What To Do After a Hailstorm in Colorado: The First 3 Things Every Homeowner Should Know

A big hailstorm just rolled through your neighborhood. Your neighbors are talking about it, your garden is beat up, maybe there are dents in your car, and you are pretty sure your roof took a hit. So what should you do first?

The first few days after a hailstorm matter more than most people realize. The right moves protect you, both on your insurance claim and on the service life of your roof. The wrong ones can cost you. After 15 years as a roofing contractor in Colorado, these are the three questions we hear after nearly every storm, and the honest answers to each.

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What Should I Do First After a Hailstorm?

Here is the part most homeowners do not know: hail damage is deceptive. A roof can look completely fine from the street, or even from a quick glance on a ladder, and still have dozens or hundreds of hail impact bruises that quietly cut years of service life off the roof. And there is a clock running, both on your insurance claim and on the service life of the roof itself.

The single most important rule is this: stay off your roof. Being up there is dangerous in general, and it is especially dangerous after a hailstorm because all the granules shed loose from the impacts make the surface slick. Beyond the safety issue, walking on a freshly impacted roof can actually create more damage. I have seen homeowners damage their own roof walking on it, and then an insurance adjuster comes out, sees it, and it compromises the claim.

So stay off the roof and leave the up-close inspection to a professional. But there is plenty you can figure out from the ground.

Walk the perimeter and look for soft metals, because soft metal is an honesty meter. These are your gutters and downspouts, a metal mailbox, a metal fence, and your car. Dents to metal are a good indicator the hail was hard enough to bruise your shingles too. Also look at the fins on your air conditioner, the condenser fins, where you will see impacts and dents. Then look at the bottom of your downspouts, where you may find piles of granules, the tiny rocks off the top of your shingles, collecting on your driveway, your walkway, and especially built up in your gutter trays.

If you are seeing enough of this kind of collateral damage around the property, that justifies getting an inspection. Most professional roofing companies do a storm inspection for free, so take advantage of that.

How Do I Know If My Roof Actually Has Hail Damage?

This is the question that trips people up, because hail damage is not always the dramatic, obvious thing people picture. A lot of real, claimable damage looks like nothing to the untrained eye.

What we are actually looking for is bruising. These are spots where the hail knocked the protective granules loose and left them soft, and that leaves a section of the shingle exposed. It exposes the asphalt underneath and the fiberglass mat to the sun, which starts shortening the roof's life.

Those granules are worth understanding, because they are the sign you can spot yourself. Granules are the coarse, sand-like surface that protects the shingle from the sun. When hail knocks them loose, that spot ages fast, even if there is no actual hole in the shingle. After a storm, they pile up at the base of your downspouts and in your gutters. Dented gutters plus a pile of granules very likely means a roof that took real hail damage.

There is a fairly clear professional standard for how bad is bad. The rule of thumb we use, and that most insurance companies use, is ten damaging impacts within a ten foot by ten foot test square. We will literally chalk-mark the hits inside that 100 square foot square using sidewalk chalk to count them and determine whether that side of the roof is totaled, meaning it cannot really be repaired and should be replaced. If we find that level of damage on three of the four sides of a roof, the roof is generally considered totaled. In our experience, the overwhelming majority of the time the insurance company agrees. And even when they do not, we have a process for that.

So it is not just about how big the hail was. It is about how many legitimate impacts it left behind, and across how much of the roof.

How Long Do I Have To File a Claim in Colorado?

This is the one that quietly costs people the most, because waiting too long can take the decision out of your hands entirely.

Most homeowner policies require you to file within a set window of time after the date of loss, which is the date the damage occurred, and that is often around a year. But it varies by insurance carrier and policy, so check yours and do not assume.

The practical advice matters more than the exact deadline: do not wait. Two things work against you over time. First, the longer you wait, the harder it becomes to tie the damage to a specific storm event, which is exactly what an insurance company needs to approve a claim. Second, the damage does not sit still. A bruised shingle keeps aging, and it can weather fairly quickly into a small hole that compromises the roof. So a roof that would have qualified for a full replacement right after a storm can turn into a bigger, potentially out-of-pocket problem if you sit on it.

The move is simple: get a free inspection soon after a storm, get the damage documented with good old-fashioned pictures, and then you have the option to file on your own timeline instead of scrambling against a deadline.

The Bottom Line: Keep Every Option Open

So right after a hailstorm: stay off the roof, check it from the ground, get it professionally inspected, and get the damage documented with photos. Do not just sit on it and do nothing.

If you do that, you keep all of your options open. You can file a claim or not. You can repair or replace, depending on what is actually necessary. Either way, the decision stays in your hands, with the facts in front of you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I do first after a hailstorm?

Stay off your roof and check for damage from the ground. Look for dented soft metals (gutters, downspouts, metal fences, your air conditioner fins, and your car) and granules piling up at your downspouts and in your gutters. If you see that kind of collateral damage, get a free professional inspection and document everything with photos.

Why should I stay off my roof after a hailstorm?

Two reasons. It is dangerous, because loose granules make the surface slick. And walking on a freshly impacted roof can create additional damage, which an insurance adjuster may later see and use to question your claim. Leave the up-close inspection to a professional.

How do professionals tell if a roof has hail damage?

They look for bruising, spots where hail knocked the granules loose and left the shingle soft, exposing the mat underneath. The standard rule of thumb is ten damaging impacts within a ten foot by ten foot (100 square foot) test square. If that level of damage appears on three of the four sides of the roof, it is generally considered totaled.

How long do I have to file a hail claim in Colorado?

Most policies require you to file within a set window after the date of loss, often around a year, but it varies by carrier and policy, so check yours. The practical advice is not to wait, because it gets harder to tie the damage to a specific storm and the damage itself worsens over time.

Does a dented gutter mean my roof is damaged?

Not by itself, but it is a strong indicator. Soft metals like gutters dent at a similar impact threshold to what bruises shingles, so dented gutters plus granules collecting at your downspouts very likely means the roof took real hail damage and is worth inspecting.