The Storm Damage You Won't Spot From the Ground

  

Why you cannot see the worst of it 

Here is what hail really does. It does not usually punch a hole. It bruises the shingle, shakes the granules loose, and lifts the edges a hair. All invisible from the yard. Then a couple months pass, a slow soaking rain rolls through, and now there is a brown ring on the guest room ceiling that was not there yesterday. That is why it pays to visit their website and get an inspection booked while the fix is still forty bucks of sealant instead of a torn-out section of decking. 

The five-minute walk that tells you a lot 

You do not need a ladder for the first look. Just walk the house. 

Dented downspouts, a beat-up mailbox, dings in the AC fins, torn window screens. Those are your proxy. If the hail hammered the metal down low, it hammered the shingles up high. Then peek in the gutters. Loose granules pile up looking like coarse black sand, and a big pile means your GAF or Owens Corning shingles are shedding the layer that keeps the sun off the asphalt. That layer does not grow back. 

Photograph it the same day 

If there is any chance of an insurance claim, shoot photos immediately. Gutters, yard debris, any interior stains, plus one wide shot of the whole house. Jot the storm date in your phone. Adjusters are far friendlier to a homeowner who shows up with a dated record than one who mutters something about hail a few weeks back. And a decent roofer will document it right alongside you instead of flipping the visit into a pitch for a whole new roof you may not need yet. 

The wait-and-see trap 

Most people wait for a drip. No drip, no problem, right? Except roof damage is in no hurry. It sits up there for weeks, maybe months, then the water finally reaches the decking and the insulation and the number on the invoice quietly triples. I have watched a four hundred dollar repair turn into a six thousand dollar one because somebody figured they would deal with it later. An inspection is cheap. Guessing is not. 

Before the next storm rolls in 

You cannot stop hail. You can make the roof harder to hurt, though. Class 4 impact-resistant shingles take a beating better and often knock a bit off your premium, so ask your insurer. Trim back the branches that hang over the roofline before the wind does it for you. And get somebody up there once a year regardless, so you already know what shape you are in when the sky goes green. Walking into storm season blind is the expensive way to do it.