We had a major hail storm in our area and need some advise on our shake shingle roof repair.
The insurance adjuster indicated they are willing to pay for the split shingles but not the dings - little holes made by large pieces of hail. We are concerned that when we go to sell our house in the future the roof will not pass inspection and shingles will holes will need to be repaired. Please advise.
Welcome Vaughn! It’s hard for any of us to give suggestions without pictures, and not saying any of us could with, but posting pictures with explanations helps!
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Do the shingles have “dings” from hail impact or do they have little holes in them?
We think they are holes from the hail. Going to send pictures tomorrow. Appreciate everyone’s expertise.
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Our opinion will matter little in the end, however the dings will likely reduce the lifespan. Might need to fight a little harder, get more onsite written professional opinions and possibly be prepared for litigation. Not sure how old the roof is, that might also be an issue. Maybe @jbushart1 will weigh in.
Wood shake would split or detach from hail most cetainly before causing “little holes”. Holes would most likely be caused from a pest such as a woodpecker possibly (as it tries to attract a mate because of the loud noise it would make) or something else.
It’s also important to know that wood shake installations rely heavily on the underlayment to shed water and its condition and age is more important than the shakes are because wood shakes are meant to be replaced “as needed” as part of regular maintenance for that type of roof covering.
They are typically 1/4 thick non uniformed width and hand split.
Pictures obviously would help but the insurance adjuster knows what he is doing, Hail wouldnt cause “little holes” in wood shakes.
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Under a homeowner’s insurance contract (also known as an insurance “policy”), when the insured homeowner has proved a covered loss the insurance provider must pay to restore the damaged property to its pre-damaged condition or prove an exclusion in the policy that would preclude coverage.
Smaller hail stones do not make smaller holes in wood shakes that are not covered by the contract. All holes in the shakes caused by hail are covered by the contract. It is possible that the adjuster was describing spatter marks that are made by hailstones that are too small to split the shingles. Spatter marks are small indentations or marks left when moss or mold has been knocked off the shake and, by themselves, are not considered to be damage to a shake.
What you should pay more attention to is the soft metal flashing in the valleys and other areas that are dented and need to be replaced. I recently used the fact that replacing the dented metals on a large shake roof would require the removal of the overlaying shakes which represented a significant part of the roof. The carrier agreed to pay an additional $187,000.00 on top of their first check to the homeowner of $4,000.
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Look for a HAAG Certified Roof Inspector in your area and get your own inspection.
HAAG has trained many insurance adjusters and they carry some weight
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We have contacted an HAAG inspector and will not need additional info. Thank you to everyone for your expertise.
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Unless the HAAG Inspector is also an independent insurance adjuster all they are going to do is inspect and report. So this is a possible waste of time and money. What I would recommend is contacting James Bushart above for additional guidance and possibly a referral to a reputable independent insurance adjuster.