After a hailstorm moves through St. Louis, two things happen. Some roofs are genuinely finished and the owners have no idea. And a lot of doors get knocked by people telling owners of perfectly sound roofs that they need a replacement today.
Both problems come from the same fact: you cannot assess hail damage from the ground, and most homeowners have no way to judge who is telling the truth. Here is what actually matters.
What hail does to an asphalt shingle
A shingle is a mat with an asphalt coating and a layer of granules on top. The granules are not decoration. They are the sunscreen. They take the UV so the asphalt underneath does not dry out and go brittle.
When a hailstone hits hard enough, it knocks granules loose and bruises the mat underneath. The bruise is the important part. It is a soft spot where the mat has been fractured, and it will fail years before the rest of the roof does. Water gets in through it long after the storm is forgotten.
This is why a hail damaged roof frequently looks completely normal from your driveway. The damage is a change in the surface, not a hole.
What real hail damage looks like up close
- Random, scattered impact marks with no pattern. Hail does not fall in rows.
- Dark spots where granules have been knocked away, exposing the asphalt.
- A bruise that feels soft when pressed, like a fresh dent in drywall.
- Damage on the soft metals first. Gutters, downspouts, vents, flashing and any aluminium fascia will dent before shingles show much. So will a grill lid, an air conditioner fin, or a mailbox.
- Granules collected in the bottom of downspouts and at the base of the splash blocks.
That last one is the check a homeowner can actually do safely. Go look in your gutters and at the bottom of your downspouts. Some granule loss is normal, especially on a new roof. A meaningful pile after a specific storm is worth an inspection.
What is not hail damage
Plenty of what gets sold as hail damage is something else.
- Black streaking. That is algae. It grows on shaded, damp slopes and it is cosmetic. It is not storm damage and an insurer will not pay for it.
- Normal granule loss on an old roof. A twenty year old roof sheds granules because it is twenty years old. That is age, not a claim.
- Blistering. Small raised bubbles that pop and look like impact marks. They come from moisture in the shingle and poor attic ventilation, not from hail. Telling them apart matters, because one is a claim and the other is a ventilation problem that a new roof alone will not fix.
- Manufacturing defects. Uniform, patterned or aligned marks are not hail. Hail is random.
- Foot traffic. Scuffs in a line across a slope are usually somebody walking it, sometimes the person who just told you it was hail.
The door knocker problem
After any significant storm in this region, crews arrive from out of state, work the neighbourhoods hardest hit, and move on. Some are fine. Some are not, and by the time the workmanship shows there is nobody local to call.
You do not need to be suspicious of everyone. You do need to ask two questions of anyone who knocks:
- Where is your office, and can I drive to it?
- Who do I call in three years if this leaks, and will that company still exist?
Ask us the same questions. Our office is at 6020 Weldon Spring Pkwy and you are welcome to come by.
Two other things worth knowing. Nobody should be pressuring you to sign on the spot, and any offer to cover, waive or absorb your insurance deductible is a proposal to misrepresent the job cost to your insurer. Your name is on that policy, not theirs.
Should you climb up and look yourself?
No. Roofs are the leading cause of serious falls around a house, hail damage assessment is genuinely hard to do correctly, and walking a damaged roof can make it worse.
Do the ground level checks instead. Look at the gutters and downspouts for granules. Look at the soft metal: gutters, vents, flashing, the air conditioner fins. Look at painted surfaces and window screens on the side the storm came from. If any of that is dented, the roof took the same hits.
What to do if you think you have damage
- Get a free inspection before you call your insurer. A claim that gets denied or lands under your deductible still happened.
- Get it documented with photographs, slope by slope.
- Find your deductible, and check whether you have a separate wind and hail deductible, which is often a percentage rather than a flat amount.
- If it is worth filing, file, and have your roofer meet the adjuster on the roof.
We walk through all of that in our guide to how a roof insurance claim actually works.
Get it looked at
A free roof inspection costs you nothing and settles the question. If your roof is fine we will tell you it is fine. If it is not, you will get photographs of what we found and a straight answer about whether it is worth a claim.
Call 636-730-0405, or read more about hail damage roof repair across Greater St. Louis.