Should I call the parish emergency inspection line about a leaking roof?

No. St. John the Baptist Parish says its emergency inspections are generally for electrical issues, where an on call inspector checks the damage and calls the utility for a reconnect. For a leak, call a roofer. If the storm also damaged your power supply, call an electrician.

What does an emergency call out cost in LaPlace?

A make safe visit is estimated at $250 to $1,200, driven by access, pitch, how much area needs covering and whether the work can be done safely at that time and in that weather. Every figure here is an estimate, and the permanent work is priced separately.

Do I need a permit before you put a tarp on?

We have not read a St. John the Baptist Parish rule on temporary weatherproofing, so we will not tell you one either way. Reroofing needs the parish permit, and the Permit Division on (985) 651-5565 can say whether your permanent repair and the tarp need one.

Will my insurance pay for the emergency visit?

That is a question for your insurer, and R.S. 37:2159.1 bars a Louisiana roofing contractor from interpreting your cover. What we can do is record what happened and what we did, with dated photographs taken before anything was covered up.

How long does a tarp last?

Weeks rather than months in this sun. It buys the time to scope and permit the permanent repair properly. It is not a cheap permanent answer and nobody should sell it as one.

Why is the leak nowhere near the damage I can see outside?

That is normal. Water runs along the decking and the framing before it drops, so the entry point and the stain are rarely above one another. It is why a make safe visit starts at the edges and the penetrations.

Home/Service Areas/Louisiana/LaPlace/Emergency Roof Repair

Emergency Roof Repair in LaPlace, LA

Big Easy Roofing covers emergency call outs across LaPlace and the east bank of St. John the Baptist Parish. The parish publishes an emergency inspection line, and it is generally for electrical issues, with roof leaks not among the causes it lists. So the water is stopped first, and any permanent roof work that needs a permit goes to the Permit Division once it is open.

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Service

City

$250 to $1,200Estimated make safe visit

Weekdays 8 to 4:30St. John Parish Permit Division hours

ElectricalWhat the parish emergency line is generally for

PhotographedBefore anything is covered up

LaPlace emergency roof repair at a glance

An emergency call out is make safe work. Its job is to stop water entering the house and to record what was found, not to carry out the permanent repair in the rain. The permanent repair is a separate job, scoped in daylight and filed with St. John the Baptist Parish during weekday office hours.

Make safe is not the repair

Two jobs, two clocks

The call out stops the water. The permanent repair is scoped, priced and permitted afterwards, with the covering opened up properly. A roofer who does both in one visit in bad weather is guessing at the second.

Estimated make safe visit

$250 to $1,200

Driven by access, pitch, how much area has to be covered and whether the work can be done safely at that hour and in that weather. Every figure here is an estimate, not a quote.

The parish emergency line is generally for electrical issues

Roof leaks are not on its list

St. John the Baptist Parish says its emergency inspections are generally for electrical issues such as Acts of God, vehicle impact, burnt lugs or fire, so the utility can reconnect power. It is not described as a roof repair route. A leak is our job.

The permit office keeps weekday hours

Monday to Friday, 8am to 4:30pm

Those are the hours the Permit Division lists at 1811 W. Airline Highway in LaPlace. A roof that opens on a Saturday night will not wait for them, which is why stopping the water and filing for the permanent repair are two steps.

Photographs before anything is covered

On the visit

Once a tarp is down, what was underneath it cannot be seen. Dated photographs taken before the make safe work are the only record of the failure as it happened.

What we will not tell you at 2am

What your policy covers

Under R.S. 37:2159.1 a Louisiana roofing contractor may not interpret your insurance cover, and an emergency is when that line gets crossed carelessly. We record what happened and what we did. Your insurer decides the rest.

Every figure on this page is an estimate, not a quote, and is subject to Big Easy Roofing sign off. Cost and timescale depend on size, pitch, access, weather, materials and whatever is found once work starts, so call Big Easy Roofing on (504) 800-8196 and we will come out and give you an estimate for your own roof.

Every figure on this page is an estimate, not a quote, and is subject to Big Easy Roofing sign off. For an emergency on a LaPlace roof call (504) 800-8196.

What a make safe visit does and does not include

Keeping the emergency visit apart from the permanent repair means you can see what you are paying for in each. Four things are in scope on the call out. The last two rows are the ones people expect, and both are deliberately left out.

On the call out	In scope	Estimated	Why
Stop the water entering	Yes	$250 to $1,200	The whole purpose of the visit, and the one thing that cannot wait
Photograph the failure before covering it	Yes	Included	Once the tarp is down the evidence is underneath it
Clear what is unsafe overhead	Yes, roofing only	Included where reachable	Loose covering and hanging trim are a hazard before they are a leak
Written note of what was found	Yes	Included	The permanent repair is scoped from this rather than from memory
Damaged electrical service or wiring	No, never	Electrician and utility	The parish says its emergency inspections are generally for electrical issues
The permanent repair itself	No, deliberately	Scoped after	A repair priced in the dark and the rain is priced badly, for both of us

Every figure is an estimate and none of it is a quote. If permanent work follows, it is scoped from what the call out recorded, which is why it is written down at the time.

Any reroof permit still goes to St. John the Baptist Parish

An emergency changes the order things happen in, not whether they happen. The make safe visit stops the water. Permanent roof work that needs a permit is then scoped, valued and filed with the Permit Division through MyGovernmentOnline or at the counter in LaPlace, and it starts once the parish has issued the permit.

Stopping the water is not the permitted work

Make safe first

The permanent repair or replacement is what gets scoped, valued and permitted. The make safe visit exists to stop the house taking damage while that happens properly. Treating the two as one job produces a bad repair and a rushed application.

The permit requirement has not gone away

R.S. 37:3737(I)

Louisiana requires any municipality or parish that issues construction permits to permit and inspect roof construction and reroofing, through Act 239 of 2025. St. John the Baptist Parish issues permits, and the rule still applies to reroofing after a storm. Whether a smaller repair counts is a question for the Permit Division.

Where the permanent repair is filed

St. John the Baptist Parish

The Permit Division is on the first floor of 1811 W. Airline Highway in LaPlace, on (985) 651-5565, weekdays 8am to 4:30pm excluding government holidays. Applications go online through MyGovernmentOnline or in person.

Who the emergency line is for

Electrical, through South Central Planning

The parish emergency inspection instructions send callers to South Central Planning on (985) 851-2900, option 1, whose answering service reaches the on call inspector. The parish says those inspections are generally for electrical issues and utility reconnects.

An online application is submitted, not reviewed

The parish takes applications through MyGovernmentOnline as well as at the counter. The parish itself says the online system does not guarantee meeting specific deadlines or bypassing required review periods, and a permit is not issued until the completed application has been reviewed.

That is one more reason the tarp comes first. The house is protected on the night, and the paperwork for the permanent repair goes in properly once it can be dealt with.

When the storm also takes the power line

Wind and falling limbs can damage the electrical service where it reaches the house, often at or over the roof line. That part is not roofing work. It is for a licensed electrician and the utility, and it is what the parish on call inspector line is there for.

We make the roof safe around it and stay clear of it. Once the water is stopped, the written note becomes a roof repair scope, or a roof inspection if the damage is not confined to one place.

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What actually fails in a LaPlace storm

LaPlace sits on the east bank of the Mississippi River in St. John the Baptist Parish, low and flat at elevation ten feet. The failures behind an emergency call here follow a consistent pattern, and knowing it lets a crew stop the water quickly instead of hunting for it.

Wind takes the edge before the field

Coverings lift at the perimeter, the ridge and around anything that projects, because that is where wind gets underneath. A roof that looks intact from the street has often lost its edge detail first.

So a make safe visit starts at the edges and the penetrations rather than at the point on the ceiling where the water appeared. The two are rarely in the same place.

Water travels before it shows

It runs along the decking and the framing and drops where it finds a gap, which can be several feet from where it got in. Chasing the stain instead of the entry point is the usual reason an emergency visit fails to stop a leak.

It also means the damage you can see indoors is a poor guide to the size of the problem outside, in either direction.

A Friday night failure meets a Monday counter

A roof that fails after 4:30 on a Friday meets a Permit Division whose next listed opening is a weekday morning, later still if Monday is a government holiday. The tarp carries the house through that gap.

Reroofing still needs the parish permit and, if the work reaches the value threshold, the right licence classification under R.S. 37:2156.4. None of that is urgent on the night, and all of it matters within the week.

Big Easy Roofing Process

Four steps. The house comes first and the paperwork second, because the weather does not wait for the parish office to open.

Temporary weatherproofing fitted to a storm damaged residential roof

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01 Make the house safe and stop the water

Temporary weatherproofing over the failure, and anything unsafe overhead dealt with where it can be reached safely. Damaged electrical service is left for the electrician.

02 Photograph and write down what was found

Before the covering goes on, because afterwards the evidence is underneath it. The permanent scope is built from this.

03 Scope and value the permanent repair in daylight

With the covering opened up and the value written down, because both the permit and the licensing rule turn on it.

04 File with St. John the Baptist Parish when the office is open

Through MyGovernmentOnline or at the Permit Division counter in LaPlace, weekdays 8am to 4:30pm, then carry out the permanent work once the permit is issued.

Everything else we do in LaPlace

The rest of the Big Easy Roofing services available in LaPlace, each with its own page, crew and written scope. An emergency visit stops the water; what follows is usually a repair or a replacement, priced from the written note taken on the call out rather than from a fresh guess.

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