How to tell if hail damaged your roof

The adjuster who inspects your roof is hired and paid by the insurance company.

They stand in the driveway, look up at the slope, and ask a question you have no reason to know the answer to: this looks like wear and tear to me — which of these marks is hail?

That question is the whole claim. Knowing which mark is hail, documenting it, and defending it when the answer is challenged is what a licensed public adjuster does.

Two things worth knowing before you call. Your deductible is yours to pay on any claim, whether or not you have help with it. And the fee for that help is set in writing before any work begins.

Mostly, you can't — not from the ground, and that is the honest starting point. Hail damage to a roof covering is rarely visible from a driveway, and it almost never announces itself with a leak until long after the claim window has closed. What you can do today is check the evidence hail leaves everywhere else, and then decide whether the roof itself is worth a documented look.

Three checks you can make without a ladder

Start with soft metal. Gutters, downspouts, the metal wraps around windows, vents, flashing and the fins on an air conditioning condenser all register hail strikes before anything shows on a covering — and metal cannot weather into a dent. Dents there are proof a storm hit your property hard enough to matter.

Then look at your street. Hail falls in swaths, not on single houses, so neighbours going under scaffolding after the same storm is the strongest free signal available that your roof was under the same hail.

Then check the public record. The National Weather Service logs storm reports by date, time, size and location, so whether damaging hail was recorded near your address on a given day is a matter of record, not memory.

Why the roof itself is a different question

What hail does to a covering is mostly not visible at a glance, and reading it correctly is trained work: the same mark can be a strike, a blister, or ordinary ageing, and carriers argue about exactly that distinction on real claims every day.

This page is deliberately not a checklist for climbing up and judging it yourself. Partly because roofs are dangerous, and partly because an untrained walk can add scuffs and broken granules that a carrier later reads as foot traffic — mechanical damage is a standard reason claims are denied, and you do not want to have created the evidence for it.

There is also a harder truth underneath: your own opinion of your roof, however careful, carries no weight in a claim. What counts is documentation that stands up when it is challenged — photographs tied to elevations, measurements, and a record made by someone whose findings a carrier has to answer.

What to do if the ground-level evidence is there

Get the roof documented before anyone works on it. An inspection is not a claim — it costs you nothing on your claim history and tells you whether there is something worth filing. You decide what happens after, with facts instead of a guess.

Order matters more than speed. The first documented inspection becomes the baseline the whole claim is argued against, and a roof that has already been repaired is a roof nobody can assess. If you do file, the proof of loss pauses the limitation clock while the carrier reviews (215 ILCS 5/143.1).

The adjuster the insurance company sends will make this same judgment about your roof — and that adjuster is hired and paid by the insurance company. Having the damage independently documented first, by someone licensed to defend the documentation, is what keeps their reading from being the only one on file.

Your claim clock

Illinois sets no statutory deadline for filing. The limit is your policy's suit limitation clause, commonly about one year from the date of loss, and your policy's terms control. Under 215 ILCS 5/143.1 that period is suspended between your proof of loss and a formal denial.

Common questions

My roof isn't leaking. Doesn't that mean the hail didn't damage it?

No. Hail damage usually shortens a covering's life rather than opening a hole — it knocks granules loose and weakens the mat, and the leak arrives months or years later, often after the policy's limitation period has run. Waiting for a leak is waiting past your deadline.

Can I just check the shingles myself with a ladder or binoculars?

The useful self-check is the one at ground level — the soft metal. Judging the covering itself is trained work that carriers dispute even between professionals, an untrained walk can add marks a carrier later reads as foot traffic, and your own reading carries no weight in a claim regardless of how careful it was. Documentation is the thing that counts, not observation.

My neighbours are getting new roofs. Should I do something?

Yes, and reasonably soon. Hail falls across an area, so homes near you being re-roofed after the same storm is strong evidence your roof took the same hail. It is also a time-limited signal — your claim window runs regardless of what anyone else on the street is doing.

Does getting an inspection commit me to filing a claim?

No. An inspection is not a claim and appears nowhere on your claim history. It tells you whether there is real damage and roughly what it amounts to, and the decision to file stays yours, made with facts rather than a guess.

Prefer not to call? Text 847-208-8380 or email tom.jtpa@gmail.com

Hail claim help by county: Cook County · DuPage County · Kane County · Lake County · McHenry County · Will County

Start here: Hail damage: start here

Sources: Where these statements come from

Call 847-208-8380