Steps for investigating roof damage due to hail storm

Roofers will be leaving notes on your door shortly. See what unfolds around you. Go from there.

Step 1, and don't get caught.

I filed a claim with Farm Bureau first, they inspected, and then I had a contractor look at it and I submitted the bid to FB. No fkn way would I allow a contractor to deal with my insurance co nor would I call the contractor first, nor let any of the storm chasers on my property. Close to 100% are half-assing crooks.

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No way I'm waiting on others. Not all will have the same situation.

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Smaller hail, if it causes damage, can take up to 6 months to show via heating and cooling cycle of the roof and rain

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Not sure about USAA but with State Farm, I can call them and have them send someone out to inspect the roof at any time for no cost.

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This is what I would do first, contact your agent and have them send someone to inspect

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Pull a bunch of shingles too.

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One hail of a storm.

Location?

Most hail storms in southern Louisiana don’t produce enough damage to render a new roof. Most roofers will just say yes you have hail damage and roll the dice to see what insurance will say. Be careful with that because if you have discounts, insurance may void the discounts due to making a claim.

If you want to check if you have damage, check your soft metals. Vents, turbines, gutters, shutters, etc.

Just because you may see marks on your roof where hail hit doesn’t mean you have damage. Most of the time the hail basically hit your roof and knocked the algae off and that’s what you’re seeing.

In 4 years of business, I’ve filed 1 hail claim for a homeowner.

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I can't recall the steps I took back then to initiate the process. Is there an order of process here that one should follow to get the best result, whatever that may be?

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I'm in this business and this is what I do every day.

First step would be to call a reputable roofing company to have it inspected. An honest roofer is going to get on your roof and inspect everything and tell you if you have damage or not. I would never hire someone who doesn't get on your roof. They are just there to try and get the job and probably just a salesman that has no idea what they are looking at anyway. If your roofer tells you you don't have damage, don't file a claim, you might have a no claim discount going right now and you don't even know it. You could lose out on that discount.

If your roofer tells you you have damage, you can file a claim. You can do it online or on the USAA app. Your agent can file it for you as well but they'll sometimes try and talk you out of it. Your agent has nothing to do with your claim so they don't need to be involved.

That size hail on a 10 year old roof probably isn't causing much damage. If you have a 3 tab shingle you are more likely to have damage.

If it was a big enough storm for USAA to bring in outside/cat team adjusters, most likely your roof is getting paid for. They make money by paying for your roof, a local adjuster doesn't. USAA is typically one of the better insurance companies to work with and treat their homeowners good, just more often than not they have the highest deductibles.

Do not hire a roofer that doesn't know how to work with your insurance. Make sure they replace all of your soft metals (turbines, pipe boots, vents, etc.) and put drip edge on. If they aren't doing that, then they are just being cheap and trying to pocket more money. You should never have to pay for drip edge, it's a code item, if the insurance didn't pay for it, your roofer should know how to supplement the insurance. Again, if he doesn't, he's probably not the roofer you need to be using.

If you have a chimney, I'd suggest new chimney flashing. Replacing a roof and not replacing chimney flashing is often times a leak waiting to happen.

Don't sign a contract with a roofer the first day he shows up. If he is trying to get you to sign a contract right away, that is another red flag.