If I were to give one piece of advice to homeowners regarding hurricanes, it would be to have patience.
After a hurricane, plan on things taking time. Depending on the severity of the storm and how widespread it is, it may take 6 months or more before your roof or other items of your home are repaired. After Hurricane Ian, some people were still having repair work done year or more later.
After every major storm in Southwest Florida, I have always encountered numerous customers who were impatient and chose to use out-of-state contractors or unlicensed contractors to perform their repairs because they promised to do it faster than the 6+ month waitlist local companies were offering.
Why is this a problem?
In many cases, these companies were committing felonies based on state law. If a company is willing to commit a felony, it’s doubtful they are a reputable company.
Many of these companies never pulled permits. They were not familiar with our building codes and used things like felt underlayment instead of a peel-and-stick secondary water barrier, they did not re-nail the roof deck according to code, etc..
I had customers who had trouble selling their homes, they had to hire architectural engineers to come in and assist with backdating permits. Some even had to have their roof’s replaced.
Even if the out of state company is legit, and obtains the proper licensing, permits, and does a fantastic job, what happens 2 years later when you have an issue? A local company would be worried about their reputation and try to take care of the issue right away. But a company that drove 1,500 miles 2 years ago to churn out a bunch of roofs and then left would not have the same incentive to take care of any issues you may have. They’re certainly not going to drive down here with their crew and equipment to take care of it, which leaves them with the option of paying a local company to handle it for them.
I understand after a storm you want to get things fixed as quickly as possible, but it’s simply not worth the potential headaches Waiting a few months longer to have a local licensed company do the work is almost always a better bet in the long run.