Photograph it before it is covered
Wide and close, dated and located, on every opening. Once a tarp is on, nobody can see what was underneath — and that is the shot homeowners most often do not have.
Stage 04 The claim
Louisiana roof insurance claims
This is the stage with the least movement and the most anxiety, so this page is unusually blunt about which parts of it are ours and which are not. We document, we measure, we turn up to the inspection, and we build. We do not predict what your carrier will do — nobody outside it can.
Where the line is
Four things we do, and four we refuse
Most of the trouble in this trade happens where a contractor's role quietly expands into things a contractor is not. The second list is as important as the first, and it is not a disclaimer — it is how the work is actually run.
We do inside the claim
Measure and write a scope
Slope by slope, in the line-item format estimating software uses, so the two documents can be laid side by side rather than argued about in adjectives.
Meet the adjuster on the roof
You should not have to discuss shingle damage with a professional on your own. We are up there, showing what we found and where, in person.
Hand you the whole file
Photographs, measurements, dates and the report — yours to keep and yours to use, whether or not you ever hire us for the work.
We don't and will not start
Predict what your carrier will do
Not a decision, not an approval, not a denial, not a payout, not a settlement figure, not a deductible. Nobody outside your carrier can, and anybody who does is guessing with your money.
File or negotiate on your behalf
Adjusting a claim for a policyholder is a licensed activity and it is not what a roofing contractor is. We document and we build. Your claim stays yours.
Ask you to sign your benefits over
No assignment of benefits at a kitchen table, no contract that only becomes a price after a carrier says a number. You get a scope with figures on it before you decide anything.
Pretend we can speed up the queue
A roofer ringing your carrier does not reorder an assignment queue. We attend the inspection when it is booked; we do not claim to book it.
No claim outcome is stated or implied on this page. Nothing here tells you what will be approved, denied, paid or deducted, and nothing here should be read as advice about your policy. Those belong to you and your carrier.
01–07 how a claim is shaped
The sequence, with the waiting left in
Seven steps, of which two are almost entirely other people's calendars. We show them because a three-step graphic that leaves the waiting out is the reason people ring their roofer at seven in the morning.
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Before you file
Get the roof looked at. If the damage is minor, a claim that goes nowhere still sits on your record. Deciding with photographs in front of you is different from deciding with a neighbour's opinion.
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Filing
You file, not us. A claim number appears more or less instantly, which is why this step feels fast and everything after it feels slow.
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Assignment
Your file joins a queue for an adjuster. After a regional event, carriers bring in catastrophe adjusters from out of state, and contracting, licensing and routing all take days.
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The inspection
An adjuster walks the roof. We are there with the file, the measurements and the photographs of what was under the tarp.
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Their scope arrives
A line-item document from the carrier's estimating software. We put ours beside it in a second column so you can see, item by item, where they differ and why.
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Your decision
Anything the carrier's scope does not include is priced separately and plainly, so you always know which part of the bill is the claim and which part is your choice.
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Build and close out
The work, then the final photographs, the completion certificate your carrier asks for, the invoice, and a written statement of what we stand behind.
Day 3–9 what is specific to here
Why TN weeks look the way they do
A squall line across Knoxville on a Saturday night opens several thousand roof claims by Monday morning across one region. Everything downstream of that — adjusters, dumpsters, colour-matched material, a dry morning — is being asked for by all of those houses at once.
- Named-storm deductibles are frequently structured differently from ordinary ones. Read your declarations page; we cannot read it for you and we will not guess at it.
- Catastrophe adjusters are brought in from out of state after big events. Contracting, licensing and routing them is where most of the first week goes.
- Colour matches run out early after a regional event, and nobody tears a roof off into rain. Those two facts own most of the second wait.
- Parish code requirements can add line items neither you nor your carrier expected. We flag which lines are code and which are our recommendation, because those are different arguments.
None of that is a complaint about carriers and none of it is a promise about your file. It is the shape of a storm month here, described so that you can plan around it instead of spending it refreshing a claims portal.
Straight answers
Louisiana claims — straight answers
Will you tell me whether my claim will be approved?
No. We will not estimate it, hint at it, or tell you what usually happens. Your policy, your carrier and your evidence decide that, and a roofing contractor who implies otherwise is selling certainty they do not have.
Should I get an inspection before I file?
Usually it helps. It costs nothing here and it means you are deciding whether to open a claim with photographs in front of you rather than a guess. If what we find is unlikely to justify a claim, the report says exactly that.
How long does a Louisiana roof claim take?
In our experience of storm weeks here, three to nine days from filing to an adjuster on the roof, then a week or two to a scope, then material and weather. About a month end to end when nothing goes sideways. That is a description of a pattern, not a commitment about your file.
Do you handle the claim for me?
No, and it would be wrong for us to. Adjusting a claim on a policyholder's behalf is a licensed activity. What a contractor can properly do is document the damage, write a measured scope, meet the adjuster, and build what is agreed.
What is the single most useful thing I can do?
Read your own declarations page, or ring your carrier and ask them to read it to you — particularly how the deductible works for a named storm, which is often structured differently from an ordinary one. Ten minutes, and almost nobody spends it.
Someone offered to cover my deductible. Is that normal?
It is a proposal to misstate the cost of work to an insurer, and it is a bad idea for the homeowner as much as the contractor. Walk away from it, and be wary of everything else that firm tells you.
What if the approved scope misses something the roof needs?
That is what the second column is for. We document the difference, price it plainly, and you decide what to do about it. What happens next between you and your carrier is theirs and yours — we supply evidence, not predictions.
How long do I have to file?
It depends on your policy and on the event, and Louisiana has had special claim windows after major hurricanes. Read your policy, and do not wait: evidence fades, tarps thin, and it gets harder to attribute damage to a particular night.
Day 0 stage one
Start with the roof, not the paperwork
Ring it through and we will triage it on the phone — (865) 555-0172. If typing is easier, this reaches the same desk.
- The inspection and the photo report cost nothing.
- You keep the photographs whether or not you hire us.
- No claim outcome, payout or deductible is ever implied.
Start at stage one.
Describe what you can see from the ground. We will tell you whether this is a tarp-tonight problem or a Tuesday problem — and we will say so either way.