21 Feb What Does Hail Do to A Shingle?

What Does Hail Do to A Shingle?

Often when the spring rolls around, we get caught up in filing claims for our roofs, the claims process, how we are going to pay our deductibles, what contractors to use, but we rarely think about what starts it all. What exactly does hail do to a shingle?
Hailstorms causes severe damage across the United States every year.

However, they can also pass through a city or town and not cause any damage at all. There are several factors that go into whether a shingle is damaged by hail. These factors include:
1. Size of hail
2. Speed hail is falling
3. Angle hail is falling
4. Density of hail
5. Age of shingle
6. Type of shingle (3-tab or architectural)
7. Age of shingle
8. Manufacturer of shingle
9. Pitch of the slope

This is why one house can be damaged by hail, and the house next door won’t be.

Back to the shingle damage. Once the hail overcomes all of those factors, it impacts the surface and knocks the granules that are adhered to the asphalt mat off, exposing the tar/asphalt. This creates pits and allows water to sit on the shingle instead of rolling off of the roof.

This is a decrease in the ability of the roof to shed water, i.e. it will do it slower than it would’ve before the hail. This increases the likelihood of interior water damage to occur over periods of time. This is a loss in value of the roof since it cannot perform it’s intended function as it was originally intended, which is why insurance provides coverage for it. To learn more, please send in questions!