Hail · Insurance inspection

Hail damage roof inspection: how the decision actually gets made

Every guide tells you inspectors mark off a test square and count hits. Almost none tells you what count matters, that your carrier sets it, or that your shingle warranty excludes hail entirely. Here is the process with its numbers attached.

Sources verified 2026-08-21 · Reviewer: placeholder pending

The test square: the part of the inspection that decides the claim

The method is standardized and simple. From InterNACHI’s inspection curriculum: test squares are 10 feet by 10 feet (always 100 square feet, even when the roof shape forces another outline), placed on each slope, located in the areas with the most damage and away from spots sheltered by overhanging branches. The inspector counts qualifying hits inside each square, and each slope’s count is compared against a threshold.

The threshold is the number everyone omits. InterNACHI’s course states it plainly: “Eight hits is a common number” to warrant replacing a slope, and, just as plainly, that the required count varies because “different insurance companies have different policies.” Both halves matter. Eight per square is the number to have in your head when an adjuster walks your roof; your carrier’s internal threshold, which it does not publish, is the one that decides. Ask the adjuster directly what count they are using and get it in the report.

Hits that count vs. marks that do not

Adjusters distinguish functional damage, impact that breaks the shingle’s mat or seal and shortens its life, from cosmetic marks. What qualifies varies by roofing material, which is why the count is done by someone on the roof rather than from photos alone. Fresh hail strikes are also distributed by the storm, not by the roof’s age: damage concentrated only on the weathered, sun-beaten slopes is the classic sign of wear being claimed as hail, and adjusters check for exactly that. If your inspection report does not separate functional from cosmetic damage slope by slope, it is a sales document, not an inspection.

Why this is an insurance question: your warranty excludes hail

Both of the shingle-warranty documents we have verified exclude hail outright: GAF under “acts of nature, such as hail,” Owens Corning under “Acts of God, such as hail.” The manufacturer owes you nothing for a hail-destroyed roof, at any age. That single exclusion is why the test square, your policy, and your deadline determine what a hailstorm costs you, not your warranty registration. The full warranty teardown is in the lifespan and warranty guide.

Deadlines, free inspections, and the order to do things in

Your policy sets a filing deadline. Commonly it is on the order of a year from the storm date; some policies and states run shorter. We quote no universal number because there is none. The deadline that binds you is printed in your own policy, and reading it is step one after a storm.

Free contractor inspections have an incentive attached. Many are competent; all of them are performed by someone paid only if you replace the roof. That does not make the finding wrong. It makes documentation the thing to insist on: per-slope hit counts in marked test squares, photographs with something for scale, and dated notes. An undocumented “you’ve got hail damage, we should file a claim” is not evidence your carrier will accept.

A sane order: read your policy’s deadline and deductible → get a documented inspection → report the claim to your carrier → walk the roof (or have your inspector present) with the adjuster so the test squares are counted once, together → agree on scope in writing before anyone starts work. Storm-chasing outfits compress all of that into one signature on their truck hood; the compression is the product, and it is not for your benefit.

If you are replacing anyway: what Class 4 means

Impact resistance is rated under UL 2218, which drops a 2-inch steel ball from 20 feet, twice in the same spot, and requires the shingle’s back side to show no tearing, cracking or other opening to earn Class 4, the top rating. In hail-prone regions some insurers offer premium discounts for UL 2218 Class 4 roofs; the discount, like the threshold, is carrier-specific, so ask yours before you buy the upgrade, and get the answer in writing.