Hail Hit Your Roof. Is It a Roofer's Problem or an Engineer's?

Short answer: start with a roofer. Bring in a structural engineer when the damage goes past the shingles, or when your insurance claim stalls.

Hail damage to shingles is a roofing question, and a good roofer will answer it in one visit. But golf-ball hail rarely shows up alone. It usually comes with the wind that carried it, and wind does things to a house that a roof walk does not catch: pulled truss plates, lifted sheathing, a carport pushed out of square, water working into the framing. Those are structural questions, and they are the ones that decide whether a claim gets paid. In snow country they have a deadline of their own: framing that was weakened in the fall gets its real test under the first heavy snow.

When golf-ball hail came through Morgan, Utah, it left a lot of homeowners and property managers standing between a roofer who says "this needs replacing" and an adjuster who says "cosmetic." Here is how to know which kind of damage you have, and who to call for each.

"How many shingles you lost isn't sufficient information. You need proof there was damage to what hides below the shingles." -Jaiden Olsen, PE

How hail damages a roof

Hail hits shingles in two ways. Small hail scours the protective granules off the surface. Large hail bruises the mat underneath, leaving a soft spot that may not leak today but will fail early. Both are shingle-level damage. Both are the roofer's call, and both are what an insurance adjuster is trained to count when they walk the roof.

If that is all that happened, you do not need an engineer. Get the roofer's report, file the claim, and move on.

And then, the wind damages more...

Hail this size usually does not fall out of a calm sky. The storm cell that produced it typically brings strong straight-line wind, and wind loads a house in ways hail does not.

After a severe storm, the damage is below the shingles. On an engineering inspection, these are the places we check:

Bent or pulled truss plates, and split rafters. Wind uplift reverses the loads a roof was designed for: members that normally push get pulled, and the metal connector plates on a truss can bend, back out, or tear loose. A rafter can split along the grain. Either one can look fine from the attic hatch and still have less capacity than it was designed for.
Roof sheathing (the decking under the shingles) pulled loose at the edges. Decking that lifted at the eaves or gables and settled back down can leave nails backed out, so the roof is no longer fastened the way it was designed to be. That matters for the next windstorm, and a new layer of shingles on top does not fix it.
Roof-to-wall connections. The ties that hold the roof framing down to the walls are a separate check from the sheathing. If the roof lifted at all, they need a look.
Patio covers, carports, and awnings racked out of square. Lightweight open structures take wind badly. If the posts are no longer plumb or the roof plane has shifted, that is a structural repair, not a cosmetic one.
Water in the framing, not just the attic. Once hail opens the roof, rain follows it in. Wet insulation is a nuisance. Wet framing, wet sheathing, and water tracking down inside a wall are structural concerns if they sit long enough.
Impact damage to skylights, chimneys, and roof penetrations. Where the hail broke something rigid, check what it was attached to.

If you are doing this inspection yourself, follow one important rule: leave the dents in your gutters, roof vents, and air conditioner fins alone until the adjuster has seen them. Dents in soft metal are how hail size gets established after the fact. Replace the gutters early and you have thrown away evidence.

Special considerations for commercial buildings

If you manage a commercial building with a low-slope roof, the list is different but the logic is the same.

Hail punctures membrane roofing, and the wind that comes with it can lift the membrane and the insulation under it. Water then ponds over a deck that may already be damaged. Rooftop units, their curbs, and skylights take direct hits. A roofer patches the membrane. Whether the deck and the structure under it are sound is the engineering question.

The 5 signs that it is structural damage

It is not just a shingle count. Identifying structural damage now is the key to protecting your property for years to come.

Here is what you can look for, and you do not need a ladder for most of these:

The roofline changed. A sag, a hump, or a ridge that is no longer straight when you sight down it from the street.
Doors or windows on the top floor stick, or drywall cracked at the corners of openings, when they did not before the storm. The framing moved.
Daylight or new gaps at the eaves or gable ends. Sheathing lifted.
A patio cover, carport, or deck roof that leans, or posts that are visibly off plumb.
Water stains that appeared low on an interior wall, not just on the ceiling. Water is traveling inside the wall cavity.

Do not wait to inspect for structural damage

More snow and wind on a weakened roof is how a repair becomes a catastrophe.

A weakened truss or a rafter with a split does not fail on a dry October afternoon. It fails when the roof is carrying the load it was designed for and no longer has the capacity to carry it, and in snowy climates that load arrives within weeks. Get it checked before it does.

Also, not every crack you notice after a storm was caused by it. Older settlement cracks and cosmetic drywall cracks get "discovered" after storms all the time. Part of an engineer's job is telling you honestly which is which, because a claim built on the wrong damage is a claim that gets denied.

The big tip for keeping your claim from being disputed

It is not about the shingle count. It is about the rest of the damage that may not be obvious.

Document the whole story: the shingles, the framing under them, the connections, the water path, and the soft-metal dents that prove how big the hail was. That record is the difference between a claim written for a roof repair and one written for a roof-and-framing repair, and that difference is exactly where claims get disputed.

How the insurance claim works when the roofer and the adjuster disagree

Here is the pattern. The roofer sees a roof that needs replacing and framing that concerns them. The adjuster sees hail bruising and writes up shingles. The homeowner is caught in the middle with two opinions and no way to break the tie, while the clock on the claim keeps running.

A stamped structural damage report breaks the tie.

It is written by a licensed professional engineer, it documents what is damaged, how, and whether the storm caused it, and it specifies what the repair has to include. It carries real weight with adjusters because it is a professional opinion with a license behind it, and insurers generally accept it. Roofers can build to it because it tells them what the framing needs before the new roof goes on. And if the claim was denied on "cosmetic" or "pre-existing" grounds, the report can be the basis for a reconsideration.

One detail that matters: hire the engineer yourself.

A report from an independent engineer working for the property owner carries more weight than one arranged by the contractor who stands to do the repair. Adjusters know the difference.

That is what a storm damage structural assessment is for. It is not a second roofing bid. It is the engineering answer to the question the adjuster is actually asking: is the structure damaged, and did the storm do it?

What Ballpark Engineering's storm damage assessment includes

Our wind and storm damage reports are structural assessments written for insurance claims, and we turn them fast because claims have deadlines.
A typical assessment includes:

A site visit to inspect the roof structure, attic framing, connections, and any affected outbuildings or covers
Photo documentation of the damage and the mechanism (hail impact, wind uplift, water intrusion)
A written, PE-stamped report stating what is structurally damaged, whether it is storm-caused, and what the repair needs to include
Repair specifications the roofer or contractor can build to, and the building department can permit against, if the repair needs one

We also do fire and flood damage assessments under the same model: structural integrity reports after a disaster, with the insurance and permit documentation to go with them.

When to call Ballpark Engineering

Call a roofer first.

If they flag anything below the shingles, if you can see any of the five signs above, or if your claim has stalled between two opinions, call us.

We are a licensed structural engineering firm working across Utah and six neighboring states, and storm damage assessments are part of what we do. Send us photos and we will tell you whether your situation warrants an inspection.

Schedule a storm damage assessment →

Frequently Asked Questions

Does hail damage need a structural engineer?

Usually not on its own. Hail damage to shingles is a roofing issue. Bring in a structural engineer when the storm's wind damaged the roof framing, sheathing, or an attached structure like a carport or patio cover, or when your insurance claim is disputed and you need a stamped report to settle it.

What is the difference between a roof inspection and a structural damage assessment?

A roof inspection, done by a roofer or adjuster, evaluates the roofing materials: shingles, flashing, underlayment. A structural damage assessment, done by a licensed engineer, evaluates what holds the roof up: rafters, trusses, sheathing, connections, and any attached structures. It results in a stamped report you can use for an insurance claim or a permit.

Can a structural engineer's report help with a denied hail claim?

Yes. If a claim was denied as cosmetic or pre-existing, a PE-stamped report that documents structural damage and attributes it to the storm is the basis for a reconsideration. It carries a professional license behind it, which is why it is generally accepted.

How do I know if my roof framing was damaged by wind?

Look for a changed roofline (sag, hump, or a ridge that is not straight), top-floor doors or windows that stick after the storm, new cracks at the corners of openings, daylight at the eaves, or a leaning carport or patio cover. Any of these means the framing moved and should be checked.

Should I fix the roof before the engineer looks at it?

Stop the water first: a tarp or emergency dry-in is fine and expected. Photograph everything before the tarp goes on, inside the attic too if you can get there safely. Then do not replace the roof or repair the framing before the damage is documented by the adjuster and, if it is structural, by an engineer. Once it is covered up, it is much harder to prove what the storm did.

How fast can I get a storm damage report?

It comes in two parts, and the first one is quick. We get out for the site visit while the damage is still fresh and before repairs cover it up, because that visit is what the whole report is built on. The written, stamped report follows.

How long that second part takes depends on scope, and on the same three things that drive any of our timelines: how much we are documenting, whether you already have drawings of the structure or we are starting from raw conditions, and where you land in the queue. A letter on one clearly damaged element is a small job and the turnaround is between 3-5 business days. A full assessment of a commercial roof with rooftop units and a disputed claim behind it is not.