Flashcard for hail damage on downspout seems misleading

1

I"m going through the flashcards and I’ve come across several that are confusing. For example; Indentations on a downspout recommends the following narrative:

Indentations on a downspout at the ____ side of the home appeared to be hail damage.

What I find strange is that the picture shows the hail damage to be on the opposite side of the downspout from the side of the house it’s on. So, if the downspout was on the north side of the house, the damage was on the south side of the downspout. I would think it more important to make note of the side of the downspout the damage was on rather than the side of the house the downspout was located.

2

In your reports, you’ll want to make sure the reader can easily find the defect. In this case, the damaged downspout. The house will have several downspouts so you want them to locate the damaged downspout easily. Once there, they will see the damage. This way they won’t have to go around the house looking at all the downspouts searching for damage.

3

That makes sense except this flashcard very clearly states, three times, that the side of the house is important for determining the direction of the hail. It clarifies this point three times:

  1. During an inspection for hail damage you want to establish the direction from which the hail came.
  2. Recording elevation damage- that is, damage to the sides of a home in addition to the roof- can help establish the direction from which the hail came.
  3. Typically the majority of the damage will have come from one direction. Directional damage on opposite sides of a home could indicate damage from two different storms.

And even more importantly, the actual question is worded in such a way as to make very clear the purpose of this picture:

During an inspection for hail damage it’s important to document even inconsequential damage such as this damage to a downspout.

I think it’s unmistakable that the purpose of this picture is to highlight the direction of the hail so as to determine which hail storm was the cause, however, this specific picture is more complicated because it shows damage to the spout on the one side of the house but coming from the opposite direction. So, the narrative seems confusing in this specific situation.