Check your gutters, downspouts, flashing, and any concrete or wood walkways first — before you get anywhere near the roof. Hail dents metal, and it knocks the dirt and oxidation off concrete and wood, so those spots tell you almost everything you need to know without a ladder.
If you see small dents in the downspouts or the flashing, or a walkway that looks noticeably cleaner in spots than the rest, that’s your sign to get the roof itself looked at by someone who does this for a living.
Here’s the part that isn’t simple: how much damage counts as “real” damage is genuinely open to interpretation. Between us, Guy and Keith have inspected over 1,000 roofs after hail storms, and the most common mistake we see — from homeowners and from other contractors — is chasing the wrong amount of damage. Sometimes cosmetic marks get treated like something serious. Sometimes actual damage gets waved off as nothing. There isn’t a checklist that settles it every time, which is why experience matters more than a quick look from the ground.
When we come out, we don’t stop at the shingles. We check the AC unit, the gutters, the siding, and any other soft metal on the property. Real hail damage tells a consistent story — it shows up in more than one place. If your shingles look hit but nothing else on the house does, or the other way around, that’s worth a second look before anyone draws a conclusion.
We’ll walk you through exactly what we find and why, in plain language, and leave you with a free, detailed photo report of your roof’s condition — so you have real documentation, not just our word for it.
A few years ago we were installing a roof on one job when Keith noticed a single shingle sitting out of place on a house across the street — near the eave, easy to miss. Guy went over and mentioned it to the homeowner, who had no idea, and neither had anyone else who’d looked at that roof. Once we got up there, that one shingle had been blown up and flipped over for a long time, leaking straight down through the soffit and onto the ground below. There were other wind-blown shingles nearby that were no longer sealed either, which matters because shingles only do their job when they’re sealed to each other. The insurance carrier ended up determining that roof needed a full replacement — and none of it would have been caught if we hadn’t happened to be in that driveway on a completely different job.
Here’s the part we won’t dress up: we cannot help you with your policy, but we can help you with your roof. That’s not us being difficult — it’s what the law here says a licensed contractor can and can’t do when it comes to insurance. What we can tell you, honestly, is what’s actually happening on your roof, whether that’s bad news or nothing at all.
If you’ve had hail come through Albertville, St. Michael, Otsego, Monticello, Buffalo, Maple Grove, Rogers, Corcoran, Hanover, Plymouth, or Elk River and you’re not sure what you’re looking at, get a quote at toptiermn.com/quote or call us at 612-205-5503.
Top Tier Roofing and Remodeling — MN License BC807923
