The morning after a storm you walk out, look up, decide the roof looks fine and go to work. That’s a reasonable response, and it’s also how hail and wind damage gets missed, because almost none of it shows from the ground. What follows is what actually helps, roughly in the order it helps.
Key Takeaways
- Stay off the roof. Everything useful in the first pass can be done from the yard.
- Hail knocks the granules off a shingle rather than punching through it, so a damaged roof can look normal for a year and still fail early.
- Wind damage starts at the ridge and the edges, not in the middle of the roof.
- Under Alabama Code section 8-36-2, a roofer cannot negotiate your insurance claim or advertise that they will.
What to check from the ground
Stay off the roof. Wet shingles are slick, storm-damaged decking can be soft where it looks solid, and nothing you’d find up there is worth a fall.
Walk the perimeter and look in the gutters and under the downspouts. Then check the vents, the flashing and the gutter caps, which dent visibly when hail hits them. Look at the siding and the window screens on whichever side faced the weather. If the garage door or the air conditioning unit has dents in it, hail that size hit the roof too.
Hail damage on shingles
Hail rarely punches a hole in anything. What it does is knock the granule layer off the surface, and those granules are what protect the asphalt underneath from the sun. Strip them away and the asphalt ages fast, so a roof that looks perfectly normal today can fail years before it should.
That’s why granule loss in the gutters is the most useful thing you can look for. It looks like coarse black sand collecting at the bottom of the downspout. A little is normal on a new roof while the surface settles. A lot, right after a hailstorm, isn’t.
The other thing to look for is bruising, which is the word your adjuster will use. A hail-bruised shingle has a soft dimple in the mat that you can feel with a thumb but usually can’t see from the ground.
Roof wind damage signs
Wind works differently. It doesn’t do its damage in the middle of the roof, it gets underneath the edges and lifts. So the damage shows up in a predictable order.
- Ridge and hip caps, which sit highest and take the most direct force
- The roof edge and drip edge, where wind gets its first grip
- Flashing at chimneys, walls and skylights, which lifts and then leaks
- Individual tabs that have been lifted and had their seal broken without coming off
That last one is the easiest to miss. A shingle can be lifted, have its adhesive strip broken, then lie back down looking completely normal. It’s no longer sealed, so the next driving rain runs underneath it. From the ground you’d never know.
Documenting the damage
Photograph whatever you can see safely. Dented gutter caps, granules in the downspout, debris in the yard, water stains on an upstairs ceiling. Do it now rather than at the weekend, because the date matters.
Documentation gets weaker every week that passes. The next round of weather makes it harder to tie any particular damage to any particular storm, so photos from the first few days carry more weight than photos from next month.
Storm chasers and Alabama law
If a roofer knocks on your door after a storm and offers to handle your insurance claim, they’re offering something Alabama law doesn’t allow.
Alabama Code section 8-36-2 says a residential roofing contractor cannot represent or negotiate, or offer or advertise to represent or negotiate, on a homeowner’s behalf on any insurance claim connected to repairing or replacing a roof. A roofer can inspect the roof, document what’s there and write you a proper estimate. Arguing coverage with your carrier isn’t on the list.
The same law gives you a protection most people never hear about. If you sign a roofing contract that’s going to be paid out of insurance proceeds, the contractor has to hand you a detachable NOTICE OF CANCELLATION form. If your insurer then tells you in writing that the claim isn’t covered, or that the payment won’t cover the contract, you can cancel before midnight on the fifth business day.
Free storm damage inspection
The parts that decide a claim, the bruised shingles and the broken seals, need somebody up on the roof looking closely. We inspect storm damage free, photograph what we find and hand you the documentation whether or not you decide to file. If the roof turns out to be worn rather than storm damaged, we’ll tell you that too, and it won’t have cost you anything to find out.
Call (251) 725-0036 or schedule a storm damage inspection. We work Mobile County, Baldwin County and the Birmingham metro, and you can find us at 3710 Halls Mill Rd in Mobile.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my roof has hail damage?
Look for granule loss in the gutters after a storm, and for dents on vents, flashing and gutter caps, which date the storm even when the shingles look untouched. The bruising in the shingle itself is usually invisible from the ground. A free inspection gets you photographs instead of a guess.
How long do I have to file a roof claim in Alabama?
That depends on your policy, and your carrier or agent should confirm it rather than your roofer. What we can tell you is that documentation weakens with time, because later weather makes damage harder to attribute to one storm. Getting the roof photographed early protects the claim.
Can a roofer handle my insurance claim for me?
No. Alabama Code section 8-36-2 prohibits a residential roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner’s roofing insurance claim, and from advertising that they will. What a contractor can do is inspect, document, write an estimate and meet your adjuster on the roof. See how roof insurance claims work in Alabama.
Should I get on the roof myself after a storm?
No. Wet shingles are slick and storm-damaged decking can be soft in places that look solid. Everything useful in a first pass can be done from the yard, and the rest needs somebody with fall protection and a reason to be up there.
What if the damage turns out to be normal wear?
Then you’ll know, and it won’t have cost you anything. Age-related wear generally isn’t a covered peril, and a claim that gets denied is worse for you than not filing. We’d rather quote you honestly for a replacement than push a claim that won’t stand up.