Post-Storm Roof Inspection Guide for DFW Homeowners

First Two Hours: Safety and Initial Documentation

Before anything else, assess for immediate safety hazards. Downed power lines, structural damage that makes the house unsafe to enter, gas leaks — these take priority over roof inspection. Once the house is safe to be in, start documenting from the ground before anyone goes on the roof. Walk the full perimeter. Take photos of every slope. Photograph your HVAC unit, gutters, downspouts, any metal on the property. The soft metals — aluminum HVAC fins, gutters, mailbox — tell the story of the hail event independently of the shingles. An adjuster who wants to argue about shingle damage has a harder case when the same storm left undeniable dent patterns across multiple soft metal surfaces on the property. Make sure your phone's GPS metadata is enabled — the timestamp and location embedded in each photo becomes part of your claim record.

Check the Attic Within 24 Hours

Go into the attic the day after the storm and look for new water stains, wet insulation, or daylight through the roof deck. This is especially important after wind events that may have displaced shingles without creating obvious visible damage from the ground. A shingle lifted by 70 mph wind and resettled in a slightly different position may look fine from the ground but leave a gap at the nail line that admits water. The attic tells you whether water got in. Look along the ridge, at all penetrations (vents, pipes, skylights), and at the eaves. Photograph anything new — water stains that weren't there before the storm are documentation of causation, not just damage.

Avoid Storm Chasers: What to Watch For

After every major DFW hail event, out-of-state contractors flood the market. They follow storm tracks and door-knock neighborhoods within hours. Some are legitimate companies doing quality work. Many are not. The red flags: they pressure you to sign an "Assignment of Benefits" document (which transfers your insurance rights to them — you lose control of your own claim), they offer to waive or cover your deductible (illegal in Texas under Senate Bill 1060, and often a sign the work will be overpriced to compensate), they can't give you a local DFW address where you can find them six months from now when the warranty matters. A legitimate contractor gives you a written assessment, a written estimate, and time to make your own decision. They don't pressure you at the door on the day of the storm.

Filing the Claim: When and How

Once you have your documentation — ground-level photos, soft metal photos, attic photos — call your insurance carrier and file the claim. You can file before or after a contractor inspection. Many homeowners prefer to have a contractor inspection first so they understand what they're looking at before talking to the adjuster. JRH does post-storm inspections across DFW — we'll walk you through what we found, give you a written assessment, and build a claim package that includes storm data from NOAA and commercial hail mapping services. When your contractor's findings and the independent storm data align on the same event, the claim is much harder to dispute. Call us at (469) 888-6903and we'll be there the same day or next morning.