How to Detect Roof Hail Damage

Spring has arrived once again bringing rain, thunderstorms and even hailstorms to all areas. It is this time of year that insurance claims for hail damage are more prevalent than any other time of the year. It is estimated that every year hail damage to residential homes costs more then $1.6 billion, year in and year out making it one of the costliest natural disasters. After a hailstorm it can be hard to detect any damages to roof shingles, it is recommended that you look at the vents and gutter downspouts to detect possible damage. It is important that after a heavy rainstorm, or any hailstorm, that you take a walk around your house and look for any signs of possible damage to you shingles and roof in general.

Steps to Detect Roof Hail Damage:

1. Check around the downspouts. Hail damage is when hail strikes the shingles of a roof with such impact that it degrades the shingles. In most cases, an untrained eye can’t see the damage. If you suspect damage but are unable to visually see any damage call our experts at Belle Roofing, and we will send out one of our roofing experts to assist you. If you have asphalt shingles on your home you will want to check around the downspouts for excessive tile granules.

2. Inspect your roof for possible leaks. Hail damage is not always visual from the outside you could possibly have internal damage to your roof such as leaks. Many times than not hail damage is not detected immediately causing headaches for homeowners. Leaks do not always appear right after a hailstorm but develop slowly over time due to hail damage. As damaged shingles degrade your roof may begin to leak. Inspect your interior ceiling after heavy rains and any hailstorm for any apparent water damage. Over time leaks, if undetected, can cause thousands of dollars in damages for homeowners.

3. Inspect your roof. If POSSIBLE you might want to get on top of your roof and take a walk around, inspecting your roof for any possible signs of hail damage. Of course, not all homeowners have the option or the desire to inspect their owns roofs. In this case Belle Roofing will happily send out one of our trained roofing specialist to inspect your roof for any possible damages for you.

4. Take action. Once you have followed the above steps you need to contact you insurance provider to possibly file a claim and to see what options you as a homeowner might have for repairing your damaged roof.

Please feel free to contact us at Belle Roofing for any questions that you may have regarding any possible damages to your roof. One of our roofing experts will come out to your residence to answer any questions, inspect your roof, and let you know what options are available to you.

Hail Storm?

When hail storms come thundering along, they mean trouble of a particular kind for your roof. No roofing system is hail-proof. But there are roofing materials with hail-resistance ratings. These are provided by the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM).

You can choose a material rated one through four (four being most resistant.) They achieve this rating by dropping a steel ball from a predetermined height onto the roofing material and determining the damage.

Many roofs carry this rating. For steep slope, these roofs include some metal roofs, some tile and some composition shingles. For flat roofs, these are some gravel-surfaced built-up, and some spray foam (with the right coating system), and just a few others.

Installing a Class IV hail resistant roof may qualify you for lower insurance premiums, depending on where you live. Call your agent for verification. Keep this in mind, too: not many agents and adjusters will know the specifics about hail resistant roofs. Consult either a good roofing contractor or your local roofing supply warehouse.

Since World War II scientists have tried many techniques to lessen the damage from hail storms. The most well-known technique involved "seeding" large thunderstorms with silver iodide. The theory was that the resulting small hail would probably melt and therefore not cause any damage. Unfortunately other experiments using this technique were not successful, and hail suppression remains elusive.

Another novel technique to supress hail was recently installed in a company parking lot by an auto manufacturer trying to protect its inventory of newly painted cars. Under certain thunderstorm conditions detected by the company's own radars, a cannon-like device will send sonic waves up to 50,000 feet in the air to keep hailstones from forming. Now they must wait for a hailstorm to pass over the parking lot to test the device!

Hail-Resistant Roof Options

As winter temperatures begin to fade, increasingly higher temperatures begin to take over bringing spring storms with them. Every year thousands of homeowners suffer damages to their roofs from storms causing them serious headaches. One of the major contributors of roof damage when dealing with spring storms is hail.

Strong to moderate hailstorms can cause damages to a roof. The difficult part to assessing damages to your roof after a hailstorm is that you may not be able to see the damages right away. Different types of materials will experience different types of damages.

There isn’t anything such as a ‘hail-proof’ roof, but there are some types of roofing materials that can be labeled ‘hail-resistant’ that may reduce the amount of damage inflicted to a roof. In general, clay tile and wood roofs are not likely to survive many hailstorms unscathed. Concrete tile, composite shingles and metal roofs are more likely to endure hail with minimal or no damage. If you are interested in a ‘hail-resistant’ roofing system a Belle Roofing specialist can advise you on what is available for your home.

Composite shingles are designed to protect your roof from water by using a tar/asphalt layer covered by gravel and granules that protect the tar from the UV rays of the sun. This means that hail can cause future damage to a roof by dislodging the granules on the surface of shingles. Over time it is important that you track any damages to your shingles by looking for granules in gutters of your roof and by giving your roof a general inspection from time to time after large storms.

The good news is that most damage from hailstorms is cosmetic and won’t adversely affect the life of the roof. If you have any questions or suspect that you may have damages your roof it is best that you don’t wait and contact or roofing experts at Belle Roofing.