Roofs are designed to protect your home against wind and weather. Unfortunately, that means that roofs sometimes take a beating. If you are not checking your roof after a major storm, you could be setting yourself up for a nasty surprise later. There are some primary areas on a roof that homeowners should be checking after strong winds and hail.
If you have a high roof with peaks, you also have long valleys. The valleys take the brunt of the rain and hail can pummel these areas, loosening them and causing them to lift up. The valleys should be checked to make sure they are still intact and not leaking water underneath. Flashing in these areas may also be loose. Flashing may need to be replaced, or repaired so that it can’t move and continue to hold the rest of the roofing materials in place.
Hail loves to hit flat areas hard. The hail bounces off, but not until it has left dents in the shingles. If you have any flat or nearly flat areas on your roof, check them for dents the size of a nickel to the size of an orange after a hailstorm. The damage can be repaired, and it is usually covered by homeowner’s insurance.
High winds can lift shingles down low near the gutters, but the weight of the shingles layered over them often prevents those shingles from being lifted off. The shingles higher up on your roof do not have as much weight holding them down because there aren’t as many shingles layered over those. Really high wind can beat on these shingles and lift them or cause them to buckle. If you can’t see the shingles high up on your roof from the ground, ask a roofing contractor to check your roof for you.