How can one spot Hail Damage on roofs and siding after a Hail storm?

ChicagoHailDamageRepair provides information to home owners who have suffered substantial damage to their home after a Hail storm. You will be able to read a series of 20 articles that will give you loads of information on what to do in order to avail yourself of your insurance benefits to repair your home after a storm.

How to Spot Hail Damage on Your Roof and Siding

The two places that most home owners worry about hail except in extreme cases, is the roof and siding. A nasty hail storm can shorten the life of shingles by a decade or more. With siding, the damage may need even more immediate attention than most roofs. Since insurance claims are the next step after spotting hail damage, it is best if you can identify it before calling out the adjusters. This will give you the ability to challenge the insurance company if it tries to deny your claim.

Look for cracks, dents, and holes in siding. Because there are many types of siding, the effects of hail damage will be seen in different ways. On vinyl siding, hail will not usually leave dents. That is the good news. A strong hail storm can hammer at the vinyl. If the siding is several years old, it will have lost some of its pliability.

When the hail strikes, it can crack the siding. While this is rare on new siding, it becomes more likely on older siding. You should be able to see the cracks. They are generally nearer to the bottom than the top of the wall because the eave of the house offers some protection higher up. If the strikes are severe enough, it will knock holes in the siding.

Metal and wood siding will develop dents. The type of dents that you will see on these types of siding depends on the size of the hail stones and the angle of impact. It will often require hail nearing the size of golf balls to do substantial damage to siding. If the hail strikes the wall from a flatter angle as they would in a strong wind, the dents will be almost circular like a hammer strike.

For impacts from hail stones falling more straight downward, the dents will be more oval in appearance. You can tell that they are hail because of the number of dents, and they will be mostly along the same level of the siding and downward. On wood siding the dents will crack the paint surface, too.

Shingles are the big loss when hail comes to visit you.

Siding usually survives all but the very worst storms. Roofs, on the other hand, get pummeled every storm. When the hail is above 1/2 inch in diameter or comes with a lot of force, most asphalt and fiberglass shingled roofs will need to be replaced. You almost always have to get on the roof to be sure of hail damage. There are times when a year has to go by before the damage is clear to see for anyone but very experienced professionals.

Look for dents, cracked flaps, and missing granules.

The first thing to notice on the roof would be dents. If you see these here and there all over the roof, you have a definite call of hail damage. Dents are often masked by the granules on the shingles. This makes them very hard to see. Look at the top edge of the flaps for cracks. Hail can weaken the flaps, and the wind will cause them to crack. If there are many areas of the roof that have lost a lot of granules, it is frequently caused by hail. This is especially true if the roof is not extremely old.

On older roofs, enough granules are usually gone to allow you to see dents easier. A major hail this year may not cause the loss of granules until next year. This storm will loosen them, and it takes a while for them to completely let go. If you see cracks, dents, and missing granules, you have had a really bad storm and sustained a lot of damage.

To find out more about what you should do when you discover hail damage on your home, go to link to our website in our resource box for a list of 20 short articles that will answer all your questions and prepare you to make an intelligent decision in regards to approaching your Insurance Claim inspector.