Hail Damage Inspection: What to Check and Document After a Storm

Published September 15, 2026

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Hail damage isn't always dramatic. Sometimes it's obvious — cracked window screens, dented siding, a car in the driveway with a fresh case of golf-ball dimples. Other times it's subtle bruising on the shingles themselves, the kind that's genuinely easy to miss from the ground and doesn't show up as a leak until months later. A useful habit after any hailstorm that produced stones larger than pea-size: do a deliberate walk-around within a day or two, while the storm's date and details are still fresh, rather than waiting until something inside the house tips you off.

Things worth checking after a hail storm, roughly in the order most people can actually see them from the ground:

• Gutters and downspouts for dents, which are often the most visible sign of hail impact even when the roof itself looks fine from below — soft aluminum gutters bruise more visibly than shingles do, so dented gutters are a reasonable prompt to look closer at the roof.
• Soft metal surfaces like vent covers, roof-mounted plumbing stacks, flashing, and any AC condenser unit's fins, which dent more easily than shingles and can be an early, easy-to-photograph clue that the storm was significant enough to be worth a roof inspection.
• Window and door screens for tears or punctures, and window/door trim for small dings — another soft-material indicator that's easier to spot than shingle damage.
• Siding for cracks, divots, or a chalky/lighter-colored mark left behind, especially on the side of the house the storm came from — wind-driven hail usually damages one or two exposures much more than the others.
• The roof itself, from the ground with binoculars — look for a scattering of dark spots or bruised-looking patches on the shingles, especially near the top of slopes and ridge lines where hail tends to hit hardest.
• Any exposed wood trim, fascia, or fencing, which can show hail marks even more clearly than shingles do since bare or painted wood doesn't have granules to absorb and hide the impact.

A rough size reference helps when you're describing what you saw: pea-size hail (about 1/4"-1/3") rarely causes real damage, quarter-size (about 1") starts to be a genuine concern for roofing and siding, and golf-ball-size (about 1 3/4") or larger is a near-certain roof inspection situation. Note the date, approximate hail size, and wind direction if you remember it — that context is useful no matter who ends up looking at the roof.

If you see any of the signs above, photograph it as soon as it's safe to do so, and keep those photos with the storm's date. Having that documentation ready is useful whether or not you end up filing a claim. From there, an inspection is the only reliable way to know whether the roof itself needs repair or replacement — we'll walk the property, check the shingles up close rather than just from the ground, and tell you plainly what we find and what it means for the roof's remaining life.

One thing worth knowing going in: hail damage to shingles is often functional rather than obviously cosmetic — a bruise can compromise the shingle's waterproofing and shorten its remaining life significantly without ever looking like much from a distance. That's a big part of why a ground-level look is a starting point, not the final word, and why an up-close inspection matters even when the roof "looks fine" from the driveway.

Timing matters too. Hail damage doesn't always leak right away — it's common for a bruised roof to hold up fine through the next few rains and only start leaking months later, once the compromised spot has weathered further or a follow-up wind event finishes the job. That gap is exactly why a prompt inspection after a significant hailstorm is worth doing even if nothing's dripping yet, rather than waiting to see if a leak eventually shows up on its own.