Unnecessary roof replacements are out of control, and they’re driving homeowners insurance rates sky-high in Minnesota. Everyone needs to take a chill pill when it comes to roof replacements.
From a home inspection perspective, here’s how it affects me:
- We inspect a home, we say the roof is in good shape.
- New buyers move in.
- Roofing salesperson knocks on door, tells the new buyers they probably have hail damage, offers a free inspection.
- They inspect the roof and tell the buyers they have hail damage.
- The buyers angrily call us back and say “why didn’t you tell me I had hail damage?!”
What is hail damage?
For the common scenario I cited above, there’s only one question to ask: does the roof have hail damage? That’s where we get into the grey area. I’ve seen roofers and hail claim adjusters bicker over precisely what is and isn’t hail damage. I don’t claim to be an expert in assessing hail damage. For that, I turn to a study done by Haag Engineering, which I’ve heard referenced by industry experts countless times for the past couple of decades. Here’s a link: Haag Engineering Hail Damage Study. And here’s another helpful document from Haag: Protocol for Assessment of Hail-Damaged Roofing.
Here are a few key points from the first report:
- It takes 1.5″ ice stones to damage thicker, laminated-type shingles half the time.
- When you lose granules on shingles from a hail storm, you do not shorten the life of a roof. You read that correctly.
- You need an actual bruise (or hole or tear) to call something hail damage. “Shingle bruises are an indentation with fracture in the mat that feels soft like that of an apple bruise. The bruise is usually obvious as granules are also dislodged from the impact area.“
That last point needs repeating. You need real bruises to call it hail damage.
My recent experience
I had some door-knockers stop by my house a week or two ago, offering a free roof inspection. I invited them to inspect my roof, and sure enough, they found all kinds of hail damage. They showed me the photos. They tried to get me to call my insurance company to file a claim. They insisted it was serious.
And everything they showed me looked PERFECTLY FINE. I would never report on any of this stuff during a home inspection.
I got up on the roof after they left to check it out for myself. No bruises, no holes, no tears. No nothing. But they would have eagerly had me file an insurance claim so my 6-year-old roof could be replaced.
I told them I wasn’t ready to file a claim, as all of this looked to be insignificant. They tried to educate me about how the loss of granules and these impact marks will severely shorten the length of my roof. After I told them I’m a home inspector and I have some basic knowledge of shingles, they left very quickly. I later asked them to send me their “evidence” photos, but they never replied to my emails and phone calls.
Summary
A big reason for skyrocketing insurance rates is unnecessary roof covering replacements. In my humble opinion, hail damage claims are wildly out of control. Thousands and thousands of perfectly good roofs get replaced because of storm chasers. For a longer discussion of the insurance details, check out my recent podcast on this topic: Homeowners insurance prices are skyrocketing.
