Most of what I do after a hail storm is archaeology. I stand on a roof with an adjuster, and we argue about which dents were there before the storm and which weren't. The homeowner has no photos, the carrier has no baseline, and the whole claim turns on judgment calls made by people with opposite incentives.
Twenty minutes in April changes that entire conversation. Here's the walkaround — no ladder, no tools, just your phone.
Step 1: Photograph Your Roof From All Four Corners
Stand at each corner of your property and shoot the roof from the ground. Wide shot, then zoom. You're not diagnosing anything — you're timestamping the condition. If a June storm drops golf balls on your shingles, a dated April photo is the difference between "pre-existing wear" and "storm damage" in an adjuster conversation.
Cloud backup matters more than camera quality
Photos on a phone that dies in a house fire help nobody. Make sure your phone backs up to the cloud automatically — the timestamp and location data ride along, and that metadata is what makes the photo evidence instead of decoration.
Step 2: Shoot the Soft Metals Up Close
Gutters, downspouts, window wraps, the AC condenser fins, mailbox, grill lid. Hail marks soft metal before it marks shingles — that's exactly what adjusters check first after a storm. Clean, dated "before" photos of your soft metals make the "after" undeniable.
Step 3: Walk the Attic With a Flashlight
Five minutes, once a season. You're looking for daylight where daylight shouldn't be, water stains on the underside of the deck, and matted insulation. None of those are hail — but finding them now means fixing small problems cheap, and it means a storm can't get blamed for damage that was already brewing (which is how claims get complicated).
Step 4: Read Two Lines of Your Policy
Just two. Find your wind/hail deductible — in Ohio it's often a separate, higher deductible than your regular one, sometimes a percentage of your home's value rather than a flat number. And check whether your roof is covered at replacement cost (RCV) or actual cash value (ACV). If an insurance agent set you up years ago and your roof has aged since, that line may have quietly changed at renewal.
Why this matters before the storm
After a storm, your deductible and coverage type are facts you live with. Before a storm, they're settings you can still change. If you find an ACV surprise or a percentage deductible you can't stomach, that's a conversation with your agent this month — not a discovery during a claim.
Step 5: Trim What's Touching
Branches that touch or overhang your roof do two bad things in a hail storm: they add impact damage of their own, and they give the carrier a "maintenance neglect" angle. An afternoon with a pole saw — or a tree service for the big stuff — closes that door.
Step 6: Clear the Gutters, Then Photograph Them Too
Clogged gutters in a storm back water up under your shingle edges, and water damage from backed-up gutters is routinely denied as maintenance failure. Clean them, then take the photo. Now the storm can't be blamed on your gutters, and your gutters can't be blamed for the storm.
Step 7: Get on the List Before the Storm Exists
I run free tools for exactly this: Storm Alerts texts you when verified hail actually hits your area (no spam, no "storm chasing" — it's the same data I use), and Storm Check tells you whether a given storm was even worth a second look. Sign up in the spring and the day-after chaos gets a lot calmer.
Step 8: Decide Who You'd Call — Now, Not Then
The worst time to choose a roofer is the week after a hail storm, when every out-of-state pickup truck in Ohio is knocking on your door with a clipboard and a today-only offer. Decide now. It doesn't have to be me — pick anyone local, licensed, and reachable by a phone number that will still work in five years. Then when the knock comes, you have an answer: "I've got a guy."
After the storm: three rules
Don't climb on the roof. Take your ground photos and soft-metal photos the same day. And call a contractor you trust before calling your insurance company — an inspection first means you file with evidence, or don't file at all if the damage isn't there. I cover the whole sequence in How to File a Storm Damage Claim in Ohio.
Want the walkaround done for you? My inspections are free, I photograph everything, and you get the photos either way — they're your baseline, not mine. Call or text (859) 420-7382.
