Hail Storm & Wind
Damage Restoration
In pa, oh & Wv

On asphalt shingles, it looks like dark, soft bruises roughly the size of a coin, where the granules have been knocked away and the mat underneath is exposed. There is usually no hole and no leak — which is exactly why it goes unnoticed until it starts shortening the life of the roof. The pattern matters as much as the marks. Hail damage is random and scattered; damage in neat lines or clustered in one spot is usually something else — foot traffic, a fallen branch, or manufacturing defect. On metal, hail shows as dents rather than bruising, and it is more cosmetic than functional unless the panel is pierced or the seams are affected.

Roughly one inch — about a quarter — is where asphalt shingles typically start taking damage. Below that, it is possible but much less likely, and wind speed during the storm matters as much as stone size. Smaller hail driven by high wind hits harder than larger hail falling straight down, and an older roof takes damage at a lower threshold than a new one because the granule layer is already thinner. Softer materials — aluminium gutters, siding, AC condenser fins — dent before shingles bruise, which makes them a useful early tell.

Check everything at ground level first. Dents in gutters, downspouts, siding, window screens, the AC condenser fins, and any metal roof vents are the reliable tells — if those took hits, the roof almost certainly did too. Granules collecting at the bottom of downspouts is the second sign, though some shedding is normal on a new roof. What you should not do is go up to look. Storm-damaged roofs are unstable, and the marks are genuinely hard to read from close up without knowing what separates hail bruising from ordinary weathering. That is what a documented inspection is for.

Be careful. Door-knocking immediately after a hailstorm is the single most reliable marker of a storm chaser — an out-of-area crew that follows weather, works fast, and is gone before problems surface. Established local contractors are busy after a storm and do not need to canvass neighbourhoods. The specific things worth refusing: anyone offering to cover your deductible, anyone pressing you to sign before you have read it, and anyone who cannot show a licence for your state. Insurance investigators have documented cases of canvassers creating the damage they then offered to repair. Ask where the company is based and whether they will still be reachable in two years, when a workmanship issue actually shows up. We operate from three offices — Fredonia PA, Erie PA and Wintersville OH — and we are licensed in PA (#142716) and WV (#063626).

Shingles start lifting around 45 to 50 mph on an older or poorly sealed roof, and a well-installed modern shingle roof handles considerably more. Age and how well the seal strips bonded matter more than the rating printed on the wrapper. Wind damage rarely starts in the middle of a slope. It starts at edges, ridges, corners and anywhere the roof was already lifted — which is why missing shingles after a storm often cluster along one rake or eave. A shingle that lifted and resealed itself looks fine from the ground and is not; the seal strip does not re-bond the same way twice.