How to Determine If Your Home Needs a Hail Damage Roof Repair Skip to content

How to Determine if Your Home Needs a Hail Damage Roof Repair

When you're a homeowner, there's plenty you need to keep an eye on, including the condition of your roof.

After a bout of inclement weather, particularly a hailstorm, your roof may suffer some hail impacts. This can result in extensive damage if not addressed right away.

Given Calgary's susceptibility to frequent and severe thunderstorms, our homes, particularly our roofs, can incur substantial weather-related damage.

Only halfway through the storm season, Alberta alone has reported storm damage costs of over $2 billion. As well as insurance companies are dealing with more than 70,000 claims in the last month related to hail storms in Alberta.

Many Calgarians are concerned about the damage to their home and are trying to determine if they need to hire a roofing company due to hail damage.

This guide aims to provide you with all the information you need to decide whether your home needs a hail damage roof repair.

Understanding Hail Damage

Let's dive into the science of hail to better understand how it can damage your roof.

Hail forms when there are strong updrafts in thunderstorms that carry raindrops upward into cold areas of the storm.

Here, these droplets freeze and can accumulate more layers of ice before falling to the ground as hail.

When these ice balls hit your roof, they can cause different types of damage.

This damage might not always be immediately obvious, and sometimes, visible damage can go undetected until it's too late.

So, being able to recognize the common signs of hail damage is crucial.

Firstly, look for dents or cracks in the shingles or roof material. Additionally, if you find granules from asphalt shingles in your gutters or downspouts, that clearly indicates damage.

Keep in mind, the hail impacts can affect the entire roof or be localized to just a few areas. Always remember, any type of damage to your roof can lead to more serious issues if not addressed quickly.

How Big Does Hail Need to Be to Harm Your Roof?

Wondering what size hail will damage a roof or how much hail will damage to replace the roof? There are three factors to consider when determining the severity of destruction caused by hail:

  • Wind speed
  • Duration
  • Size of the hail

While wind speed and duration are difficult to measure, the size of the hail is the easiest indicator of damage. There is a simple size chart to understand how the size of hail will most likely cause the most damage.

  • Nickel size or ¾ of an inch: can cause minor damage to the roof when accompanied by stronger wind speeds.
  • Quarter size or 1-inch: hail size will most likely cause little to no damage to a roof. However, depending on the length of time that it’s hailing, the hail can cause damage to shingles granules.
  • Toonie size or 1.25 inches: there could be minor damage to roofs and cracks in sidings.
  • Walnut size or 1.50 inches: can cause severe roof damage and dents in the wood.
  • Golf ball size hail or 1.75 inches: can cause dents in siding and exterior paint damage.
  • Baseball size or 2.75 inches: can create holes in homes siding and lift shingles.

One last factor to consider is how many hail storms your home has experienced.

Recently in Alberta, some homeowners have experienced frequent small hail-sized storms. Though the hail is small, the repetitive hailing can result in substantial defacement.

How Does Hail Damage Asphalt Shingle?

big hailstone on the hand

Asphalt shingles are the most common and affordable type of roofing for Calgary homes.

Asphalt shingles have a base made up of either felt paper or fibreglass. It is coated with a waterproof mixture of asphalt, mineral stabilizers, and limestone powders.

The shingles are finished with granules, which give shingles weight and protect the underlying asphalt from UV damage.

Depending on the size of the hail, hail damage to asphalt shingles can consist of splitting, bruising, or displacement of granules.

Displacement of granules is the most common impairment caused by hail. When these granules are misplaced, the shingles lose their protective coating. Also, this makes the underlying asphalt exposed to harmful sun rays.

Why does this matter? When asphalt has direct sunlight exposure, the singles become vulnerable to the sun’s UV light degradation. This causes accelerated cracking, edge damage, blistering, and water leaks inside the home.

When big, tough hailstones hit or strong winds whip through, they can leave cracks in your roof shingles, creating bare patches on your roof.

Once your shingles are cracked, they can't protect your roof as well from the whims of the weather.

Even tiny cracks, no bigger than an inch, can let the damage creep inside your home and start causing problems. So remember, small cracks can lead to big headaches if not taken care of promptly.

How to Identify Hail Damage

a rooftop worker attaches a metal tile to the roof base.

Identifying hail destruction in your surroundings is pretty straightforward and obvious.

However, roof damage can be harder to spot and not always the most visible since it may not be seen from just looking at the roof from the ground up.

Don’t wait until your roof deterioration becomes apparent and you see water damage inside the home to get a roof replacement.

It’s important to keep your roof in the best condition to avoid structural decay.

Identifying Three Major Signs of Hail Damage:

  • Look for missing pieces of asphalt on the shingles:
    • You can identify this when you see patches of the black substrate. This is where the granules have been compromised, and parts of the shingle are no longer textured
  • Check for bruised shingles:
    • Slight dents caused by hail may not be visible. But you can find the damage by running your hand over the shingle for small divots and pressing the dent to see if it has any give.
    • If you find a soft spot, that’s an indication of hail damage.
  • Inspect your roof attachments:
    • Since damage to shingles is harder to see, sometimes you can determine the severity of damage by examining the metal accessories on your roof.
    • Check dents in metal vents and cracks in skylight windows.

Fortress Roofing: Your Trusted Partner in Hail Damage Roof Repair

When hailstorms hit and leave their mark, it can feel overwhelming. Your home, your safe space, has taken a beating. But don’t worry, that’s where we come in.

We're Fortress Roofing, and we've got your back. We know the weather here in Calgary can be a bit wild, and we're well-prepared to fix any havoc those storms may have wreaked on your roof.

We’re not just about repairing roofs. We’re about giving you peace of mind.

So, don't let that storm damage keep you up at night. Reach out to us, and let's get your home back to tip-top shape together.