Emergency tarp over a damaged roof section on a Long Island house

Wind takes a Holbrook roof apart from the edges — the eaves, the ridge, the gable ends, the flashing — and takes siding off the face that took the gusts, and then the rain that follows goes into the sheathing and the wall behind. Alec's Construction tarps and boards the same day where we can reach you, finds the wet sheathing that a cosmetic patch would cover up, and rebuilds the roof, the siding and the gutters on one scope with the interior, working out of the yard on Barton Avenue in East Patchogue.

What a Storm Does in Holbrook

Holbrook is inland, split between the Town of Islip and the Town of Brookhaven, and a hurricane here is a wind and tree event on a big scale because the hamlet is one of the most heavily treed of the 1960s–70s developments in central Suffolk. Mature oaks and pines planted or left when the ranches and splits went in are now sixty years taller and standing over the roofs. The oaks shed heavy limbs; the pines come over whole. The houses themselves are one-storey or low-profile splits with a lot of roof and not much height, so the roof takes the tree and the roof takes the wind — ridge caps, the first courses at the eave, and the flashing at the low-slope garage roof are what we find lifted after a storm.

Limbs Through Roofs and Siding

Inland the wind damage to a roof here is usually what a pine limb did on the way down — a hole through the sheathing, a run of shingles ripped, a gutter torn off with the fascia — and the siding damage is where the trunk landed against the wall. The repair starts with the hole, not the shingles.

What Wind Does to a Roof Here

Shingles lift at the eaves and the ridge first, where the wind gets under them. Once a course goes, the ones above it follow, and the rain that comes after the wind goes through the exposed underlayment into the sheathing, the attic insulation and the ceilings below. Flashing at chimneys and sidewalls pulls loose. Gutters and fascia peel off the eaves and take the drip edge with them. A roof that "just lost a few shingles" is usually wet under a wider area than the missing shingles show.

What Wind Does to Siding

Vinyl unlocks and sails off in panels from the windward face and from the corners. The housewrap behind it tears, and the sheathing behind that takes rain until the panels are back. Cedar and clapboard split at the fasteners. The repair is not the panels; it is the wrap and the sheathing behind them, dried and checked before anything goes back on.

The Order of Work

Photographs as found. Tarp and board the same day where we can reach you. Wet insulation and sheetrock out from under the leak. Sheathing opened where it is wet and replaced where it has to be. Then the roof, the flashing, the siding, the gutters and the interior on one scope, the cause corrected so the new work stays dry.

Roofing crew repairing a Long Island roof after storm damage

The Claim

Wind damage to a roof or siding is a homeowners claim. Storm damage is separated from wear on the scope — the carrier pays for what the wind did, not for a roof that was at the end of its life — and where a roof is more storm than wear, the scope says so with the photographs to show it. We meet the adjuster at the house. Many coastal New York policies carry a separate deductible for named storms; the figure is on your declarations page.

Building Department in Holbrook

Holbrook straddles the Brookhaven and Islip town line and both are possible, so the department is confirmed by address before anything is filed. Emergency work to make the house safe and dry does not wait for a permit; the permanent repair is filed once the scope is agreed.

Free walkthrough in Holbrook. Call or text (631) 312-7441. Tell us whether the roof is open, whether a tree is on the structure and whether there is water inside, and we bring the right equipment on the first trip.

Frequently Asked Questions

Holbrook is in two towns — which building department handles my storm repair?

It depends on the address. Part of Holbrook files with the Town of Islip and part with the Town of Brookhaven, and the two do not have the same process or the same forms. Emergency repairs to make the house safe do not wait for either. For the permanent rebuild we identify the town from the tax map before we file, because a permit filed with the wrong town costs a week or two of the schedule.

Will insurance pay to replace the whole roof or just the missing shingles?

It depends on what the wind did and what the adjuster sees. Where the damage is scattered across the roof, or the shingles that are left cannot be matched or will not seal, a full replacement is often the right scope and often the approved one. Where the damage is one section, it is a section. We write the scope from the photographs and meet the adjuster at the house.

The siding is gone on one side. Can you match it?

Sometimes, and when we can we do. Vinyl profiles and colours go out of production, and a house that lost a full face often gets that face re-sided in the closest match rather than patched with panels that do not match. What is behind the panels matters more: the wrap and the sheathing get dried and checked before anything goes back on.

Do I need a permit for storm roof repairs?

Not for the emergency work — tarping, boarding, shoring. A full re-roof or structural repair is permitted work like any other job, and we file it with your town or village once the scope is agreed.

Related Guides

Also Serving Holbrook

Work With Alec's Construction

This guide is written by the crew that does the work. See Alec's Hurricane & Storm Damage Repair service — fallen trees, flooding, roof and siding damage, cleanup and the rebuild. Licensed and insured on Long Island, one crew start to finish, free walkthrough and a written estimate inside 48 hours.

Booking the cold months now: we also handle Roofing and Storm Damage & Insurance Restoration.

Get a Free Estimate from Alec's Construction

Licensed and insured, working across Nassau and Suffolk County since 2018. We come out, look at the actual job, and put a written number in your hand — no pressure, no obligation.

Or call (631) 312-7441

No cost, no obligation. We reply the same day.