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Checking a roof after a storm, from the ground

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The most useful hail evidence is at eye level, and the biggest risk in the days after a storm is not the weather.

A storm goes through. The roof may or may not be damaged, and within a day or two there will be people at the door with an opinion about it. The way to stay in control of this is to establish what you are actually looking at, and most of that can be done without leaving the ground.

Wind: what to look for

Wind damage is generally visible from below with binoculars.

Missing shingles are obvious — a dark rectangle in the pattern. Note whether they form a line along an edge (the rake, the ridge, the eave), which means wind got underneath and peeled, or are scattered, which is more random.

Lifted or displaced shingles that are still attached but sitting at the wrong angle, or with a visible shadow line under the edge.

Debris impacts — a branch strike will usually leave a mark you can see.

And the one you cannot see, which is why roofs appear to fail weeks later: broken seal strips. Shingles bond to the course below with an adhesive strip. Wind can break that bond without removing the shingle, leaving it looking perfect and no longer attached. Those go in the next moderate wind. If a storm took shingles off one area, the ones around them are suspect even though they look fine.

Hail: look at the metal, not the roof

This is the most useful thing on this page. Hail damage to asphalt shingles is often a bruise — the mat crushed and the granules dislodged in a small circular spot — rather than a hole. It is genuinely hard to identify from the ground and not much easier from a ladder unless you know what you are feeling for.

The secondary evidence is far easier and it is all at eye level. Hail that is big enough to hurt a roof will also dent soft metal around the property:

  • Gutters and downspouts, especially the flat faces
  • Vent caps, flashing, the metal on a chimney
  • Air conditioner fins
  • Window screens and their frames
  • The grill, the mailbox, the car

If several of those are dented, the roof took the same impacts. If none of them are marked, significant roof hail damage is much less likely. That inference lets you skip the roof entirely in the assessment stage, which is the point.

Also look for a sudden heavy deposit of granules in the gutters and at the base of the downspouts — hail knocks granules off in quantity, and finding a fresh layer after a storm is meaningful.

Structure: the one that is not about the covering

Separately from the shingles, look at the lines of the roof. A ridge that has developed a dip, a slope that is no longer flat, a visible sag between rafters — after heavy snow, a large limb strike, or high wind.

That is a structural question, not a roofing one, and the person who answers it is a licensed structural engineer rather than a contractor. We are deliberate about that line: a contractor can tell you what a repair would involve, but an independent assessment of whether a structure is compromised should come from somebody who is not quoting for the work.

Document it now

Photographs, from several angles, with the date. Note what the weather actually did — wind direction, whether there was hail and roughly what size, what time. Photograph the dented gutter, the dented screen, the hail on the ground if it is still there. Keep anything that blew off.

This costs nothing and it is worth a great deal later, because the evidence disappears within days.

The people who arrive afterwards

Storm damage attracts a specific kind of business: crews who follow weather, work an area hard for a few weeks and move on. Some are legitimate operations working where the work is. Others are not, and the pattern is recognizable:

  • They approach you rather than the other way round.
  • There is time pressure — a price good today only, a crew in the area this week.
  • They offer to get on the roof immediately to inspect it, free.
  • They want a signature on something before any work is specified.
  • They are not local and cannot show a local licence or established address.

None of that is illegal and not all of it is dishonest, but a damaged roof does not require a same-day decision from you. The things you can check — licensing, insurance, a physical local address, references from work done more than a year ago — take a couple of days and they are the whole defence.

Two things this page will not do

We do not discuss insurance. Not coverage, not claims, not adjusters, not depreciation. In the US that intersection is a regulated business with licensed professionals in it, and a site that does not know your policy or your state has no useful opinion. We stay with what the roof is doing.

We do not tell you to go up. After a storm, a roof may have lifted shingles, hidden damage and debris on it, and the weather is often still poor. It is the worst possible moment to be up there, and — as this page has tried to show — almost everything worth knowing at this stage is visible from the ground.

Frequently asked questions

How can I tell if I have hail damage?

Look at the soft metal around the property rather than at the roof: gutters, downspouts, vent caps, AC fins, window screens, the car. Hail big enough to damage shingles dents those too, and if none of them are marked, significant roof damage is much less likely.

Why did more shingles come off a month after the storm?

Because wind breaks the adhesive seal on shingles it does not remove. They look completely normal and are no longer bonded, so the next moderate gust takes them. It is the same storm producing damage on a delay.

Someone knocked on my door offering a free roof inspection. Should I let them up?

A damaged roof does not require a same-day decision. The checks that matter are licensing, insurance, a physical local address and references from work done over a year ago, and they take a couple of days. Time pressure is itself a warning sign.

My roof line looks like it is sagging. Who do I call?

A licensed structural engineer, not a roofing contractor. That is a structural question rather than a covering question, and an assessment of whether a structure is compromised is better coming from somebody who is not quoting for the repair.

What should I photograph?

Everything, from several angles, with the date: the roof from the ground, dented gutters and screens, hail on the ground if it is still there, anything that blew off, and a note of wind direction and time. The evidence disappears within days.

Sources

What this page explains is based on these official sources. If you check one and it does not match what you read here, send it to us and the article gets corrected.

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