Hail Damage on Your Roof: How to Tell, and What to Do First

A bad hailstorm rolls through and most homeowners walk outside, look up at the roof, and see nothing wrong. The shingles are still there. There are no obvious holes. The driveway is wet but the house is dry. So nothing to worry about, right?

Often, no. The damage hail does to a roof is rarely visible from the ground. It bruises the shingles in a pattern that looks fine from twenty feet down but is leaking in slow motion at every impact site. Six months later, the leaks show up. Eighteen months later, the shingles start to lose granules in patches. Three years later, the warranty is gone and so is the roof.

This is what to actually do, in order, after a hailstorm rolls through your neighborhood.

1. Look at the soft metal first

Before you climb the ladder, walk around the house and look at any soft-metal surface: gutter tops, downspout caps, AC unit fins, vent flashing, the metal trim on garage doors. Hail hits soft metal first and leaves obvious dents. If you see dents on those, the roof was almost certainly hit harder than you can see from the ground.

Take photos with your phone. Date them. The insurance adjuster will ask.

2. Get a professional inspection within two weeks

Most insurance policies have a "prompt notification" clause, which in practice means the insurer expects you to file the claim within a reasonable window of the storm. Two weeks is the safe edge of that window. Beyond that, the insurer can argue the damage was pre-existing and deny the claim.

The inspection itself is free. We climb the roof, photograph every impact, mark the slopes, count the hits per hundred square feet, and write up the findings in plain language. If there is no damage, the report says so. If there is damage, the report goes to your insurance company along with whatever supplemental photos they ask for.

3. File the claim, then schedule the adjuster

The order matters. File the claim with your insurance company first. They assign a claim number and an adjuster. Then schedule the adjuster to come out, ideally on a day when we can be on the roof at the same time. Adjusters are working under time pressure and do not always catch everything. We meet them on the roof, walk through the findings, and make sure nothing meaningful gets missed.

This is the single highest-leverage thing a homeowner can do during a claim. The adjuster is not your enemy, but they are not your advocate either. Having a roofer present during the adjustment changes the conversation.

4. Get the work scheduled before fall

Insurance approves the claim, the check arrives, and the work needs to happen before the next big weather window. In Colorado that means before the first hard freeze in late October. Roofs installed in the warm shoulder weeks of spring and fall last longer than roofs installed in dead winter, and the schedule fills up fast after a major hail event.

We pull permits, schedule the tear-off, and handle the dump runs. You sign off on the color and the warranty. The whole process from claim approval to new roof typically runs three to five weeks.

What not to do

Do not sign anything with the first roofer who shows up at your door after a storm. Reputable roofers do not knock on doors. The "storm chasers" who do are pulling permits in twelve states and will be in another zip code by the time your warranty matters.

Do not climb the roof yourself to assess. Hail damage is hard to see even from up close, and a fall from a sloped roof is a worse outcome than any storm. The free inspection covers that part.

Do not pay anyone before the work is done. Reputable roofers bill after the inspection passes, the materials are on the truck, and the dumpster is on the driveway. The "deposit" demanded up front is a red flag every time.

When to call us

If a storm rolled through your neighborhood and you can see dents on your gutters or AC unit, call. The inspection is free and arrives in writing within forty-eight hours. If we find damage, we are happy to walk the adjuster through it. If we do not find damage, the report says that too, and you have peace of mind without spending a dollar.

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