Hail Damage: What to Look For After a Georgetown Storm

Every spring, some Williamson County storm drops hail somewhere between Jarrell and Round Rock, and within 48 hours the door knocking starts. This guide exists so you can assess your own roof calmly, from the ground, before anyone with a clipboard assesses it for you.

Stay off the roof

First rule: you do not need to climb anything. Walking a roof is genuinely dangerous for amateurs, damages brittle or tile roofs, and everything diagnostic at your skill level is visible from the ground or a window. Binoculars help. A phone camera with zoom helps more, because dated photos become claim evidence later.

Read the soft metals first

Hail hits everything, not just shingles. Soft aluminum and thin steel record impacts far more legibly than asphalt does, which makes them your calibration tools:

• Gutters and downspouts: dimples along the top faces and outer edges
• Mailbox, and anything metal in the yard: fresh dings with clean edges
• Window screens: torn or dented mesh, especially on the storm facing side
• AC condenser fins: flattened patches (gently check the unit outside)
• Roof vents and flashing, viewed with zoom: dents on caps and turbines

If the soft metals are clean, meaningful roof damage is unlikely and you can exhale. If they are peppered, the shingles took the same hits, and a professional look is warranted.

What hail actually does to shingles

Real hail damage is usually subtle from the ground. Through the zoom lens, look for:

• Bruises: dark, roughly circular spots where granules were knocked away, exposing the black asphalt mat. Fresh hits look shiny.
• Random scatter: impacts land without pattern. Damage that follows straight lines or only appears along edges usually has a different cause, like blistering or foot traffic.
• Granule drifts: check gutter downspout outlets after the storm. A sudden pour of granules after years of a light sprinkle is the roof reporting its own injury.
• Dented ridge caps: the ridge takes hits at the most direct angle and often shows first.

Size and the odds

As a rough local rule: pea sized hail rarely troubles a healthy roof, quarter sized begins to bruise aging shingles, golf ball hail damages most asphalt roofs it lands on hard, and anything larger is a when not if situation. Older, heat aged shingles bruise easier than new ones, which is why the same storm totals one street and spares the next. The spring 2021 storms made that lottery famous across the county.

What to do with what you found

If soft metals and shingles both show hits, work the sequence, not the panic: document with dated photos, get an independent inspection or a vetted local roofer to confirm the damage is claim worthy, then read our insurance claims guide before calling your carrier. Filing a claim that gets denied still sits on your record, so confirmation first is not caution, it is strategy.

And about the door knockers: some are legitimate local companies working a hot neighborhood. Some follow storms across three states. You cannot tell which from the porch, so take the flyer, skip the same day signature, and run everyone through the vetting checklist on your own schedule. A real company is still real next week.