How to Tell if Your Roof Has Hail Damage (Without Getting on It)

Hail damage is a texture change, not a hole. That is the single most useful thing to understand about it, and it is why the roof almost always looks fine from the ground.

You can still gather evidence without a ladder. Check your gutters and downspouts for dents — hail that dented aluminum was large enough to bruise a shingle. Look at vent caps, gutter aprons and any metal flashing you can see. Check window screens and the top surfaces of your air conditioner condenser. Look in the gutters and at the base of downspouts for accumulated granules, which look like coarse black sand.

Also check the soft things: a hail event that shredded garden plants, dented a mailbox or pocked deck boards was carrying stones large enough to matter.

None of this replaces someone walking the roof with a chalk line and a gauge. But if you see two or more of these signs, you have a good reason to call for a free inspection — and a good reason not to wait for the leak to prove it.