Hail vs Wind Damage: How to Tell Them Apart and Document the Difference

Two roofs on the same street can take the same storm and end up with completely different damage. One has soft, round bruises scattered across the south and west slopes. The other has shingles folded back, tabs missing, and a clean tear line along a hip. Same weather event, two different forces, and two different conversations with the homeowner and the carrier. If you call the wind damage "hail" or write the hail roof as a "wind" loss, your documentation falls apart the moment anyone looks closely, and you lose credibility on a job you could have earned.

Telling hail from wind is a core field skill, and most crews are sloppier at it than they think. The good news is that the two damage patterns are mechanically different, they leave different signatures, and once you train your eye you can usually read a slope in the first thirty seconds on it. What follows is the way an experienced inspector actually works it: the physics, the visual tells, the test-square method, the photo sequence that survives scrutiny, and how to translate what you found into a repair estimate that matches the real cause of loss. We will also be honest about where it gets ambiguous, because pretending every roof is obvious is how people get burned.

One ground rule before the roof talk. Your job as a contractor is to inspect thoroughly, document what you actually see, and write an accurate estimate to repair your own scope of work. You hand that to the homeowner. The homeowner files the claim, and the insurer decides what is covered. You are not the adjuster, you do not interpret the policy, and you do not promise an outcome. Stay on the documentation and estimate side and you stay on solid ground. We will come back to that line near the end, because the way you talk about your findings matters almost as much as the findings themselves.

The physics: why hail and wind break a roof differently

You cannot reliably tell two kinds of damage apart until you understand what each force is doing to the shingle. They are not variations of the same thing. They are different loads applied in different directions over different timescales.

What hail actually does

Hail is a high-speed impact event, normal to the roof surface. A stone falls more or less straight down (steeper on windy storms, but still impacting the plane), and the energy concentrates on a small contact patch for a few thousandths of a second. On an asphalt shingle, that impact does three things in sequence: it fractures and dislodges the protective granules at the point of contact, it bruises or cracks the asphalt-and-mat layer underneath, and on a hard enough hit it can crack clear through the mat so the shingle loses its waterproofing integrity.

The defining characteristic of real hail damage is the soft, round bruise with granule loss and a fractured mat that you can feel. Press a thumb on a true hail hit and the spot has a slight give, like a fresh bruise on fruit, because the mat fibers are broken underneath. That tactile test, combined with the round shape and the displaced granules, is what separates hail from the dozen things that merely look like hail.

Hail damage is also directional by storm, random by placement. The stones come in from a prevailing direction, so one or two slopes (often the south and west on a typical storm track, but verify with the actual storm data, not a rule of thumb) take far more hits than the leeward slopes. Within a hit slope, the impacts are scattered with no pattern, no alignment to the shingle courses, and no respect for nailing lines. That randomness is a signature in itself.

What wind actually does

Wind is a different animal. It does not impact the surface, it lifts it. As air accelerates over a roof, it creates negative pressure (suction) on the surface, strongest at the edges, corners, ridges, and hips where the airflow separates. When the uplift force exceeds the bond holding a shingle down, the shingle's leading edge lifts. From there one of three things happens.

First, the shingle flexes up and back down, and the repeated flexing breaks the seal strip and creases the shingle across its width. That wind crease is a horizontal fold line, often with the granule surface cracked along the crease and the underside seal broken. The shingle may lie back down and look almost normal from a distance, which is exactly why creasing gets missed.

Second, the bond fails entirely and the shingle folds back or blows off, leaving the tab missing and the underlayment or the shingle below exposed. You see missing tabs, exposed nail heads, and torn shingles, usually clustered at the edges and high-stress zones.

Third, on older or brittle roofs the wind tears the shingle along a line, leaving a ragged or clean tear that follows the direction of the gust.

The defining characteristics of wind damage are directionality tied to building geometry (edges, corners, rakes, ridges, the windward-facing slopes) and damage that aligns with seams, courses, and the mechanical layout of the roof rather than being randomly scattered. Wind exploits the weak points: poorly sealed tabs, the starter course, the perimeter. Hail does not care where the weak points are.

The one-line mental model

Here is the shorthand to keep in your head on the roof:

• Hail = impact from above, round, random, granule loss, bruised/fractured mat you can feel, concentrated on the slopes facing the storm.
• Wind = uplift from the edges, linear, creased or folded or torn or missing, follows the building's geometry and the shingle courses, concentrated on edges/corners/ridges and windward slopes.

Everything below is just learning to read those two signatures cleanly and prove them with photos.

Reading hail damage on the roof

Let's get specific about what a real hail hit looks like, because half of the field disagreements about hail come from people calling cosmetic stuff functional, or calling manufacturing texture hail.

The anatomy of a functional hail hit

A functional hail strike on a three-tab or architectural asphalt shingle has these elements, and you want to find as many as you can on a single hit before you call it:

1. Granule loss in a roughly circular area. The granules are knocked off, exposing the darker asphalt underneath. Fresh hits look dark and clean; older hits oxidize and lighten.
2. A bruise you can feel. Run your fingers or thumb over it. A true hit has a soft spot where the mat is fractured. This is the single most reliable tactile test and it separates hail from a blister or a scuff.
3. A fractured mat, sometimes visible as a small crack radiating from center, sometimes only felt. On a serious hit you can see the fiberglass mat broken.
4. Random distribution with a density that tracks the storm direction. Count the hits in a test square and the number should be meaningfully higher on the storm-facing slopes.
5. Collateral spatter on soft metals and surfaces that corroborates the event (more on this below).

If you have granule loss plus a soft bruise plus directional concentration plus collateral evidence, you have a defensible hail finding. If you have only granule loss in a perfect circle with no give and no collateral, slow down, because that might not be hail.

Collateral evidence: the corroboration most crews skip

The roof shingles tell you what happened to the roof. The rest of the property tells you whether hail actually fell, how big it was, and which direction it came from. Pros document the soft metals and accessories first, because they are easier to read and they corroborate the shingle findings.

Walk the property and the roof for:

• Spatter marks on metal: the tops of vents, the drip edge, valley metal, gutters, gutter aprons, flashing, and the roof of any HVAC condenser. Hail strips the oxidation/dirt film off metal and leaves bright, clean dings. Fresh spatter is unmistakable.
• Dents in soft metal: gutters, downspouts, fascia wrap, garage door panels, mailbox, and especially the gutter screen or gutter apron, which dents easily and shows direction.
• Damage to non-roof accessories: window screens torn or dimpled, A/C condenser fins flattened on the storm-facing side, painted surfaces chipped, deck furniture and grills dinged, shed and outbuilding roofs.
• Splatter on the deck, sidewalk, or driveway if you are there soon after the storm: light-colored chalky rings where stones hit.

The direction of the dents on the condenser fins and gutters tells you the storm direction, which should match the slopes with the most shingle hits. When those two agree, your documentation is internally consistent and far harder to argue with. When they disagree, you have a problem you need to understand before you write anything.

What gets mistaken for hail (and how to not embarrass yourself)

This is where reputations are made. Calling these out correctly is what separates an inspector from a guesser:

• Blistering: small raised bumps from trapped moisture or volatiles in the asphalt that pop and lose granules. Blisters are usually more uniform across the whole slope, often have a raised rim, and the exposed spot has no bruise underneath. They are a manufacturing/aging condition, not impact.
• Mechanical/foot-traffic damage: scuffs and granule scatter from prior workers, dish installers, or your own crew. These follow walk paths and have a smeared, directional look, not a clean round impact.
• Manufacturing surface texture and granule shading: normal variation that an untrained eye reads as "spots."
• Algae and lichen: dark streaks and growth, not damage.
• Clear-coat/sealant loss and normal aging granule loss on an old roof: the whole slope is shedding granules from age, with no impact bruising.
• Manufacturing defects: racking marks, factory blisters, edge cracking.

The discipline is simple. Do not call hail unless you can show the round shape, the granule loss, and the bruise, ideally with collateral spatter. If a so-called hit has no give underneath and no corroborating spatter on the metals, treat it as cosmetic or non-hail until proven otherwise.

The brittle-roof and matting consideration

Older asphalt shingles get brittle. On a brittle roof, hail can crack the shingle more dramatically, and even your test-square chalking and lifting during inspection can cause damage if you are rough. Be careful: damaging shingles during your own inspection and then photographing them is the fastest way to destroy your own credibility. Walk gently, lift gently, and on a roof too brittle to walk safely, document from the eave and a ladder rather than risk creating the damage you are claiming.

Reading wind damage on the roof

Wind damage is mechanically simpler to identify but easier to under-document because some of it lies back down and hides.

The signatures of wind

• Creasing: a horizontal fold line across a shingle where it lifted and flexed. Look for cracked granule surface along the crease and a broken seal strip underneath. Lift the shingle above and check whether the seal is intact. A broken seal with a crease is wind, full stop.
• Missing tabs / blow-offs: gone shingles, exposed nails or underlayment, often in clusters at the rakes, eaves, ridges, hips, and the field of the windward slope.
• Torn or split shingles: along the gust direction, sometimes with the torn piece hanging or displaced.
• Lifted / unsealed shingles: tabs that have lost their seal and lift freely. Slide a flat tool under the tab; if it lifts with no resistance across a wide area, the seal is broken.
• Damage at the high-stress geometry: ridge caps displaced or missing, hip caps lifted, drip edge and starter course peeled, flashing lifted. Wind attacks the perimeter and the transitions first.

The seal test is your best friend

The most under-used wind test is checking the seal strip. A healthy shingle is glued to the one below by a thermal-activated adhesive strip. When wind lifts a shingle, that bond breaks. Gently lift the leading edge of suspect shingles. If they pop up freely with no adhesive resistance and you see a clean, un-bonded strip, the seal failed. A pattern of unsealed shingles across the windward slope and edges is wind damage even when nothing is visibly missing. This is the damage that gets missed by a windshield inspection and that you should be finding.

Be fair about it though: shingles also lose their seal from age and heat over many years, and a roof at the end of its life will have unsealed tabs everywhere with no storm involved. Tie unsealed shingles to a specific event by their directionality (windward-concentrated), the presence of fresh creasing, and the storm record. Universal unsealing with no creasing on a 22-year-old roof is age, not a claim.

Distinguishing wind from hail when both happened

Many storms bring both. A roof can have hail bruising scattered across the field and wind creasing along the rakes and ridge. That is fine, and it is common. Document them as two separate findings with separate photo sets. The mistake is lumping everything into one label. If you found both, say you found both, show both, and let the scope reflect both. Internal honesty here is what makes the whole packet believable.

The field workflow: how to inspect so your documentation holds up

Good documentation is not a pile of random roof photos. It is a structured record that lets anyone reconstruct what you saw, where, and why it points to a specific cause. Here is the sequence experienced crews follow.

Step 0: pull the storm context before you climb

Before you are on the roof, know what you are looking for. Pull the date and type of the relevant storm event from the public weather record and have the reported hail size and peak wind for that location and date. The National Weather Service local storm reports, the SPC storm reports, and NOAA's storm event database give you event dates, hail sizes, and wind estimates by area. Knowing a storm dropped 1.5-inch hail with 60 mph gusts from the southwest on a specific date tells you which slopes to scrutinize and sets a realistic expectation. If the record shows pea-sized hail and light wind, do not go up expecting (or manufacturing) a total.

This matters for honesty as much as efficiency. The storm record is a check on your own findings. If you are calling severe hail damage on a date and location where no significant hail was reported, something is wrong with your read.

Step 1: document the ground and the property first

Start at the ground, walk the perimeter, and photograph in this order:

1. A front-of-house establishing shot that shows the address (or capture the house number separately). This anchors every other photo to a property.
2. Soft-metal collateral: gutters, downspouts, fascia, A/C condenser fins, mailbox, garage door, window screens. Note the directionality of dents.
3. Spatter on the deck/drive/sidewalk if present.
4. Each elevation (front, back, both sides) as an overview before you go up.

Documenting collateral first means that by the time you are reading shingles, you already know whether hail fell and from which direction.

Step 2: the test-square method on the roof

The test square is the backbone of credible hail documentation. The method:

1. On each slope, mark a 10 ft by 10 ft (100 sq ft) square with chalk. Pick a representative area, not the worst spot you can find and not the cleanest.
2. Count the functional hits inside the square. Mark each hit with chalk (a circle or X) so they show in photos.
3. Record the count per slope and note the slope orientation (N/S/E/W). Repeat on every slope, including the ones you expect to be clean, because the contrast between hit slopes and clean slopes is itself evidence of a directional storm.
4. For wind, document creasing, unsealing, and damage along that slope's edges and ridge in the same pass.

The per-slope hit counts give you a defensible density picture: heavy on the storm-facing slopes, light or zero on the leeward ones. That directional gradient is exactly what a real hail event produces and what random non-hail mottling does not.

A note on chalk: chalking hits is standard practice and makes the damage legible in a photo. Do not over-mark or circle things that are not real hits, and never chalk a "hit" you could not also feel as a bruise. Your chalk marks are a claim. Make them honest.

Step 3: the photo sequence that survives scrutiny

For every finding, shoot a three-shot progression so the viewer can place it and judge it:

1. Context / wide shot: the slope or area, showing where on the roof this is. Include a landmark (vent, ridge, chimney) so the location is unambiguous.
2. Medium shot: the test square or the cluster of damage, with the chalk marks visible and a tape measure or other scale in frame.
3. Close-up: the individual hit or crease, in focus, filling the frame, with a coin, chalk circle, or marked ruler for scale. The bruise, the granule loss, the fractured mat, or the broken seal should be clearly visible.

Do this for hail hits and separately for wind creases and missing tabs. Every close-up should be traceable back to a wide shot and a slope. A folder full of close-ups with no context shots is weak; nobody can tell where they came from.

Step 4: measure and record the rest of the roof reality

While you are up there, capture the facts that drive the repair scope and that you will need for the estimate:

• Slope measurements / total squares (from your measurement tool, drone, or a roof report).
• Pitch of each slope.
• Layers of roofing present.
• Shingle type and an attempt at matching (manufacturer/line if identifiable). Photograph any markings.
• Existing repairs, prior damage, and pre-existing conditions honestly. If there is old foot-traffic damage or a prior leak, document it as pre-existing. Hiding pre-existing conditions and then claiming them is fraud and it is also obvious.
• Penetrations and accessories: vents, pipe boots, skylights, chimney, valleys, flashing condition.
• Decking and ventilation notes if accessible from the attic.

Step 5: the attic and interior, when relevant

If there are interior leaks or you suspect deck damage, document the attic: wet decking, daylight through the roof, stained insulation, active drips. Tie any interior water stain to a roof penetration or damage point directly above it with photos of both. Interior damage that you cannot connect to a roof opening is not yet evidence of roof loss.

Building the documentation packet

When you come down, you should be able to assemble a packet that tells the story without you narrating it. A strong packet has:

1. Property and date: address, inspection date, and the relevant storm event date pulled from the weather record.
2. A roof diagram with slopes labeled (N/S/E/W) and the test-square locations and hit counts marked on it.
3. Collateral evidence set: the soft-metal and accessory photos with directionality noted.
4. Per-slope evidence sets: for each slope, the wide-medium-close progression, the hit count, and the wind findings.
5. A clear cause-of-loss summary in plain factual language: what you observed (round bruises with granule loss and fractured mats on the SW and W slopes; wind creasing and unsealed tabs along the rakes and ridge), the per-slope counts, and the corroborating collateral. State observations, not conclusions about coverage.
6. Measurements and roof facts for the estimate.
7. The repair estimate itself.

The key discipline in the written summary is to describe, not adjudicate. Write "South and west slopes show functional hail damage: round granule-loss impacts with fractured mats, 14 and 11 hits per test square respectively; north slope shows 1 hit per square." Do not write "this roof qualifies for full replacement" or "this is a covered loss." The first is documentation. The second is a coverage determination, which is not your call.

Writing the estimate so it matches the cause of loss

Your estimate is an estimate to repair your own scope of work, written to reflect what you documented. It should be line-item, Xactimate-aligned in structure and pricing logic, and consistent with the damage you photographed. If your scope and your photos do not match, the whole packet loses credibility.

Match scope to documented damage

The scope follows the findings:

• If you documented functional hail across the field of multiple slopes with high test-square counts, the scope reflects slope or full-roof replacement of the affected planes, plus the accessories hail damaged (vents, valley metal, etc.) and the directly related components.
• If you documented localized wind damage (missing tabs and creasing along two rakes and the ridge), the honest scope is the repair of those areas plus reasonable related work, not a full replacement, unless matching or code issues genuinely drive a larger scope and you can document why.
• Collateral and accessory damage goes in as its own line items: gutters, downspouts, screens, A/C fins (note: you repair roofing; other trades handle their own), drip edge, flashing, vents, pipe boots, ridge/hip caps.

Account for the real cost drivers, with documentation

The parts of an estimate people fight over are usually the parts that are poorly documented. Document them so they are not in question:

• Matching / availability: if the shingle is discontinued or you cannot match it, photograph the existing shingle markings and note the discontinuation. Matching considerations can legitimately affect scope, but back it with evidence, not assertion.
• Code/building requirements: if local code requires ice-and-water shield, drip edge, specific ventilation, or removal of multiple layers, cite the applicable code item. Code-driven line items are normal; reference the requirement.
• Steep/high (access) and layers: pitch over a certain threshold and multiple tear-off layers cost more labor. Your pitch and layer photos justify these line items.
• Detach and reset of items (satellite dishes, solar, gutters) where the work requires it.
• Disposal, permits, and underlayment as the job requires.

Write each line so the reason it exists traces back to a photo or a measurement. An estimate where every line has a documented basis is one that holds together.

A short worked example

Say you inspect a 28-square architectural roof after a verified storm that dropped 1.75-inch hail with 55 mph gusts from the southwest. Your test squares come back: SW slope 16 hits, W slope 12, S slope 9, E slope 2, N slope 1. Collateral: heavy spatter and dents on the SW-facing gutters, condenser fins flattened on the SW side, two dimpled window screens. Wind: creasing and three missing tabs along the SW rake, ridge cap displaced for about 8 feet.

That documentation supports a scope of full replacement of the roofing system (the field hail across the three storm-facing slopes is functional and the slopes are interlinked), plus ridge cap, the hail-damaged vents and valley metal, drip edge per code, ice-and-water at the eaves per code, and the collateral items as their own lines. The directional gradient (16/12/9 on storm-facing vs 2/1 on leeward) and the matching collateral make the cause of loss legible: hail from the southwest, with secondary wind at the rake and ridge. Every number in the estimate ties to a photo or a measurement. That is what a defensible packet looks like.

If instead the counts had come back 2/1/1/0/0 with no collateral and a couple of unsealed tabs, the honest packet is a minor wind repair and a maintenance note, not a replacement. Writing the small roof big is how contractors lose their reputation and worse.

Finding the roofs worth inspecting in the first place

Everything above is about a roof you are already standing on. The harder business problem is upstream: which roofs in the storm footprint are actually worth the truck roll? After a hail or wind event you could knock a whole zip code, but most of those roofs either took little real damage or are too new to matter, and you burn days and goodwill finding that out one ladder at a time.

This is where modeling the storm against the housing stock saves real labor. RoofPredict ranks the addresses in a storm footprint by combining two signals: a roof-age range estimated from aerial imagery for each house, and storm physics modeled per roof (hail size and wind exposure at that specific location and slope, from the event data). A roof that is aging out and sat under the heavy part of the cell is a far better first knock than a two-year-old roof that caught the edge of the storm. The output is a prioritized list and route, and it can enrich a contractor's own CRM or mailing list with those roof-age and storm signals so your existing pipeline gets sharper rather than replaced.

Be clear about the limits, because the honest version of this is the useful one. The roof age is a range, not a build date from a permit. The storm model gives odds and exposure, not proof that a specific roof is damaged. Neither one tells you hail from wind, and neither replaces the test square, the seal check, and the photos. What it does is point your crews at the doors most likely to have a real, documentable loss, so the time you spend on roofs is spent on the roofs that earn it. The inspection and documentation discipline covered above is still exactly what closes the job once you are there; the data just gets you to the right roof faster.

The compliance line: document and estimate, do not adjust

This deserves its own section because it is where contractors get themselves into real trouble, and because doing it right is also better salesmanship.

There is a bright line between what a roofing contractor may do and what only a licensed public adjuster may do. Cross it and you are practicing public adjusting without a license, which is illegal in most states and is exactly the behavior the industry is being cleaned up over.

What you may do:

• Inspect the roof thoroughly and document what you find.
• Photograph and describe the damage factually.
• Write an accurate, itemized estimate to repair your own scope of work.
• State facts about your scope and the condition of the roof to the homeowner, and to the carrier when asked about your own work.
• Hand the homeowner your documentation and estimate so they can file.
• Meet the adjuster on the roof and walk them through what you physically observed and documented.

What you may not do (the do-not-say / do-not-do list):

• Do not negotiate, adjust, or "handle" the claim for the homeowner for a fee. That is public adjusting.
• Do not interpret the policy or tell the homeowner what is or is not covered. Coverage is the insurer's determination.
• Do not promise a specific payout, approval, or that the claim "will go through."
• Do not promise the deductible will be waived, absorbed, eaten, or made to disappear, and do not build a scope to hide a deductible. Absorbing a deductible is illegal in many states and is insurance fraud.
• Do not advertise or promise a "free roof."
• Do not represent the homeowner against the insurer.

The safe and effective frame is this: you document thoroughly, you write an accurate estimate, and you give it to the homeowner. The homeowner files the claim and the insurer decides coverage. When a homeowner asks "will this be covered?" the honest answer is "I have documented the damage I found and written an accurate estimate; whether it's covered is the insurer's call, and your documentation is strong." That answer is both legally clean and more credible than a promise you cannot keep.

Why this is also good for sales: the contractor who shows up with a labeled roof diagram, per-slope hit counts, collateral photos that prove direction, and a line-item estimate that ties to every photo is the contractor the homeowner trusts and the adjuster takes seriously. You win on the strength of the documentation, not on a promise. The discipline that keeps you legal is the same discipline that makes you look like the most professional roofer the homeowner has met.

How the two damage patterns evolve over the roof's life

A roof is not a fresh test specimen. Most of the roofs you inspect are somewhere in the middle or the back half of their service life, and age changes how both hail and wind register. Understanding that interaction keeps you from misreading a normal aging condition as a storm loss, and from missing real storm damage on a tired roof.

Hail on a new roof vs an old roof

A new asphalt shingle has a flexible mat and a full granule bed, so a marginal hailstone may only knock granules without fracturing the mat. As the same roof ages, the asphalt oxidizes and the mat embrittles, so the identical-size stone that left a cosmetic mark at year three leaves a fractured, functional bruise at year eighteen. Two consequences follow. First, a borderline storm can produce functional damage on an older roof and only cosmetic marking on a newer one nearby, which is a legitimate physical reason two roofs on the same block read differently. Second, brittle older roofs crack more dramatically and are far easier to damage during your own inspection, so your walking and lifting discipline matters most exactly where the roof looks worst. Document the bruise and the fracture; do not let the roof's age make you assume every mark is functional or assume none are.

Wind on a new roof vs an old roof

Wind exploits the seal, and the seal is a chemistry-and-heat bond that weakens with age. A young, well-sealed roof resists uplift until the wind is genuinely strong; when it fails, the failure is clearly event-driven, with fresh creasing and clean broken bonds. An old roof has tabs that have already lost their seal from years of thermal cycling, so a modest gust finishes the job. The diagnostic challenge is separating event unsealing from age unsealing. Lean on three checks: directionality (event damage concentrates on the windward slope and edges, age unsealing is roughly uniform), the presence of fresh creasing (a fold and cracked granules say the shingle was actively flexed in a gust), and the storm record (did the reported wind actually reach a level that would lift a sealed shingle). Universal unsealing with no creasing on a two-decade-old roof is age; windward-concentrated creasing with broken bonds after a verified wind event is a loss.

Reading the whole-roof condition honestly

Part of a credible packet is an honest assessment of where the roof sits in its life. Note the apparent age, the general granule cover, the brittleness, and any widespread aging conditions, separately from the storm findings. This protects you twice. It keeps you from blaming age on the storm, and it keeps a reviewer from using obvious aging to dismiss your real, well-documented storm damage. Stating "roof is approximately mid-to-late service life with general granule wear; storm findings below are distinct from this baseline" is the kind of plain honesty that makes the rest of your documentation more believable, not less.

Edge cases and what pros get wrong

A few situations trip up even experienced crews. Knowing them ahead of time keeps you out of bad calls.

Old hail vs new hail

Damage from a storm two years ago looks different from yesterday's. Fresh hits are dark with clean, sharp granule loss and clean spatter. Old hits oxidize: the exposed asphalt lightens, the edges soften, and the spatter on metals dulls. If you are documenting for a recent event, fresh-looking damage corroborates the date; if everything looks weathered and oxidized, the damage may predate the storm you are there about. Be honest about age. Claiming old hail as new is the kind of thing that unravels a packet fast.

Cosmetic vs functional

Not all hail marks compromise the roof. A ding that knocked a few granules off but did not fracture the mat is cosmetic, not functional. The bruise-feel test is your discriminator: no fractured mat, no functional damage. Counting cosmetic marks as functional hits to pad a test square is the most common way crews inflate a roof, and it is the easiest thing for a careful reviewer to take apart. Count functional hits only.

Mechanical and creation damage

The damage you or a prior worker put on the roof with a foot, a tool, or rough chalking is not storm damage. Walk gently, especially on brittle roofs. If your inspection method is creating the marks you are photographing, you have no case and you have a liability.

Metal, tile, wood, and synthetic roofs

Most of the discussion centers on asphalt because it is most of the market, but the principles transfer with different signatures. Metal: hail leaves dents (often cosmetic on the panel but can compromise coatings and seams); wind lifts and peels panels at the seams and edges. Tile: hail cracks or chips tiles on impact; wind lifts and slides tiles and breaks them on landing. Wood shake: hail splits shakes with a fresh, sharp split and impact marks; wind splits and displaces them. Synthetic/composite: varies by product. In every case, read the same two questions: was this an impact from above (hail) or an uplift/displacement from the edges (wind)? Document with the same wide-medium-close progression and the same collateral check.

When you genuinely cannot tell

Sometimes a mark is ambiguous and the collateral is thin. The professional move is to say so. Document it as "indeterminate" rather than forcing it into a category. A packet that honestly flags two uncertain marks among forty clear ones is more credible than one that confidently mislabels everything. Certainty you cannot support is a weakness, not a strength.

A field checklist you can run on every roof

Use this as the repeatable routine. Run it the same way every time and your documentation quality stops depending on the mood of the day.

Before the climb:

• Pull the storm event: date, hail size, peak wind, direction (NWS/SPC/NOAA records).
• Note expected hit slopes based on storm direction.
• Confirm roof is safe to walk; plan ladder/eave documentation if not.

On the ground:

• Establishing shot with address.
• Soft-metal collateral: gutters, downspouts, fascia, A/C fins, mailbox, garage door, screens; note dent direction.
• Spatter on deck/drive/walk if present.
• Each elevation overview.

On the roof, per slope:

• Mark a 10x10 test square in a representative area.
• Count and chalk functional hits only (round, granule loss, felt bruise/fractured mat).
• Record hit count and slope orientation.
• Check seal strips: lift suspect tabs, note unsealing.
• Document creasing, missing tabs, torn shingles, ridge/hip cap damage.
• Wide-medium-close photo progression for each finding, with scale in frame.

Roof facts:

• Measurements / total squares, pitch per slope, number of layers.
• Shingle type and matching attempt; photograph markings.
• Penetrations, flashing, valleys, accessories condition.
• Pre-existing conditions documented honestly.

Interior (if relevant):

• Attic decking, daylight, stains, active leaks tied to a roof point above.

Packet:

• Roof diagram with slopes labeled and test-square counts marked.
• Collateral set, per-slope sets, measurements.
• Factual cause-of-loss summary (observations, not coverage determinations).
• Line-item estimate with every line tied to a photo or measurement.

Putting it together

The difference between a crew that wins storm work and one that spins its wheels is rarely sales talk. It is the quality of the read on the roof and the discipline of the documentation. Learn the physics so you know hail is a round impact from above and wind is an uplift from the edges. Train your eye and your thumb to separate a functional hail bruise from a blister, a scuff, or normal aging, and to separate a fresh wind crease with a broken seal from a roof that simply unsealed with age. Corroborate everything with collateral so your story is internally consistent. Shoot the wide-medium-close progression on every finding so anyone can place it. Pull the storm record so your read has an external check. Then write an estimate that matches what you actually documented, line by line, and hand it to the homeowner to file.

Do that and you do not need to promise anyone a payout, erase a deductible, or hand out a free roof. You let the documentation carry the job. The roofs are out there after every storm; the work is finding the ones that took a real, documentable loss and proving it cleanly. Get to the right roofs faster, read them honestly, document them like a professional, and the rest follows.

FAQ

What is the single most reliable way to tell hail damage from wind damage?

Read the direction and shape of the force. Hail is an impact from above: round marks with granule loss and a soft bruise you can feel where the shingle mat is fractured, scattered randomly and concentrated on the slopes facing the storm. Wind is an uplift from the edges: linear creases, broken seal strips, missing or folded tabs, and torn shingles, concentrated at rakes, ridges, hips, corners, and the windward slope. If you can feel a soft, fractured bruise it is hail; if you see a fold line with a broken adhesive strip it is wind.

How do I prove hail actually fell and isn't just blistering or aging?

Corroborate the shingle hits with collateral evidence on the rest of the property: fresh spatter and dents on gutters, downspouts, fascia, vent caps, valley metal, and A/C condenser fins, plus any dimpled window screens or chipped paint. Real hail leaves directional dents that should match the slopes with the most shingle hits. Blistering and aging granule loss leave no bruise underneath and no collateral spatter. Pull the storm record for the date and location to confirm hail of a meaningful size was reported.

What is the test-square method and why does it matter?

Mark a 10 ft by 10 ft (100 sq ft) square with chalk on each slope, count only the functional hail hits inside it (round, granule loss, felt fractured mat), chalk each hit so it shows in photos, and record the count along with the slope orientation. Repeat on every slope. The result is a per-slope density picture: a real hail event shows a directional gradient, heavy on storm-facing slopes and light on leeward ones. That gradient is strong, defensible evidence; random non-hail mottling does not produce it.

How should I photograph storm damage so the documentation holds up?

Shoot a three-shot progression for every finding: a wide context shot showing where on the roof it is (include a landmark), a medium shot of the test square or damage cluster with chalk marks and a scale visible, and a close-up of the individual hit or crease in focus with a coin, ruler, or chalk circle for scale. Document collateral and each elevation from the ground first. Every close-up should trace back to a wide shot and a labeled slope so anyone can reconstruct exactly what you saw and where.

What is a wind crease and how do I confirm it?

A wind crease is a horizontal fold line across a shingle, created when wind lifted the leading edge and the shingle flexed up and back down. Confirm it by looking for cracked granules along the fold and by gently lifting the shingle to check the seal strip underneath: a broken, un-bonded adhesive strip paired with a crease is wind damage. A pattern of unsealed, creased shingles concentrated on the windward slope and edges is wind, even when no shingles are visibly missing.

Can a roof have both hail and wind damage at the same time?

Yes, and it is common. Many storms bring hail and high wind together, so a roof can show hail bruising scattered across the field and wind creasing or missing tabs along the rakes and ridge. Document them as two separate findings with separate photo sets and counts, and let your estimate scope reflect both. The mistake is lumping everything under one label; honestly recording both is what makes the whole packet believable.

How do I tell old hail damage from recent damage?

Fresh hits are dark with clean, sharp granule loss, and collateral spatter on metals is bright and clean. Older hits oxidize: the exposed asphalt lightens, the edges soften, and the metal spatter dulls. If you are documenting a recent event and everything looks weathered and oxidized, the damage may predate that storm. Note the apparent age honestly in your documentation, because claiming old damage as new from a specific storm is the kind of inconsistency that unravels a packet.

What should I tell a homeowner who asks whether the damage will be covered?

Stay on the documentation side. Tell them you have inspected and documented the damage you found and written an accurate estimate to repair it, and that whether it is covered is the insurer's determination, not yours. You may give them the documentation and estimate to file, and walk the adjuster through what you physically observed. You should not interpret their policy, promise a payout or approval, promise the deductible will be waived or absorbed, or offer a free roof. The strength of your documentation is what builds trust, not a promise about coverage.

Where does RoofPredict fit into hail vs wind inspection?

RoofPredict works upstream of the inspection. After a storm it ranks the addresses in the footprint by combining a roof-age range estimated from aerial imagery with storm physics modeled per roof (hail size and wind exposure at that location), so your crews knock the doors most likely to have a real, documentable loss first. It does not tell hail from wind and it does not prove a specific roof is damaged; the roof age is a range, not a build date, and the storm model gives odds, not proof. The test square, seal check, and photos still do the work of identifying and documenting the loss once you are on the roof.

What is the difference between cosmetic and functional hail damage?

Functional hail damage fractures the shingle mat, compromising the roof's ability to shed water; you can feel a soft bruise under a true functional hit. Cosmetic damage knocked a few granules off but left the mat intact, with no felt bruise. Only functional hits should be counted in a test square. Padding the count with cosmetic marks is the most common way crews inflate a roof, and it is the easiest thing for a careful reviewer to take apart, so count functional hits only and note cosmetic marks separately if at all.