What To Do After Hail Damages Your Roof in Texas: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Frankie Schell
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
If you live in DFW or East Texas, hail isn't a question of if. It's when. And once it happens, what you do in the next 48 hours matters more than most homeowners realize.
File your claim wrong, or in the wrong order, and you can end up with a denied claim, a partially covered repair, or worse, a contract signed with a storm chaser who's halfway back to Florida by the time your shingles start leaking.
So here's the right way to handle it. Step by step. Written by people who do this every storm season for homeowners in Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco, Arlington, Tyler, Longview, and just about every town in between.
Step 1: Stay Off the Roof
First thing. Don't climb up there.
Asphalt shingles after hail are slick, brittle, and covered in loose granules that act like ball bearings under your feet. Every spring, Texas ERs see homeowners who tried to play insurance adjuster and ended up with a broken arm instead. It's not worth it. Walk the perimeter of your house instead. That's where you'll find the proof you need anyway.
Step 2: Look for Hail Damage From the Ground
You don't need to see the roof to know it got hit. Hail leaves fingerprints all over your property. Here's what to look for:
Dents in your gutters and downspouts. Run your hand along them. Hail leaves dimples you can feel.
Dings in your AC condenser fins. This is one of the best tells. If your AC unit looks like somebody attacked it with a golf ball, your roof took the same hits.
Splatter marks on your fence, deck, or patio furniture. Fresh hail leaves dark spots where it knocked dirt and oxidation off the surface.
Granules in your downspouts or splash blocks. Pick up a handful. If it looks like coarse black sand, those are shingle granules. Lots of them means lots of impacts.
Cracked or shattered skylights. Obvious, but worth checking.
Torn window screens. Hail rips them.
If you see two or three of these, your roof got hit. Period. Hail doesn't politely skip the highest part of your house.
Step 3: Document Everything With Photos
Get your phone out. Start taking pictures.
Wide shots of your house. Close-ups of the gutter dents. Photos of the AC fins. Pictures of any debris in your yard. Try to get the date and time stamped if your phone allows it.
Why this matters: Texas has a two-year statute of limitations on storm damage claims, but adjusters get more skeptical the longer you wait. Time-stamped photos from the day of the storm put you in a much stronger position. They prove the damage is fresh and tied to a specific weather event.
If a neighbor's tree limb is down, photograph that too. It's evidence the storm was severe enough to do real damage.
Step 4: Get a Free Roof Inspection From a Local Roofer (Not a Door Knocker)
Here's where most DFW homeowners get burned.
Within hours of any major hail event in North Texas, storm chasers swarm the metroplex. They show up from Florida, Oklahoma, Colorado, wherever the last storm just was. They knock doors. They pressure people into signing contracts on the spot. And a lot of them are gone before the work is even finished. No permits. No warranty. No accountability.
A real local roofer in Texas will offer a free inspection with no contract, no pressure, and no commitment. That's the standard. If somebody's pushing paper at you before they've even climbed on your roof, shut the door.
Here's what a real inspection looks like:
The inspector actually gets on the roof and walks every slope
They mark hail hits with chalk so you can see them in photos
They check the soft metals first (vents, flashing, valleys), because those show damage even when shingles look okay
They photograph every elevation: north, south, east, and west
They give you a written report with photos you can keep, whether you hire them or not
A drive-by glance and a "yep, you got damage, sign here" is not an inspection. It's a sales pitch.
Step 5: File Your Insurance Claim
Now you can call your insurance company.
Notice the order. Documentation first. Inspection second. Claim third. Doing it this way means you walk into the claim with evidence in hand instead of hoping the adjuster finds everything on their own.
When you file, give them the basics: date of the storm, what you've documented, and that you've had a professional inspection. They'll assign an adjuster and schedule a visit, usually within a week or two depending on how busy the storm made them.
Step 6: Have Your Roofer Present When the Adjuster Inspects
This is the step almost nobody talks about, and it's the one that changes outcomes the most.
When the insurance adjuster comes out, your roofer should be on the roof at the same time. Walking it together. Pointing out the hits. Citing the same code.
Why? Because adjusters are people, and people miss things. Sometimes they're new and don't know what hidden damage looks like. Sometimes they're slammed with hundreds of claims after a big storm and they're rushing. Sometimes (and yes, this happens) the carrier is hoping to pay less.
Having a roofer up there with them makes a real difference. At REC Roofing we keep licensed insurance adjusters on staff, so when we're walking the roof with your carrier, we're speaking the same language. That alone has saved our customers thousands of dollars in coverage that would have been missed.
Step 7: Know What To Do If Your Claim Gets Denied
Sometimes claims get denied. Especially borderline ones, or ones where the adjuster was rushed. Don't accept it as final.
You have the right to:
Request a re-inspection with a different adjuster
Submit your own documentation including your roofer's report
Invoke the appraisal clause in your policy, which brings in a neutral third party to settle the dispute
What you should not do is sign the denial paperwork and walk away. Damaged shingles don't heal themselves, and the next Texas hailstorm is going to find every weak spot.
Texas-Specific Mistakes To Avoid
A few things people in DFW and East Texas mess up over and over:
Waiting too long to file. Texas heat is brutal on damaged shingles. A roof that was borderline after a March hailstorm becomes a leaking disaster after July's heat splits the cracks wide open. File quickly.
Trusting door knockers. Storm chasers cause more headaches in our region than the storms do. If somebody isn't local, isn't licensed in Texas, and can't show you completed jobs in your own zip code, they're not your guy.
Forgetting the rest of the house. Hail damages gutters, fascia, soffits, screens, garage doors, and AC units. A complete claim covers everything. A rushed claim covers the roof and forgets the rest, leaving you to pay out of pocket later.
Not understanding your deductible. Most Texas policies have a separate wind/hail deductible that's a percentage of your home's value, not a flat number. A $400,000 home with a 1% wind/hail deductible means you owe $4,000 before insurance pays a dime. That's normal. What's not normal is a roofer offering to "eat" or "waive" your deductible. That's insurance fraud, and it's a felony in Texas. Run from anyone who offers it.
Repair vs. Replacement: How To Tell
A repair makes sense when the damage is isolated, the rest of the roof is in good shape, and you've got plenty of life left in the shingles.
A replacement makes sense when:
Multiple slopes are hit
There's widespread granule loss
Your shingles are already aging (15+ years)
The decking underneath has soft spots
Hail hits are so spread out that patching won't restore the roof to pre-storm condition
If your roof is older than 15 years and got hit in a Texas hailstorm, you're almost certainly looking at full replacement. New shingles don't blend cleanly with old, brittle ones, and insurance usually approves the full replacement in those cases anyway.
How Long Do You Have To File a Hail Damage Claim in Texas?
Two years from the date of the storm. That's the legal limit under Texas law.
But practically? File within 30 days if you can. Adjusters take fresh claims more seriously, the evidence is clearer, and you avoid having other weather events muddy the picture.
Free Roof Inspection in DFW and East Texas
If a storm just rolled through and you think your roof took damage, we'll come look at it. Free. No contract. No pressure.
REC Roofing covers Dallas, Fort Worth, Tyler, and pretty much everywhere in between. We're Christian-owned, locally based, and we keep licensed insurance adjusters on staff so your claim gets handled right the first time.
Worst case, your roof's fine and you've got documentation for the next storm. Best case, we help you turn a stressful situation into a fully covered new roof. Either way, you'll know where you stand. And in Texas, knowing where you stand on your roof is worth a lot.
Because there's always a next storm with hail damage roof Texas, hail damage roof DFW.
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