Storm Damage Restoration in Arkansas

Storm damage is almost always a water problem wearing a different coat. Hail splits shingles, wind peels back a section of roof or drops a tree limb through it, a window blows in, and from that moment every hour of rain adds more wet drywall, insulation and flooring under the opening. The storm itself is over in minutes. The damage keeps growing until the building is sealed. That is why Service Restoration treats the first visit after a storm as an emergency stop-the-water call, not a scheduled repair appointment.

The first job is to close the building up. Roof openings get tarped and battened down so the next rain stays out, broken windows and doors get boarded, and the debris that came down, from branches to collapsed sections of ceiling, is cleared so the crew can get at the damage underneath. Then the work shifts to what a water loss always needs: extraction, drying equipment, and moisture readings until the structure is dry. Once it is, the same company rebuilds the roof section, the ceiling and whatever else came out, so the customer is not lining up a tarping crew, a drying company and a contractor separately.

In central Arkansas the hard season runs from March into May. Severe thunderstorms roll across the state with large hail, straight-line wind and tornadoes, and the EF3 tornado of March 31, 2023 that cut through West Little Rock and across the river into North Little Rock and Sherwood is the recent reminder of what that season can do. The same storms can drop inches of rain in an hour, putting creeks out of their banks and backing up storm drains, and water that comes in from outside is handled as contaminated water. Winter is mild most years, but an ice storm brings limbs down through roofs as surely as a spring storm does. Each of these is a different repair, but the response is the same: get the water stopped, then dry.

After a big weather event, calls come in all at once, and a crew that already lives and works in the area can reach properties faster than one being routed in from out of state. Service Restoration's two Little Rock offices respond across roughly a 90 minute radius, from North Little Rock and Sherwood to Conway, Benton and Hot Springs, with tarping, board-up and drying equipment from the company's own library.

Before Service Restoration became a restoration company in 2014, the business did insurance-based roofing work, and founder Dan spent close to 30 years as a licensed contractor, so a storm-damaged roof is familiar ground. One of the company's own before and after photo sets shows a church roof with its decking exposed and debris tarped after a storm, and the same roof fully reshingled when the job was done. That is the full arc of a storm job: secure it, dry it, rebuild it.

Insurance is part of most storm jobs, and Service Restoration does not promise what a policy will pay, because that is decided by the policy and the adjuster. What the team does is photograph the damage before the tarp goes on, keep a record of every emergency step, and write the scope in Xactimate, the estimating software most insurers use, so the adjuster and the crew are working from the same document. When a storm has also taken the power out, the crew can bring temporary power and air conditioning from the company's own equipment library rather than waiting on a rental company, which keeps drying equipment running when it matters most.

What is included?

Emergency roof tarping

Heavy-duty tarps are fitted over roof openings and secured with battens so they hold through the next storm, not just the next breeze. Where decking is gone, the opening is covered rather than draped. Tarping is a temporary measure to stop water, and the free inspection sets out what the permanent roof repair will involve.

Board-up and debris removal

Broken windows, doors and wall openings are boarded, and downed branches, broken glass, loose shingles and collapsed ceiling material are removed from inside and around the building. Trees that have come through a roof are cut back and cleared so the opening can be covered. Debris is hauled away rather than piled in the yard.

Water extraction and drying after a storm

Rain that came through the roof or a broken window is extracted, and air movers and dehumidifiers are placed to dry ceilings, walls, insulation and flooring. Moisture is tracked with meters and thermal imaging so wet material inside a wall cavity is found and dried, not painted over.

Hail, wind and tornado damage

Hail bruises shingles and cracks skylights and siding. Wind lifts shingles and drives rain under them. A tornado or a falling tree can open a roof or a wall entirely. Each is inspected for what it did inside the building as well as outside, because the interior water damage is often larger than the roof damage that caused it.

Storm damage repair and rebuild

Once the structure is dry, the same company repairs the roof section, replaces ceiling and wall drywall, insulation, trim and flooring, and repaints, so the storm job finishes as a finished room rather than a dried-out shell waiting for another contractor.