Storm & Hail Response
Hail damage usually isn't visible from your driveway.
Most hail-damaged roofs look completely normal from the ground. The damage is granule loss, bruising, and fractured mat, things you can only find by getting on the roof and knowing what you're looking at.
Storm response
Active leak or fresh storm damage? Call now.
Emergency tarping
Same-day when weather allows.
Leak mitigation
Stop the water first, diagnose second.
Rapid inspections
Documented while damage is fresh.
Storm response
Front of the line after a hail event.
Emergencies are prioritized ahead of scheduled work.
What hail actually does
Four kinds of damage, and why you can't see any of them from the yard.
Hail doesn't punch holes in a roof. It shortens the roof's life in ways that only become leaks later, which is exactly why so many valid claims never get filed.
Bruising is the big one. A hailstone strikes the shingle hard enough to fracture the asphalt mat underneath without breaking the surface. Press a thumb on it and it gives, like a bruise on fruit. From twenty feet below, that shingle looks perfect. It is not. Its waterproofing layer is broken, and it will fail early.
Granule loss is the visible cousin. Those ceramic granules are the shingle's sunscreen; strip them and the asphalt below starts cooking under Colorado UV. Scattered bald spots across a slope mean accelerated aging everywhere the storm hit, not just where you can see it.
Mat fracture is bruising taken further, an actual crack through the fiberglass mat. Sometimes it's a spider-web pattern only visible when you lift the shingle above it. This is the failure that turns into a leak two winters from now, long after everyone stopped connecting it to the storm.
Soft metals tell the story. Gutters, downspouts, vents, flashing, and AC condenser fins dent visibly because they're thin aluminum. When I find fresh dents in soft metal, I know the storm carried enough energy to damage the shingles too, and so does your adjuster. It's some of the most persuasive evidence in a claim.
Here's why the driveway view fails you: asphalt shingles are designed to look uniform from a distance. Bruising has no color change. Granule loss reads as normal weathering. Mat fracture is invisible until you're kneeling on it. A ground-level look tells you almost nothing, and a lot of homeowners take that as good news.
There's also the delay problem. A bruised roof frequently doesn't leak for a year or more. By the time the ceiling stain shows up, the storm date is old, the filing window may have closed, and a claim that would have been straightforward becomes a fight you can't win.
Signs you may have damage
What you can check from the ground, safely.
You don't need to get on the roof. If you can tick two or three of these, it's worth having someone who can.
Dented gutters or downspouts
Thin aluminum dents at the same impact energy that bruises shingles. Look along the top edge of the gutter run.
Dinged soft metals
Roof vents, flashing, chimney caps, and window wraps show fresh, bright dimples after a real hail event.
Granules collecting in gutters
Some shedding is normal over years. A visible layer of sandy granules right after a storm is not.
Damaged AC condenser fins
Flattened fins on the outdoor unit are one of the clearest proof points that hail hit hard here.
Cracked or leaking skylights
Skylight glass and domes are more brittle than shingles and often the first visible casualty.
Dings in fencing, deck boards, or siding
Splintered wood and chipped paint on the storm-facing side confirm impact energy and direction.
Neighbors getting new roofs
Hail falls in swaths. If dumpsters are appearing on your block, your roof was under the same cell.
A stain that shows up months later
Delayed interior leaks frequently trace back to a storm nobody inspected for at the time.
Deadlines matter
Your policy has a clock on it.
This isn't a scare tactic, it's the most common way homeowners lose a claim that was completely valid.
Nearly every homeowner's policy requires that you report damage within a defined window after the date of loss. The exact length varies by carrier and by policy, one year is common, some are shorter, some longer. What doesn't vary is that the window is measured from the storm date, not from the day you noticed the leak.
That's the trap. Hail damage frequently doesn't announce itself for a season or two. Homeowners find the leak, call a roofer, and learn the qualifying storm was eighteen months ago and the claim is time-barred. The damage is real, the coverage was real, and it doesn't matter anymore.
There's a second clock too: the older the storm, the harder it is to prove which event caused what. Adjusters weigh fresh, well-documented damage very differently from damage that's been weathering for two years.
None of this means you should file every time it hails. It means you should get it documented while documentation is still possible, and then decide. Getting inspected costs nothing. Waiting can cost the entire claim.
Do this now
Find your storm date.
- Check your policy for the reporting window and your deductible type, some Colorado policies carry a separate wind/hail deductible.
- Note when your neighborhood last took hail. Neighbors replacing roofs is the easiest date marker you have.
- Get it documented before the window closes, even if you decide not to file.
What I do
Documentation first. The decision is still yours.
A storm inspection isn't a sales visit. It's an evidence-gathering visit, and you keep the evidence either way.
Free inspection, usually same or next day
I get on the roof and check every slope, plus gutters, soft metals, and the AC unit. After a major storm I prioritize by urgency, active leaks first, then everyone else in order.
Drone imagery from a licensed pilot
I'm an FAA Licensed Drone Pilot, so I can capture full-roof aerial coverage legally and safely, including steep or fragile slopes that shouldn't be walked. It gives us context photos no ladder can.
Close-up photo documentation
Aerials show the pattern; close-ups prove the damage. Marked test squares, chalked hits, granule loss, bruising, and dented metals, each photographed with location so the record is unambiguous.
A written report you keep
Plain-English findings with the photos attached, sent to you regardless of what you decide. If your roof is fine, that report is a dated baseline that makes the next storm easier to assess.
An honest read on whether to file
Sometimes the damage clearly exceeds your deductible and filing is obvious. Sometimes it doesn't, and filing would be a waste of a claim on your record. I'll give you my actual opinion, including when that opinion is 'don't file.'
If you do file, I stay on it
I meet your adjuster on the roof, walk the damage with them, and make sure nothing gets missed in the scope. The insurance claims page walks through exactly how that process runs.
Next step
Let's get eyes on your roof.
Free, no obligation, and usually same-day when scheduling permits. You'll get photos, a plain-English report, and an honest answer, even if that answer is “your roof is fine.”
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