What to Do After Hail Damage to Your Roof

Hailstorms can come through without much warning, and they can leave behind significant damage. Dents on cars and broken windows are plenty worrisome, but there’s also the chance that hail impacts your roof, whether by weakening shingles, compromising the structural integrity of the system, or creating leaks that lead to risks of water damage. In any case, hail damage to your roof can’t simply be left alone. Let the professionals at Lifetime Roofing provide you with a comprehensive guide on what to do after hail damages your home’s roof:

Step 1: Prioritize Safety

The first order of business after a hailstorm is to make sure you’re safe. That doesn’t just mean ensuring that you’re safe from the hail itself—it’s also about being safe when you go about assessing your roof’s damage. Don’t climb onto your roof and risk danger, as the surface may be wet, slippery, or unstable. Rather, examine your roof from the ground and look for obvious signs of damage. If you suspect that there’s severe structural damage to the system, your safest course of action is to stay clear of the area and reach out to a professional as soon as possible. 

Step 2: Check for Visible Damage

Hail damage isn’t always obvious, but there will be signs to look for. Inspect your gutters, downspouts, and flashing for dents or marks from impact. Check your roof for cracked, missing, or bruised shingles, and be sure to look around the base of your home for any granules that may have been displaced during the hailstorm. And then, inside your home, look for any water stains on your ceilings or walls, as that may be an indication of underlying roof damage that you weren’t able to see from looking at it outside.

Step 3: Document the Hail Damage in Detail

As you’re looking for hail damage to your roof, make sure you’re keeping track of everything. Take clear photos and videos of any areas of the roof that were affected, and get them from different angles. You’ll also want to record all relevant details regarding the storm—its date, time, duration, and the size of the hail if possible—so that you have more to present in the insurance claims process.

Step 4: Take Steps to Prevent Further Damage

After assessing and documenting the damage caused to your roof by the hailstorm, do what you can to prevent further damage. On the one hand, this goes back to ensuring your safety and mitigating the effects of the situation, but there’s also the fact that many insurance policies require homeowners to make reasonable efforts to limit further damage. This can mean tarping off damaged sections of your roof, moving furniture and valuables away from any affected areas indoors, and setting up buckets or containers to handle any water intrusion problems.

Step 5: Contact Your Go-To Roofing Contractor

As much as you may have felt like you gathered during your own inspection of the roof, it’s also worth reaching out to your preferred roofing contractor to get a set of expert eyes on the situation. Not only will your go-to roofer provide their own detailed assessment of the damage, but they’ll also be able to provide thorough recommendations on your next steps, whether it’s repairs or in extreme cases, a full roof replacement. Plus, the right roofing company—Lifetime Roofing, if you’re a Michigan resident—can provide you with assistance and advocacy during the insurance claims process.

Step 6: File Your Insurance Claim

With the help of a reliable roofing contractor, you can then go about the insurance claims process, if necessary. This is where your own documentation and the contractor’s inspection findings will be crucial, as you’ll want to make sure you make a strong case to get the insurance coverage you deserve. Your insurance company will soon send an adjuster to your home for their own assessment of the damage, which is another reason why having a professional roofing company complete an inspection is helpful. That way, you’ll know that you have a fair and honest review of the situation.

Step 7: Review the Claim Estimate & Settlement

Once you receive the claim estimate from your insurance company, review it carefully. You can also have your roofing contractor look at it to make sure everything is in order and you’ve gotten the coverage you’re owed under your policy. If there are any discrepancies, you can request adjustments or offer further evidence to support your case for a higher level of coverage from your insurance provider.

Step 8: Complete Your Roof Repairs or Replacement

After the claims process is finished, you can then trust your roofing contractor to complete the necessary repair or replacement work to get your home back to its pre-storm condition. The good news is that by this point, your contractor will be plenty familiar with the situation at hand and will know exactly what your roof needs to get back to its best in short order.

Schedule a Professional Roof Inspection at Your Home in Michigan Today

If a hailstorm has recently rolled through your area and you suspect that it did damage to your roof or you simply want to take the necessary precautions to make sure everything is OK, Lifetime Roofing is the team to call. We can be trusted to provide you with an expert inspection, any help you may need with a potential insurance claim, and the subsequent repairs or replacement you need. Contact us today to schedule an inspection as soon as possible.