Document everything with dated photos before you touch anything, make only temporary repairs, get a professional inspection before you call your insurance company, and be careful with out-of-town door-knockers. The order matters more than the speed.
The storm passed, the ice is melting in the yard, and every roofing company in a 500-mile radius is about to head for your neighborhood. What you do in the next 48 hours won’t change what the hail did — but it will decide how smoothly the next two months go. Here’s the order that works.
Check for broken windows, damaged vehicles, and anything hanging or dangling from the roofline. If water is actively coming in, put buckets down and move belongings — but stay off the roof. Wet shingles with loose granules are as slick as ice, and nothing up there is worth a fall.
Take photos of everything, from the ground, with your phone — it stamps the date and time automatically. Get:
This is the evidence an insurance adjuster will rely on later, and it’s easiest to capture before anything gets cleaned up or melts.
If there’s an active leak, it’s fine to tarp it or have someone tarp it — insurers actually expect you to prevent further damage, and reasonable temporary repairs are typically covered. Keep the receipts. What you shouldn’t do is start permanent repairs before the insurance company has seen the damage. Fixing it first can make the claim much harder.
This surprises people, but the order matters. If you file a claim first and the damage turns out to be minor, you’ve logged a claim on your record for nothing. A free professional inspection first tells you what you’re actually dealing with — and if it does warrant a claim, you’ll start it with photos and documentation already in hand. We walk through the whole process on our insurance claims page.
After a big storm, crews follow the hail. Some are legitimate; some will be gone before your shingles are. A few Colorado-specific things worth knowing:
A local company will still be here next spring when a warranty question comes up. That’s the real difference.
Some leaks show up with the next rain, not the storm itself. Keep an eye on ceilings and attic spaces for new stains over the following couple of weeks, and photograph anything that appears with a dated phone photo.
Not automatically — and anyone who tells you otherwise before getting on the roof is guessing. What matters is how dense and widespread the hits are: adjusters typically chalk out a test square and count the impacts inside it, which is why our inspection photos mark every bruise in chalk. Scattered cosmetic dings on a healthy roof may warrant a repair or nothing at all; widespread bruising that compromises the shingle mat is what totals a roof the way a crash totals a car. The honest answer comes off the roof, not the driveway.
Longer than the door-knockers imply, shorter than forever. Colorado law sets no deadline — the window lives in your policy, and carriers commonly allow six months to a year from the date of loss. So you have real time to get an inspection and decide calmly; you don’t have time to sit on a suspected hit until next summer. The full decision framework is in our guide to whether a claim is even worth filing.
The after-storm mistakes are as predictable as the storm. Don’t get on the roof — wet granules underfoot are a fall risk, and nothing up there is worth it. Don’t sign anything on day one — not an “inspection agreement” with a contingency clause buried in it, not a contract on a clipboard at your door; a legitimate roofer’s findings will still be true next week. Don’t start permanent repairs before documentation — fixing damage before it’s photographed can genuinely shrink your claim. Don’t file blind — an insurer visit before you know what’s actually up there wastes everyone’s time and puts a claim on your record either way. And don’t panic-tarp anything that isn’t actively leaking; tarps are for active water, not appearances.
The common thread in all of it: the first 48 hours reward calm documentation and punish urgency. The storm already happened — nothing you sign today changes what’s on the roof, and everything you photograph today makes the next month easier. Slow is smooth, and smooth gets roofs approved. Take the breath, take the photos, make the two calls in the right order — inspection first, insurer second — and the storm becomes a process instead of an emergency.
If hail just came through your neighborhood, we’ll take a look for free — and if the roof is fine, that’s exactly what we’ll tell you.
The inspection is free, and we photograph everything we find.
