Most people in St. Louis go through a roof insurance claim once, maybe twice, in the whole time they own a house. The contractor knocking on your door after a storm has been through hundreds. That gap is where homeowners get talked into claims they should not file, and talked out of money they were owed.
Here is how the process actually runs, in order, including the parts nobody tells you.
Before you call your insurer, get the roof looked at
This is the step people skip. Once you file, the claim exists on your record whether or not it gets paid, and a denied claim or one that comes in under your deductible does nothing for you.
Have a roofer inspect the roof first and tell you two things: whether there is storm damage, and roughly whether it is likely to exceed your deductible. If the answer to either is no, you have lost nothing by asking. We inspect free and we will tell you when the honest answer is that your roof is fine. That is not a sales tactic, it is that we would rather you call us in four years for the real replacement than resent us for a claim that went nowhere.
Know your deductible before anything else
Pull out your policy and find two numbers. The first is your deductible. The second is whether you have a separate wind and hail deductible, which is often a percentage of your dwelling coverage rather than a flat dollar amount. A 1% or 2% wind and hail deductible on a well insured house is a much larger number than people expect, and it changes the whole calculation.
Also check whether your policy pays actual cash value or replacement cost. That single line is the difference between getting depreciation back and eating it.
Actual cash value versus replacement cost
On a replacement cost policy the insurer initially pays the depreciated value of the roof, then releases the rest, the recoverable depreciation, once the work is finished and invoiced. That means the first check is not the whole settlement, and a lot of homeowners think they got shortchanged when they simply have not been paid the second part yet.
On an actual cash value policy, depreciation is not recoverable. What you get is what you get. Older roofs on ACV policies often do not make financial sense to claim.
File the claim
Call your insurer or file online. Have the date of the storm if you know it, and describe what was found rather than what you fear. You will be assigned a claim number and an adjuster.
Do not sit on this. Policies have notice requirements and they are often shorter than people assume. Check yours rather than trusting a rule of thumb.
Meet the adjuster on the roof
This is the single step that most affects what you get paid, and most homeowners let it happen without them.
An adjuster is covering a lot of properties, often after a regional storm event. Working alone, they scope what they can see and reach. If your damage sits on a slope that is awkward to access, or the hail hit one elevation harder than the others, it can be missed. Not out of bad faith, just volume.
We meet adjusters on site. We walk the roof with them, show what we documented, and make the case for the full scope rather than the two slopes that were easiest to get to. That is a normal, expected part of the process and a good adjuster does not mind it.
Read the scope of loss
You will get an itemised estimate from the insurer. Read it. Common gaps are ventilation, flashing, drip edge, ice and water barrier where code requires it, and the disposal and permit line items. If the scope pays for shingles but not for the things that make shingles work, the job cannot be done correctly for that money.
Where a scope is short, the fix is a supplement: a documented request for the missing items, with photographs and code references. That is a normal part of claims work, not a fight.
Two things to be careful about
Do not sign anything that assigns your claim to a contractor until you understand exactly what it does. An assignment of benefits hands your rights under the policy to someone else. There are legitimate uses. There are also companies that use it to lock you in before you have had a second opinion.
Be wary of an offer to cover your deductible. A contractor who offers to eat it, waive it, or bury it in the invoice is proposing to misrepresent the cost of the job to your insurer. That is not a favour to you. It is fraud, and you are the policyholder whose name is on it.
The work, then the final payment
Once the scope is agreed, the work gets scheduled. On a replacement cost policy the recoverable depreciation is released after completion, usually on receipt of a final invoice and sometimes a certificate of completion. Keep every document. If you have a mortgage, your lender may be named on the check and will have its own release process, which adds time.
What we do and do not do
We inspect and document at no charge. We meet your adjuster. We prepare supplements where the scope is short. We do the work and we invoice it accurately.
We are not public adjusters and we do not negotiate your claim for you, because in Missouri that is a licensed activity and roofers who blur that line are doing you no favours. If your claim needs that kind of representation we will tell you.
If you think you have storm damage
Call 636-730-0405 and we will come look. Free, no obligation, and a straight answer either way. You can also read more about our insurance claim help, hail damage repair and storm damage repair.
This is general information about how roof insurance claims usually work, not legal or insurance advice. Your policy governs. Read it, and ask your insurer when something is unclear.