Roof Storm Damage in Texas: Hail, Wind, and What to Do Next

Just had a storm? Stay off the roof, put a bucket under any active drip, and photograph everything you can see safely from the ground. Documentation you capture today is what protects your claim later. We respond within 24 hours and can dry-in a leak temporarily before the weather even clears.

Storm damage looks like hail bruising, missing or creased shingles, dented vents and flashing, and fresh interior leaks. Most of it is hard to see from the ground, which is why a close-up inspection matters far more than a driveway glance.

Hail and wind leave different fingerprints on your roof, and the difference matters for your claim. Hail bruises your shingles, knocking granules loose in random circular spots and softening the mat underneath so your roof ages years overnight. Wind works your edges: it creases your shingles as it lifts them, breaks the seal strip, and tears tabs off along your ridges, eaves, and rakes. Either way, your underlayment gets exposed and the slow leak that reaches your ceiling weeks later has already begun.

From the ground you might catch missing shingles, a sagging gutter full of granules, or a bent vent cap. What you can't see is the bruising pattern, the lifted-but-not-gone shingles that reseated crooked, or the flashing that pulled away half an inch. An adjuster is looking for those specifics, and so are we. A stain on your ceiling is the last symptom, not the first sign. By the time water reaches your drywall, your roof has been letting it in for a while.

• Hail: circular bruises, granule loss, exposed asphalt, dented soft metals (vents, gutters, AC fins)
• Wind: creased or folded shingles, missing tabs, lifted edges, torn ridge caps
• Both: displaced or bent flashing, damaged pipe boots, debris impact from limbs

The first day is about safety and documentation, not decisions. You have time to choose a contractor and a scope. You do not have time to let water sit in the deck.

Work the list in this order. It keeps you safe and it protects the claim you may or may not decide to file.

1. Stay off the roof. Wet roofing after a storm is the most common way homeowners get hurt, and you can't diagnose a flashing detail from a ladder anyway. Look from the ground.
2. Contain any active leak inside. Bucket under the drip, move furniture, and if a ceiling is bulging, put a small hole at the low point to drain it. A controlled hole beats a collapsed ceiling.
3. Photograph everything, timestamped. The ceiling stain, the drip, the debris in the yard, any shingles on the ground, the dented gutter. You cannot recreate these photos after things dry out, and they are exactly what a carrier reads.
4. Get a professional inspection before you sign anything. A photographed roof-level inspection tells you what actually happened up there, and whether it even clears your deductible.

If weather is still moving through and water is coming in, that's when a temporary dry-in earns its keep. A proper tarp or emergency patch buys days without complicating the permanent repair. We'll do that first and price the real work once it's safe to scope.

Pay out of pocket when the damage is minor and the repair lands at or below your deductible. File a claim when a storm caused sudden, documentable damage that clearly exceeds it. The honest inspection tells you which situation you're in before you commit either way.

This is the decision most of a storm call comes down to, and a good contractor will help you make it honestly rather than push you toward the claim that pays them more. Filing on a $700 repair when your deductible is $2,000 just adds a claim to your record for nothing. Not filing on $18,000 of hail damage leaves real money, and a real roof, on the table. Here is how your two paths compare: find your situation on the left, and your roof and your deductible point you to the verdict on the right.

The number that decides it is your deductible, and you should know it before anyone climbs up. Our inspection gives you a documented scope and photos either way, so whether you pay directly or file, you're making the call with real information instead of a sales pitch.

Homeowner's insurance usually covers sudden storm damage: hail, wind, and impact. It does not cover gradual wear, poor maintenance, or old installation defects. Coverage turns on whether an adjuster reads the damage as a sudden event, which is exactly why documentation before they arrive decides so many claims.

Carriers pay for sudden, accidental events. They do not pay for age, neglect, or a bad prior install that finally gave up. The whole question in a storm claim is which bucket your damage lands in, and that is a documentation fight, not an opinion. Photos of fresh hail bruising, dated to the storm, tell a very different story than a roof that simply wore out.

Insurance window: Most Texas carriers give homeowners one year from the date of loss to file a hail or wind claim. That clock doesn't pause for repair quotes, second opinions, or HOA approval. Document the damage now and decide on the scope later.

Randal Williams, our COO, is a former commercial high-rise field engineer and Xactimate expert with 15+ years in roofing and construction. That background means our inspection documents damage the way a carrier's adjuster reads it, using the same line-item scoping language, so nothing legitimate gets missed. We work alongside your adjuster, not against them. We show up to the inspection, we hand you the photo set, and that documentation belongs to you.

Insurance adjusters are good at their job — which is managing what the insurance company pays out. We're good at ours — which is finding every bit of legitimate damage and documenting it so nothing gets missed. Those two things aren't always the same number. Our photo documentation has caught real damage that initial adjustments missed more times than I can count. That documentation is yours. It belongs to you.

One hard warning, because storm season brings it out every year: any contractor who offers to "take care of," waive, or absorb your insurance deductible is breaking the law. Paying or rebating a homeowner's deductible is prohibited under Texas Insurance Code Chapter 707. You still owe your full deductible to your insurer. That never changes. A contractor promising otherwise is telling you exactly how they do business. Pay the deductible and report the offer.

Filing a legitimate claim for a covered event should not, on its own, single you out for a rate hike, but claim history is one factor carriers weigh, which is the real reason not to file small repairs that fall under your deductible. That is a decision to make with information, and we'll give you ours straight.

Most Texas storm-damage repairs run $400 to $1,200 as a flat job price, with a small pipe-boot fix near $195 to $295 and a multi-point tune-up reaching $3,695. A full storm replacement is a separate scale of decision, priced by roof size, material, and your market.

Storm repairs are priced by the job, not by the square foot. Don't multiply these numbers by your roof area the way you would for a full replacement. That math only applies to a new roof.

Pricing updated July 2026, Texas markets. Repairs are flat-priced by job. Every repair includes the photographed inspection, the written scope, and our workmanship warranty.

When the damage is widespread, bruising across several slopes, creasing over the whole field, or decking that's been wet, you're no longer looking at a repair. A full storm replacement is priced by home size, material, and market, and it climbs from the mid-teens into the tens of thousands. That's where an insurance claim usually carries the load, and it's a bigger conversation than a patch. If that's where your roof is headed, walk through the numbers on the roof replacement page.

The honest middle case is worth naming: a roof that's already 18 or 19 years old with fresh storm damage. A repair is possible, but you'd be spending real money on a roof that's near the end anyway, and that may be exactly the situation a claim is meant for. We'll say that out loud instead of taking the easy repair.

→ Roof repair details · → When replacement is the answer

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Here's the simple version: three steps, no pressure, and you're in control of every one of them.

1. Call or book online. We schedule a free Storm Shield Assessment™, same-day or next-day when there's active water.
2. We inspect, photograph, and put it in writing. You get a documented scope and a photo set, usually within 24 to 48 hours, yours to keep whether you hire us or not.
3. You decide. Pay out of pocket, file a claim, or hold off. We install with a warranty when you're ready.

For a claim, the full sequence has a few more moving parts, and knowing them up front keeps the timeline from surprising you.

1. Free inspection and documentation. We scope the damage roof-level and photograph every finding before anyone talks to a carrier.
2. Written estimate. A line-item scope you can read, in the same format an adjuster works from.
3. Adjuster meeting. We show up to the inspection, walk the damage with your adjuster, and make sure the approved scope reflects what our inspection found.
4. Installation. The install crew we deploy on your roof works under an ARP project manager who checks the work at each stage, not a rotating cast of strangers.
5. Warranty registration. We register your manufacturer warranty in your name and back the workmanship ourselves.

Most claim-driven repairs and replacements run two to six weeks from first inspection to final nail, depending on how fast your carrier moves. And yes, you need a permit for most storm replacements, and we pull it. Permit handling is part of the job, not paperwork you chase down.

After a bad hailstorm, you'll have trucks in the neighborhood before the dents are dry. Some are good people. A lot are gone the day the insurance check clears. The tell is almost never the pitch. It's whether they'll put anything in writing and whether they'll be reachable in year two.

Storms bring out the best contractors and the worst ones on the same street. The difference shows up a year later, when only one of them is still around to honor the work.

Whether you hire us or someone else, ask every roofer who knocks these three questions. The answers tell you more than any yard sign.

1. "Show me a written scope before I sign anything." A real contractor hands you a written scope (materials, underlayment, flashing detail, permit handling, warranty terms) before any deposit. A verbal promise scribbled on a business card is where storm jobs go wrong.

2. "Who's my single point of contact, and will I get photos at each stage?" You should get one project manager from contract through warranty registration, plus a photo record at tear-off, mid-install, and final. A roofer who can't name your contact is telling you how the job will actually run.

3. "Where's your local address, and will you be here in year two?" Storm chasers work out of a truck and a magnetic sign. Ask where the company is based, how long it's been there, and who answers the warranty call after the season ends. We've been answering ours.

Straight answer: for the smallest jobs, sometimes we're not, and we'd rather tell you that here than sell you something you don't need. When you do hire us, you're hiring a trained Storm Shield Assessment™ inspector who documents every finding, one project manager as your point of contact, a vetted install crew supervised by that manager, and the Williams father-and-son team who own the company and sign the warranty. Family-owned and locally accountable, backed by GAF Certified Plus and Atlas PRO+ Platinum Select certification, an A+ BBB rating with zero unresolved complaints, and CTRCA membership.

We're a great fit if you:

• Want the damage documented and photographed the way a carrier reads it
• Want a written scope and a straight answer on repair versus claim
• Want someone who'll be here to honor the warranty in year two
• Would rather hear "this is under your deductible, pay it directly" than get pushed into a claim

We're probably not the right fit if you:

• Want a firm repair price over the phone. We quote repairs after an on-roof inspection, not before.
• Want someone on the roof today with no inspection
• Want a contractor who'll promise to make your deductible disappear
• Are choosing purely on the lowest number

Storm damage is regional in a way most roof problems are not. A hail track that totals every roof in one county leaves the next one untouched. Coastal claims answer to windstorm inspection requirements that inland claims never see. The adjusters, the permit office, the local deadlines, and the storm history your carrier will pull all belong to the market rather than to the state. That is why ARP documents storm claims through local teams: San Antonio, Austin, New Braunfels, Kerrville, Victoria, Corpus Christi, and across the Texas Hill Country. Start with the one you live in and the dates, the deadlines, and the numbers get specific to your address.

After a storm you deserve facts, not a sales pitch. Book a free Storm Shield Assessment™ and we'll inspect the roof, photograph every finding, and tell you honestly whether you're looking at a repair, a claim, or nothing worth filing. The documentation is yours either way.

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