Roofing crew repairing a Long Island roof after storm damage

Wind takes a Lake Ronkonkoma 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 Lake Ronkonkoma

Lake Ronkonkoma is the hamlet around the lake, split between three towns, and it has two kinds of storm damage. The lake itself has no outlet and rises for days after a long rain, so the low streets around its south and east shores take water that keeps coming up after the storm has passed. Everywhere else it is wind and trees: the streets off Portion Road and Rosevale Avenue are 1950s to 70s ranches and capes under pitch pine and oak, and the pines come over whole when the ground is saturated. The hamlet has a lot of the old summer bungalows from the lake's resort era, small and close together on the lake side, that were converted to year-round houses on shallow foundations.

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.

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

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 Lake Ronkonkoma

Lake Ronkonkoma is split between the Towns of Brookhaven, Islip and Smithtown around the lake, and the three do not share a building department; we confirm which governs the address before the permanent repair 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 Lake Ronkonkoma. 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

The lake is still rising two days after the storm. What do I do?

Photograph the water line every day it changes, keep what you can off the floor, and call. Water that rose from the lake into the house is flood damage — a separate flood policy, not the homeowners policy — and the lake keeps coming up for days after a big rain because it has no outlet. The drying and the wet material coming out do not wait for the claim.

Can you tarp the roof today?

Where we can reach you safely and the roof can be walked, yes, that is what the first visit is for. A tarp is a temporary measure to stop the water while the damage is documented and the permanent repair is scoped.

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.

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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.

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