How Can You Tell If You Have Hail Damage Without Getting On Your Roof?

Atlanta roofing has to withstand some pretty serious weather throughout the year. Extreme heat in the summer is more likely to be harder on the roof of your home than a hail storm. But despite a handful of hail incidents in this region of the country over the last few years, it can still be a destructive force when it does start to fall from the sky.

So what exactly is hail? It’s a form of frozen precipitation that comes about as a result of raindrops being carried to the highest and coldest areas of clouds during a thunderstorm. These raindrops are swept up in currents of air that rise to freezing temperatures.

That is when ice starts to form along the exterior of any number of things that are caught in the updraft, whether it’s a raindrop, a particle of ice, even a molecule of dust, anything caught in this cycle can become frozen into a piece of hail.

These initial pellets can be circulated through the cloud cover over and over, accumulating more ice and growing in volume as they move in and out of the upper portions of the cloud where the temperatures are below freezing.

Before long, the pellets have grown in size and become too heavy to continue getting scooped up in repeated updrafts. Pretty soon gravity takes over and the hail falls to earth. Some of these pellets can grow to the size of rocks and when they plummet towards your roof with increasing velocity, the damage can be pretty substantial.

But not all hail storms will bring about damage. Some are too brief and the pellets aren’t very large, others can be quite significant in their size and capacity for inflicting destruction.

Checking for Damage

The next time it hails, you may need to check for any major damage to your home’s roof. But you might not want to or be able to get up on the roof to do the necessary examinations for assessing the destruction.

That’s okay, you don’t have to go up there in order to see if any hail damage has taken place. There are other places to look in order to determine if you need any repairs on your home. Here are the first places to check for hail damage without getting on your roof.

Gutters

Dented gutters are your first, immediate tell-tale sign that a recent hail storm has had a serious impact on your home. Take a close look at all of them along the perimeter of your roof. You may not be able to see inside but the edges will let you know if any damage has taken place.

Roof Vents

Like your gutters, the metal box vents that are positioned on your roof will also display tell-tale signs of hail damage. Do they appear dented or bent out of shape? All you need to do is step back from your property until you can get a good look at them up above.

If you are having trouble, try to see if you can get a look at them from an attic window or try using a digital camera from ground level and zoom in on the box to get a better vantage point.

Window Trim

The trim surrounding the windows of your home will also display hail damage. The material used in the manufacture of your trim can display dents or cracks whether its wood, metal, or vinyl. Hail damage here usually means you’ve sustained similar impacts elsewhere around the home.

Air Conditioner Units

These units are designed to withstand the elements but they are also made of metal components that can be easily dinged up and dented under an attack of falling hail. If the unit looks like someone took a baseball bat to it, then you’ve got some pretty bad aftereffects of the storm.

Sheds and Porches

These are also good places to check after a hail storm. An outdoor shed will show the same effects of damage as your window trim as these sheds are usually made of similar materials, be it vinyl, wood, or metal.

Your uncovered porch or deck may have also sustained some damage, either to the surfaces of the floors and railings but also to your belongings left out there. Plants might be overturned, the grill might have some dents on it, even your patio furniture might show some evidence that hail hit the house recently.

Siding

Check closely for holes, dents, cracks, and the like. Be sure to look close and distinguish between wear and tear that was evident previously and new damage that has just occurred.