Roof emergency warning signs in Allentown: when to call for emergency roof repair

Some roof problems can sit until next week, and some cannot. Water dripping from a ceiling, a patch of sagging drywall, daylight visible through the attic boards, and shingles or flashing torn loose after a storm all need a call today. Hail is the reason to take storm damage seriously here: since 2000, the Storm Prediction Center has 89 hail reports within 15 km of Allentown, which puts the city in the Very High hail band among the towns Roofers Hotline serves.

Hail damage is not always visible from the ground, so a roof that looks fine may still have bruised or cracked shingles. If a storm has just passed and you see granules in the gutters or dents in the vents, call for roof repair here and ask for an inspection.

What you do in the first hour decides how much of the house gets wet. Move furniture and valuables away from the leak, put a bucket under the drip, and take photos of the damage from inside and, if it is safe, from the ground. Stay off the roof itself, because wet shingles and steep pitches are slippery.

Then call Roofers Hotline, which answers 24 hours a day. Tell the person on the line where the water is entering, what the weather has been and whether any part of the roof has come off. Emergency tarping and leak repair, 24/7, is the goal for the first visit, so the roof is covered before the next rain.

Call as soon as you notice the leak, not after the storm has passed.

An emergency visit starts with finding where the water is getting in. That can be a missing shingle, lifted flashing around a chimney, or a failed seal at a vent, and the source is often some distance from the stain on the ceiling. Once it is found, the roof is tarped or patched to stop the leak, and you get a written estimate before any work starts for the permanent repair.

Age matters in Allentown. By Census estimates for 2019 to 2023, 83% of homes in the city were built before 1980, and the median year built is 1951. Older roofs and older flashing details tend to fail at edges and penetrations first. Ask for the written estimate to list every repair item so you can compare it line by line. Call to book the visit.

If a storm damaged your roof, the paperwork has its own clock, and your policy sets the time limits. Read your policy for the notice period, keep every photo you took in the first hour, and keep receipts for any emergency work. Deductibles are never waived or rebated, so the written estimate you receive should show the full cost of the repair as it stands.

Winter is part of the picture here. The climate normals for 1991 to 2020 at the Allentown airport station show 118 days a year with a low at or below 32 F and 33 inches of snow, and the ice-dam risk is rated High. Ice at the eaves can push water under shingles in the middle of winter, so a leak in January is as real as one in May. Call, and keep your photos and estimate together.