Storms in the mountains do not behave the way they do in flat country. Wind funnels up the valleys and hits ridgeline homes above Town Mountain Road, in Fairview and around Black Mountain far harder than the forecast suggests. Heavy tree canopy means a storm that would only lift a few shingles elsewhere drops an oak limb through the decking here. Hail comes through a couple of times in a bad year rather than every spring, so people are not used to looking for it. And when the remnants of a hurricane stall over Western North Carolina, as Helene did in September 2024, the rain alone finds every weak flashing and every lifted shingle on the roof.
Arolite Group handles storm damage roof repair across Buncombe, Haywood and Henderson counties, Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina. We are a local roofing, siding and gutter company based on Church Street in downtown Asheville, not a crew that drove in behind the storm with out-of-state plates. An exterior consultant comes out, inspects the roof at no cost, photographs what the weather did, and gives you a written write-up you can hand to your insurance company. If the roof needs to be tarped before the next front comes through, we do that too.
The rest of this page walks through what to do in the first day after a storm, what our inspection covers, how we work alongside your insurance claim, and how we decide between a repair and a full replacement. If the roof is leaking right now, call (828) 818-8392 and we will start there.
What to do in the first 24 hours
Stay off the roof
A wet shingle roof on a mountain pitch is dangerous for people who do it every day, and storm-damaged decking can give way without warning. Look from the ground and from the attic instead. If water is coming in, put a bucket under it, move furniture and pull back any insulation that is soaking it up. Do not climb up to tarp it yourself.
Photograph everything
Take pictures of the roof from every side of the house you can reach safely, of any limbs or debris on it, of shingles and metal in the yard, of ceiling stains and wet drywall inside, and of the gutters if they are bent or pulled away. Date-stamped photos taken before anyone touches the roof are the strongest record you will have.
Keep every receipt
Tarps, buckets, a hotel night if the house is unlivable, a tree crew to get a trunk off the roof: keep the receipts in one place. Many homeowner policies address reasonable emergency costs, and the adjuster will want to see them.
Call your insurer and call us
Report the loss to your insurance company so the claim has a date. Then book a free inspection with us so the damage is documented by a roofer before the adjuster visits. The two steps go together, and the order does not matter much as long as both happen quickly.
How the free storm inspection works
An exterior consultant gets on the roof when it is safe to do so and goes over every slope. We are looking for lifted, creased or missing shingles, hail bruising in the granules, split or dented flashing around chimneys and vents, cracked pipe boots, impact marks from limbs, and soft spots in the decking that you can only confirm from inside the attic. On metal roofs we check for loosened fasteners, lifted seams and panel dents. Gutters, drip edge and fascia get the same look.
You receive photographs of what we found and a written write-up that says plainly what the storm did and what we recommend. That document is yours whether or not you hire us for the work. It is the same inspection we offer every homeowner, and it is the baseline the rest of the job is measured against.
Working alongside your insurance claim
Insurance claims after a mountain storm are slow and confusing, and a lot of people in Asheville learned that the hard way in late 2024. We cannot tell you what your policy will pay, and we will not promise an approval. What we can do is help with the paperwork, provide the photo record and the written scope the adjuster needs, and meet the adjuster at the house so the damage gets pointed out rather than overlooked from the driveway.
Once the insurer has made a decision, we sit down with you in person, go through the scope line by line, and give you a written price. If the adjuster's scope and ours differ, we explain the gap and what your options are. You decide how to proceed.
Emergency tarping
When a storm leaves a hole in the roof or a run of exposed decking, the first job is to keep water out until the repair can be done properly. We tarp the damaged area and secure it against the next round of wind, which can arrive before the ground has dried. A tarp is a stopgap, not a repair, and we say so in writing so there is no confusion about what has and has not been fixed.
Repair or full replacement
When a repair is the right call
A limb that punched through one slope, a strip of shingles lifted along an eave, a bent piece of flashing: on a roof with plenty of life left, we replace what was damaged, match the shingle as closely as the manufacturer's current lines allow, and tie the new work into the old so it sheds water the same way. That is the honest answer for most storm calls, and it is what we recommend when it fits.
When replacement makes more sense
If the roof was already near the end of its life, if the damage is spread across several slopes, if the decking underneath is soft, or if matching shingle no longer exists, patching becomes a series of repairs that never quite ends. In that case we lay out the cost of a full replacement beside the cost of the repair so you can see the real difference. We install architectural shingle systems from manufacturers such as CertainTeed, and standing-seam metal for homeowners who want the longer service life.
Why homeowners call Arolite Group after a storm
- Local and staying local. We will still be here when a question comes up in five years.
- A written record, free. Photos and a written write-up from the inspection, yours to keep and to hand to your insurer, whether or not you hire us.
- Straight answers in person. An exterior consultant sits down with you, explains the scope and the price, and tells you whether a repair or a replacement is the better buy.
- One crew for the whole exterior. Storms damage siding and gutters along with the roof. We handle all three, so you are not coordinating three contractors.
- Financing available. When the insurance payment does not cover the whole job, financing is available for the balance.