How to tell hail damage from normal wear, from the ground

The morning after a hailstorm, the phones ring and the doorbells ring. Some of the people at the door are roofers from out of state who will be gone by the time your warranty matters. Before you talk to any of them, including us, it helps to have your own idea of whether your roof was hit.

You can get most of the way there without climbing a ladder. Hail leaves marks on everything around the roof, and those are much easier to see than bruises on a shingle 25 feet up.

First: stay off the roof

Hail-damaged shingles are slippery when wet and easy to damage further when walked on, and a fall is far more expensive than any roof. Everything below can be done from the ground, a window or a stepladder next to a downspout.

Start with the soft metals

Aluminium and thin steel dent at hail sizes that damage shingles, and they keep the dent. Walk round the house and check, in this order:

• Downspouts and gutters. Round dents along the top edge of the gutter and down the face of the downspouts.
• Roof vents and caps you can see from the ground, especially the metal hoods on bathroom and kitchen fans.
• Air conditioner fins. The thin fins on the outdoor unit flatten in patches where hail hit them.
• Mailbox, grill lid, window screens and painted wood trim. Screens tear, and paint chips off in round spots.

Measure the biggest clean dent with a coin or a ruler. It tells you roughly how large the hail was, and hail size is the best single predictor of roof damage.

What each hail size usually does

Hail sizes and the damage they usually cause to asphalt shingle roofs

Hail size	Diameter	Usual effect on asphalt shingle
Pea	¼ in	No damage to a sound roof
Marble	½ in	Granules knocked loose on old, brittle shingles
Quarter	1 in	Bruising likely on shingles over 10 years old
Walnut	1½ in	Bruising and cracked mat on most shingles
Golf ball	1¾ in	Damage on nearly every roof; dents in steel
Tennis ball	2½ in	Punctures, broken tiles and skylights

Class 4 impact-rated shingles and standing seam steel hold up far better at the middle sizes. The June 18 storm in Kestrel Heights produced hail up to golf-ball size, and it was the 1¾ inch dents in the gutters that told us, before we went up, which streets needed full inspections.

Hail or ordinary wear?

From the ground, with binoculars or a phone zoomed in, you can often see the difference. It comes down to pattern.

How hail damage differs from normal shingle wear

Sign	Hail	Normal wear
Pattern	Random dark spots, on the slopes that faced the storm	Even wear, worst on south and west slopes
Shape	Round marks with soft edges	Cracks, curls and blisters along the tabs
Granules	Sudden pile in the downspouts the day after	A steady trickle over years
Around the roof	Dented gutters, torn screens, chipped paint	Nothing else damaged
Timing	You can name the storm	It crept up

What to photograph

Photos taken on the day are the best evidence your claim will ever have. Date-stamped phone photos are fine.

1. Hailstones on the ground next to a coin or ruler, as soon after the storm as you can
2. The biggest dents in gutters, downspouts and vents, with a coin for scale
3. Every slope you can see, from the same spots, zoomed in
4. Granules piled at the downspout outlets
5. Any water stains inside, and the ceiling above them
6. Damage to screens, siding, cars and outdoor furniture

What to do next

If water is coming in, put a bucket under it, move what you can, and call a roofer to tarp the opening. Then open a claim with your insurer and write down the claim number. If you see dents in soft metals of an inch or more, book a proper inspection even if the roof looks fine from the ground: bruised shingles often look normal for months until the mat underneath starts to crack.

When we inspect after a storm, we chalk a 10 by 10 foot test square on each slope that faced the storm and count the hits inside it. Many adjusters look for around eight to ten hits per test square before they consider a slope for replacement, so a clear, photographed count on every slope is what makes a claim straightforward.