What To Do When a Tree Lands on Your Roof?

Welcome back to Arborists Explain, a blog hosted and supported by Top Tree Service.

Today, we'll be answering the question "What should I do if a tree landed on my roof?"

First of all, let's hope together that you have home insurance that covers such environmental damage. The most likely cause of a tree falling on your roof is heavy winds during a storm. Also, in areas that receive a lot of snow, the weight of the snow on the tree makes it more prone to being damaged in high winds because it's heavier and the branches may be frozen. Another situation that may cause a tree to fall on your roof is tree care neglect. It's important to get tree care experts to assess and care for your trees at least once every three years, because they'll be able to detect if a tree is on the verge of falling or poses a threat if high winds should occur. To prevent such a catastrophe, you should call the nearest tree service company near you offering emergency tree service. They can brace and cable your hazardous trees, even during a storm, to prevent the trees from falling or at least direct them away from your house if they do fall.

Now that we've covered the causes and preventions, let's talk about the solutions. If your home insurance covers the damage to your roof, then that's amazing. Your insurance company will work with tree service specialists and roofers to remove the fallen tree and repair your roof, which will be a costly bill if insurance doesn't cover it. We all want roofs over our heads though, so it might be the best thing it put your money towards if you do find yourself in such a situation. Depending on where you live, and if the storms damaged many other properties near yours, there may be government grants available, so it's also smart to call your local government and ask for help. After heavy storms, tree service companies are often extremely busy cleaning up the damage. However, they also tend to provide discounts for those who have suffered due to tree damage during the storm. This is especially the case in Atlantic Canada where they experience hurricanes almost every year.

Lastly, there's some silver lining to having a tree fall on your roof, if you can believe it. A great example of this is a case that happened nearly a decade ago here in Victoria, BC. A tree landed on a dear customer's roof, however it was due to neglect rather than storm damage, so her home insurance did not cover the repairs. When everything was being fixed out of her own pocket, she discovered something that actually made her glad a tree had fallen on her house. For years she had been experiencing headaches and skin irritation, and now she knew it was because there was heavy mattings of black mold in her attic. If the tree hadn't fallen on her roof, revealing the black mold, she never would've known about it and would've continued to live with the symptoms of mold exposure. Seeing this as an opportunity, she ordered mold remediation service from a local company and her symptoms went away.

Other benefits and advantages you might experience from having a tree land on your roof include: roof upgrades, removal of hazardous trees, opportunities for home renovations, and peace of mind knowing it won't ever happen again if the proper precautions are put in place.

As someone who has seen many such catastrophes in my days of working with trees, I also want to say that I feel deeply for your concern, I wish you the best, and want to remind you that life is too precious to sweat the small stuff. Hug your friends, have dinner with your family, follow the necessary steps, and soon your roof will be repaired and everything will be back to normal. Years from now, you'll look back upon this hard time and realize it made you stronger.

Stay safe, and thanks for visiting Arborists Explain.