An emergency roof tarp in Ontario is one of the smaller bills after a storm, though a large one can run into the thousands. One Ontario contractor publishes $300 to $800 as its 2025 rate for emergency tarping. A Toronto roofer lists $500 to $1,200 for a tarp over less than 100 square feet, with nights and weekends extra. In most storm cases your home policy pays it back, because the policy asks you to stop further damage. The bill is small. How it is documented matters more.
The bill follows the tarp, not the hole
A tarp is priced on the area it covers, and that area is always bigger than the damage. The Toronto roofer’s own method sizes the tarp to run at least 4 feet past the damage on every side, so a bare patch the size of one plywood sheet already needs a tarp of well over 100 square feet. The top edge goes under the shingle course above the damage, or over the ridge on a large area, so that water runs over the tarp and not under it.
That same roofer’s price list shows how fast the area moves the number:
| Area covered | Toronto published price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Under 100 sq ft | $500 to $1,200 | Tarp, battens, fasteners, two workers for an hour or two |
| 100 to 300 sq ft | $1,200 to $2,500 | Larger tarp, more battens, a bigger crew |
| Over 300 sq ft | $2,500 to $5,000 and up | Several tarps and a full crew |
Toronto prices are not southwestern Ontario prices, and the Ontario contractor’s $300 to $800 band sits well under them. Read the table for the shape: the price climbs in steps with the area covered.
What else moves the price
- The hour. After-hours callout fees add $150 to $300 at the Ontario contractor and $200 to $500 at the Toronto one. A storm that comes through on a Saturday night costs more to cover on Saturday night.
- Pitch and height. A steep two-storey roof needs more setup and fall protection than a bungalow with a low eave.
- A tree on the roof. The Toronto list prices tree removal at $500 to $3,000 and up before any tarp can go on.
- What is under the shingles. If water has reached the deck, the Ontario contractor adds $3 to $6 per square foot to replace decking at the repair stage. The tarp does not fix that. It stops it getting worse.
What you are paying for is a tarp that stays on
The cheap version is a blue tarp with bricks on it. It is also the version that ends up in the eavestrough after the next gust, with the water back inside.
A professional tarp is fastened, not weighted. The Toronto roofer uses lumber battens screwed through the tarp into the roof sheathing, polyethylene of at least 6-mil and preferably 10 to 12 mil, and seals the edges against uplift. They rate that at 30 to 90 days. A hardware store tarp, by the same source, lasts 1 to 2 weeks before sun and wind break it down.
Screws through a tarp into the deck leave holes. That is expected, and those holes need sealing at the repair. Ask the installer to note where the battens went, so the repair crew knows what to seal.
A tarp that has to last into winter
Here is the part the price guides leave out, and it matters in this corridor. A storm in October or November is followed by the busiest weeks of the roofing year, and then by snow. If the repair cannot be booked inside the tarp’s rated life, the tarp has to carry the roof into winter.
At the snowbelt end, around Stratford, Listowel and the country behind Goderich, that means a tarp under snow load and repeated freeze-thaw. A weighted tarp will not survive it. At the Erie shore end, around Chatham and Leamington, the bigger risk is the next wind, which is also the risk the Northern Tornadoes Project maps across this part of the province every season.
So when the storm comes late in the year, ask three things before the crew leaves:
- Is the tarp battened and screwed, or weighted?
- What is the date by which it should be re-checked, and what does a return visit cost?
- When can the repair be booked, and does that fall inside the tarp’s rated life?
If a snowbelt ice dam is what forced the water in, the tarp is the wrong tool. Water is backing up under the eave from ice, and the fix is steam and then the attic, set out in why an ice dam roof is a heat problem.
Who ends up paying
Most Canadian home policies contain a condition you have probably never read. The Insurance Bureau of Canada gives the usual wording: the insured “shall take all reasonable steps to prevent further damage”, and the insurer “shall contribute proportionally towards any reasonable and proper expenses” of doing so. For wind damage, IBC’s own example is to use a tarp to cover the roof if it is safe to do so.
Two things follow from that.
The tarp is part of the claim, not a cost on the side. Keep the invoice, and keep the photographs from before the tarp went on. The order of those steps decides a lot, and it is set out in the guide to a roof storm damage insurance claim.
Doing nothing costs more than the tarp. IBC says failure to take reasonable steps may affect the outcome of the claim. Water that came in for a week after the storm, through a hole nobody covered, is the part an insurer can decline.
If you end up not claiming, because the damage is small or close to your deductible, the tarp is yours to pay like any other repair. Ask your insurer how the tarp invoice sits against the deductible before you decide. They know your policy; the roofer does not.
Before the tarp goes on
A tarp invoice that gets paid back without argument is easy to produce if you ask for it on the night.
- Photographs first. From the ground, before anyone covers anything.
- A written price before work starts. Even at midnight, a crew can tell you the area it plans to cover and the rate.
- An invoice that says what was done. The date, the area covered, how it was fastened, and the time on site.
- No permanent repair yet. The Ontario contractor’s own advice is to let the adjuster assess the damage before authorizing permanent repairs.
- WSIB coverage for whoever climbs up. Ask to see it. A crew working on your roof without it is a risk you carry.
After the tarp
The tarp buys time. It does not fix anything. Once the adjuster has been, the choice is between a repair and a replacement, and on an otherwise sound roof a lifted section or a torn valley is roof leak repair work, priced from the damage. If the roof was near the end of its life before the storm, the numbers behind roof replacement cost in this corridor are set out separately.
Here, storm damage roof repair is quoted from the damage, and the emergency tarp is the first line of that quote, ahead of the documented assessment and the repair itself. A full replacement is quoted separately.