After a Storm Hits Your Roof: What to Do First

A storm passes through, the wind dies down, and the instinct is to go straight outside and look at the roof. That's the right instinct pointed in the wrong order. There's a sequence that protects both your house and your ability to make a clean insurance claim afterward, and it starts on the ground, not on a ladder.

Check the ground before you check the roof

Walk the yard and driveway first. Shingle pieces, granules washed into the flower beds, dented gutters lying near the downspout, a cracked vent cap, all of that tells you something happened up there before you've even looked up. Fallen limbs matter too, not just the big one across the driveway but the smaller ones scattered near the house, since those are often what actually hit the roof.

Don't climb up yourself

This isn't just a caution about wet shingles and a ladder, though that alone is reason enough, especially with soaked grass underneath and debris scattered across the yard. A roof that's just taken wind or hail damage can have soft spots or loosened fasteners that aren't obvious from a standing position, and your weight in the wrong place can turn a repair into something worse. There's also the insurance side of it: an adjuster wants to see the damage in the condition the storm left it, and walking the roof yourself before it's documented can complicate that. Leave the roof itself to someone who does this for a living, and stay on the ground until they get there.

Photograph everything, from the ground

Your phone camera can do most of the documentation work before anyone gets on a ladder. Zoom in rather than walking closer.

• Wide shots of the whole roof from each side of the house
• Zoomed shots of any visible shingle damage, missing pieces or exposed decking
• Gutters and downspouts, especially dents, which are a common hail signature
• Siding, trim and any outdoor AC unit, for the same dent pattern
• Fallen limbs and exactly where they landed relative to the house
• Any interior stain, drip or damp spot that appeared the same day

What a tarp is actually for

A tarp over a damaged section stops water from getting further into the house while a real repair gets scheduled. It's not a fix, and it doesn't mean the roof necessarily needs full replacement, it just buys time. Once an appointment is made, Satterfield Roofing works on a 24 hour turn around, so the gap between tarp and actual repair is short, not weeks. Appointments are the only way work gets scheduled, so call ahead rather than expecting a same day drive by.

Working with your insurance company

Wind, hail and tree damage claims move faster when the roofer documenting the damage is used to talking to adjusters, not just customers. Satterfield works directly with your insurance company on these claims, which means someone who knows what an adjuster needs to see is looking at the roof alongside you, not just estimating a repair price in isolation. Part of that is being able to tell the difference between damage the storm caused and wear the roof already had, since an honest assessment of both is what actually gets a claim approved rather than disputed.

The rush to fix it can work against you

After a bad storm, the instinct is to get it fixed as fast as possible, and that's understandable when there's a tarp on your roof. But skipping the documentation step to move faster can end up slowing the insurance side down instead, if the adjuster shows up to damage that's already been altered or cleaned up. Photographing and tarping first, then getting a roofer out to formally document everything, isn't the slow path, it's the one that holds up when the claim actually gets reviewed. A fast repair still happens either way, it just happens in the right order.

Getting someone out to look at it

Satterfield Roofing has served Newton, Rockdale, Henry, DeKalb, Butts, Greene, Fulton, Morgan, Jasper, Gwinnett, Barrow, Clayton and Walton counties since 1992, and works with homeowners' insurance on storm damage as a normal part of the job, not an extra. Call 770-860-9388 or email bryan@satterfieldroofing.com to get an appointment on the books. Payment is due on completion, not before, so there's nothing to put down just to get someone out to look.