Signs of storm damage

Some storm damage is obvious. The kind that causes expensive problems usually is not.

• Missing shingles or lifted shingles, including shingles that look fine but have had the seal strip broken by wind, which is why they blow off in the next storm rather than this one
• Creased shingles, a crease line across the shingle where the wind folded it back and it dropped again
• Hail bruising, soft dark spots where granules have been knocked off and the mat underneath is exposed
• Damaged flashing, bent, lifted or torn at chimneys, sidewalls and valleys
• Dented gutters and downspouts, often the easiest hail evidence to see from the ground
• Granules at the downspout outlets, a sign the shingle surface has taken a beating
• A fallen tree or limbs, which can puncture, or can simply scrape a slope clean of granules

Ice is the other seasonal one. A winter storm that leaves an ice dam at the eaves can back water under the covering and do damage that only shows up as a stain weeks later, long after anyone connects it to the storm.

Wind damage in particular tends to be under-reported, because a broken seal strip looks like nothing at all from the driveway and only announces itself months later.

Storm damage across Albany and the Capital Region

Wind, hail and ice all reach this area, and a storm that tracks across Albany, Troy or Schenectady rarely damages every roof in the same way. Two houses on the same street can come out of the same storm with completely different damage depending on roof age, orientation and what was upwind of them.

Our storm damage inspection

We go over the roof slope by slope, the flashing and penetrations, the gutter line, and the attic side where we can get access, because daylight or damp decking tells you a lot about whether something has actually been breached.

Everything we find is photographed. You get the photos and a written description of what is damaged and what we would do about it.

That record is the useful part. Once a repair is made or a tarp goes on, the evidence is gone, so documenting properly before anything is touched is what keeps your options open.

Working with an insurance claim

To be straightforward about the division of responsibility: you file the claim, your insurer decides what is covered, and we document what we found and do the work.

What we provide is a clear, photographed record of the damage and a written scope of the repair. That is what makes a claim a conversation about specifics rather than about opinion.

We do not advise you on your policy, tell you what a claim is worth, or promise any particular outcome. Anyone in roofing who promises you a covered claim before your insurer has looked at it is telling you something they cannot know.

Temporary protection

If the storm has left water getting in, that comes first and it cannot wait for a claim decision. We secure the roof with a tarp or temporary cover, photograph before and after, then schedule the permanent work.

Most policies expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage once you know about it, so acting promptly usually helps rather than hurts. See emergency roof repair for what that looks like.

Repair or replace after a storm

The honest answer depends on two things: how widespread the damage is, and how old the roof already was.

Damage confined to one slope or one area, on a roof with years of life left, is a repair. Damage across several slopes, or hail bruising spread over the whole roof, or any significant damage to a roof already approaching the end of its service life, is where a replacement is the better use of money. Repairing a twenty-year-old roof twice is rarely cheaper than replacing it once.

We will show you the photographs and tell you which of those we think you are looking at, and why.

After the next big wind or hail event, it is worth having someone look even if nothing is obviously wrong inside.