How Hail Damages your Roof, What to look out for
A hail storm rolled into Houston a few weeks back, and many homeowners breathed a sigh of relief when they did a quick ‘spot check’ of their roof and didn’t see anything wrong.
Before you celebrate, it’s important to understand that just because YOU can’t see any damage to your roof – it doesn’t mean that hail hasn’t affected it.
While there are obvious signs of hail damage including smashed windows, dented cars, and fresh hail laying on the driveway, a damaged roof as a result of hail can be difficult to spot and go unnoticed until it’s too late.
How To Determine How Badly Hail May Have Affected Your Roof:
The total damage of a hail storm on your roof is dependent on a variety of factors, including:
- The material of the roof
- Size of the hail
- The duration of the hail storm
- Wind direction & speed
- Age of materials used on the roof
The more severe the hail storm, the more underlying damage there is likely to be. However, even the smallest of storms will impact the overall structural integrity of your roof, causing both cosmetic and functional damage.
Even the smallest amount of damage may result in something much more serious down the line, perhaps causing watertight issues, slipped tiles, or cracks in the shingles.
3 Ways Hail Can Damage Your Roof:
There are a number of ways that hail can damage your roof including:
- Causing cracks in the shingles
- Granule loss
- Damaging/exposing fiberglass
Cracks In Your Roof Shingles
Roof shingles are responsible for creating a watertight & wind resistance cover to protect your roof from environmental damage. These shingles are available in a variety of different materials including clay, wood, metal, slate, and asphalt.
Hard hail, or light hail over-time, can be responsible for causing cracks in these shingles – reducing the weather tightness of your roof, allowing wind to get under the slates, and thus causing further structural problems.
The quicker you can repair these shingles the better, reducing the overall cost of what could be an entirely destroyed roof.
Granule Loss:
Secondly, granule loss is also often evident as a result of strong hail. Granules are also a part of the shingle, often with a sandpaper like coating. When the shingle loses this coating, the weather then causes the shingle to age much quicker – damaging your roof and making it more susceptible to further environmental damage, including wind.
Damaging and Exposing Fiberglass:
Finally, fiberglass is becoming a popular option for roofs, being cost-effective and strong. This choice of material is especially popular for flat roofs of flat segments of roofs, especially on commercial buildings.
However, hail damage can weaken and expose this fiberglass causing the mats underneath to breakaway. This too, can lead to further environmental damage and a large roofing bill, if not dealt with straight away.
How to spot hail damage on your roof
After a hail storm, you want to investigate your roof as soon as it’s safe to do so.
The tricky thing is that we’re sometimes unaware that it’s even hailed – especially if it happens overnight. By the time you wake up or leave work, the obvious signs that it’s hailed (like seeing hail on the ground) are long gone.
One way to identify roof damage from hail, is by examining any metal damage. Roofs can be manufactured from a number of different metals including steel, aluminum, stainless steel, copper, and zinc alloys.
Metal is often easy to spot hail damage, with this leaving fresh marks on the roof and in some cases, especially in heavy storms, actually denting the roof itself.
In some cases, shingle damage can be easy to spot. Look for any potential bruising and/or cracking. If possible, you should (safely) get up on the roof yourself with a ladder and try investigating the guttering for any signs of damage or broken shingles.
Again, safety is key here. It’s best to leave roofing inspections to the professionals to prevent causing any additional damage to your roof or worse, yourself.
How Do You Know if You Need a Roof Inspection / Assessment:
Just because there isn’t a gaping hole in your roof right now doesn’t mean that your roof isn’t damaged. Determining whether the storm was bad enough to cause any damage is the key.
Here are a few things to look out for:
- Dents on Cars
- Damaged items on your house (think ornaments, lights, flower pots)
- A large pile of granulates at the end of your downspout
- Smashed glass
- Beading on windows
- Rips/Tears in window screens
- Fallen debris on your roof
- Clogged gutters – either from hail itself or damaged parts of the roof like shingles or asphalt
If the hail was able to cause any of the above damages, it’s safe to say your roof could be damaged too – even if you can’t see it.