The first big hail cell of the season rolls through, and by Monday morning your phone has 60 missed calls. Every roofer in town is booked out for weeks. It feels like a good problem to have. Then six weeks later you’ve bought two trailer loads of sheet, paid the crew overtime and hired extra scaffold, and the money from those jobs is still stuck somewhere between an insurer, an assessor and a builder’s accounts team.
That’s the storm season trap. Busy doesn’t mean cash rich. This guide shows where the money gets stuck, how to set up your jobs so it comes back faster, and how to fund the gap before it bites.
Key takeaways
- Storm season runs roughly September to April across the east coast, so October is the month to get ready, not January.
- Insurance repair work pays slowly. The insurer, the assessor, the builder and then you, each with their own timeline.
- In Queensland, deposits on domestic work are capped (10% under $20,000, 5% above), so you’ll carry most of the cost yourself.
- Keep make-safe and full repair invoices separate so one delay doesn’t freeze both.
- If the numbers show a gap, line up funding before the rush, not when the supplier account is already over limit.
Why does a busy storm season drain a roofer’s bank account?
Simple. Money goes out the week you do the job. Money comes in when everyone up the chain has finished their paperwork.
The NSW SES says storm season falls between September and April, and the last few seasons have been big. Wrapping up the 2025–26 season in April, the NSW Government said SES volunteers had handled more than 23,000 calls. For roofers, that means a wall of work arriving all at once.
Here’s what a single mid sized storm repair can look like:
| Cost | When you pay it | When you get paid back |
|---|---|---|
| Make-safe (tarps, temporary fixing) | Day 1–2 | Often 2–6 weeks, once the make-safe invoice is approved |
| Roof sheet, flashings, gutters, screws | Day of order, or end of month on a trade account | After the full repair is approved, done and invoiced |
| Scaffold or edge protection hire | Weekly | Same as above |
| Crew wages and overtime | Weekly or fortnightly | Same as above |
| Skip and tip fees for old sheet or tiles | On the day | Same as above |
| Super, now due within 7 business days of payday | Every pay run | Same as above |
Do one job like that and it’s fine. Do 30 at once and you can have a big chunk of money locked up in work that’s finished but unpaid.
How does the insurance payment chain work for roofers?
Most storm damage gets fixed through a home or strata insurance claim. Who pays you, and when, depends on where you sit in the chain.
- Homeowner lodges the claim with their insurer.
- Insurer sends an assessor or asks for a quote and photos.
- Make-safe gets approved, usually fast, so the house stays dry.
- Full repair scope gets approved, sometimes after a second inspection or a dispute over storm damage versus wear and tear.
- Work is done, then signed off.
- You get paid, either by the insurer, the homeowner (who’s been paid out in cash) or the insurer’s appointed builder.
Under the Insurance Council’s General Insurance Code of Practice, insurers generally have up to four months to make a decision on a claim, and in a declared catastrophe things can drag out longer. That’s the decision, not your payment.
If you work as a subbie for a builder on an insurer’s panel, you’re paid on the builder’s terms. That might be 30 days from end of month, after the builder has been paid. In a heavy season it’s common for roofers to be waiting two to three months on some jobs. If a builder up the chain sits on a valid claim, your state’s security of payment laws can help. Our guide to security of payment claims explains how they work.
What can roofers charge up front?
Less than most people think, at least on domestic work in Queensland. The QBCC sets maximum deposits on domestic building contracts:
| Contract value | Maximum deposit (Qld domestic work) |
|---|---|
| $3,300 or less | 20% |
| $3,301 to $19,999 | 10% |
| $20,000 or more | 5% |
The QBCC also says a contractor can’t claim more than 50% of the contract price, including the deposit, until at least 50% of the work on site is done. So on a $40k re-roof, you can take $2k before you start, and you’re funding the rest until you hit your stages. Other states have their own rules on deposits and licensing, so check yours.
The flip side matters too. In storm season, homeowners are warned about “disaster chasers”, and the QBCC tells people to check a contractor’s licence before work starts. Being properly licensed, local and organised with your paperwork wins you work. It also gets you paid faster, because assessors and builders trust your invoices.
How to set up your storm season so the money comes back faster
Before the first big storm (now, in October)
- Talk to your supplier. Ask for a temporary limit increase for November to February and confirm your account terms. If they won’t move, see our guide to buying building materials in bulk before prices or lead times jump.
- Set your stages. Write make-safe, strip and re-sheet, and final as separate claim points wherever the contract allows.
- Know your panel terms. If you work for insurer builders, get their payment terms in writing. Ask when their payment runs are.
- Run the numbers. Work out how many jobs you can carry at once before the bank account runs dry. That number is your real capacity, not how many crew you’ve got.
During the rush
- Separate make-safe invoices. Lodge them the day the work is done, with photos and the claim number.
- Photograph everything. Before, during, after. Missing photos are one of the most common reasons insurance work gets queried.
- Invoice on the day of sign off. Not Friday, not end of month.
- Keep a payment tracker. Job, claim number, who pays, amount, date invoiced, date due, follow up date. Ten minutes on a Monday saves a lot of grief.
When a claim gets stuck
- Call the person who approved it, then email so there’s a record.
- If you’re a subbie and the builder won’t pay a valid claim, look at a payment claim under your state’s security of payment law.
- Don’t stop paying the crew or super to wait it out. That’s how a cash flow problem becomes an ATO problem.
If the tracker already shows more going out than coming in over the next six weeks, check what funding you qualify for before the next storm hits.
Example: a three-person roofing crew in Ipswich
Example (invented, round numbers): A metal roofing business in Ipswich runs a crew of three. After a run of hailstorms in November, it takes on 25 insurance repair jobs in five weeks.
- Materials: about $120k across all jobs, half on a trade account with a $50k limit
- Wages, overtime and super for the period: about $65k
- Scaffold, skips and fuel: about $20k
- Deposits and make-safe payments received in the first five weeks: about $35k
That leaves roughly $170k going out before the full repair payments start landing, and the owner expects most of that to arrive in January and February. The trade account hits its limit by week three.
The owner has been trading for four years with steady business bank statements, and has equity in an investment unit. They look at two options:
- An unsecured cash flow loan for tradies, sized to turnover, to cover wages and the trade account over the busy weeks.
- A short term loan secured against the investment unit for the larger gap, repaid as insurance payments come in.
Either way, the plan is the same: borrow for the gap, repay from the jobs that created it. They use the construction equity calculator to check how much usable equity the unit has before calling.
What funding options suit storm season roofing?
| Option | Good for | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| Unsecured cash flow loan | Wages, super and supplier bills for a few weeks to months | 6+ months trading with an ABN, recent business bank statements |
| Building materials finance | Bulk sheet, flashings and gutters ahead of the rush | Unsecured or secured against property you already own |
| Second mortgage or bridging loan | Bigger gaps across many jobs | Equity in property you or a guarantor already own |
| Equipment finance | A second ute, trailer or roof lifter for the extra crew | Quote for the gear |
A few facts to keep straight. Loans range from $20,000 to $5 million, for business purposes. Property secured loans can fund in as little as 24 hours once the valuation and documents are in, with no financials needed, and bad credit or ATO debts considered. Terms are typically 1 to 12 months. Some unsecured loans are approved and funded within hours. More on how we help the trade is on our finance for roofers page.
Is it worth taking on all that storm work?
Usually, yes, as long as the margin’s there and you can carry it. Storm work keeps crews busy, builds relationships with insurer builders and brings in referral work for years. The roofers who get hurt are the ones who say yes to everything and only check the bank balance in February.
Price it properly, too. Overtime, extra scaffold days and the cost of waiting to be paid are real costs. If you’re quoting storm work at your normal rates while carrying it for 60 to 90 days, you’re giving away margin.
Ready for the rush? Let’s make sure the cash is too
The storms will come. The question is whether your bank account can keep up with your diary. We work with roofers and roof plumbers who are flat out and waiting on insurance money all the time. It’s a timing problem, and timing problems can be funded.
Here’s how it works with us. The enquiry takes about 60 seconds and there’s no credit check when you first enquire. Your details go to one lending specialist, not a pile of lenders, so your phone won’t light up with calls from people you’ve never heard of. A real person who understands how insurance work and progress claims flow looks at your situation and calls you back.
Please fill the form in accurately: how much you need, what it’s for (materials, wages, a gap across jobs), how long you’ve been trading, and if you own property, roughly what it’s worth and what’s owed. Good numbers up front mean the first option we talk about is the one that funds.
