the date you noticed.
In short
Document first, mitigate second, file third. In that order it usually goes smoothly; in any other order it usually does not.
Related questions
Do you handle commercial buildings?
We do. It is a different set of contractors — commercial and low-slope work is a separate trade from residential re-roofing — so answering the property question accurately matters.
I have solar panels. What happens to them?
Panels have to be detached and reset. Budget for it separately and coordinate the two trades. Never put a new solar array on a roof with under ten years left.
What does a new roof cost in Corona?
For a typical Corona home of about 24 squares, an architectural asphalt re-roof usually lands between $12,500 and $28,500. Tile, slate and standing-seam metal run well above that. The number moves on how many old layers come off, how much decking is soft underneath, and how easily a truck can get to the house.