We just had a hail storm here in MI that lasted 10-20 minutes. The hail was marble sized and I now have loose roofing granules (from regular 3 tab shingles) all over the car, driveway, patio and I can see it on the roof too.
How do you determine if it’s time to call the insurance guys? The roof is the original and 20yrs old. Any ideas?
Does drilling new screws into the roof rafters compromise the strength of the roof?
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Replies
Call the insurance guy.
Mike- get a head start on your neighbors and call 3 roofing companies to come out and do a free estimate- then you'll have the paperwork to give to the insurance agent when he asks for it.
(Estimates for roofs are free here in FLA, don't know about your state, shouldn't of made the assumption they were free)
But, but, its SUPPOSED to taste like that!
Ahh, 20 year old 3 tabs
You might get enough to buy the gas for a trip to the big box to price shingles, but probbly not enough for gas for the trip home.
_______________________
10 .... I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.
11 For no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have--Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:10-11
I've done one insurance roofing job. Supposedly it was for hail damage. For the life of me, I couldn't see any thing on that roof that looked like damage, let alone hail damage. It was worn out though. I did a complete tear off and reroof. Insurance thought I was two or three hundred dollars high but they payed the rest of it (minus the deductable I assume).
So from my extremely limited experience of one roof I would say you've just got a free roof! Doesn't make any sense to me, but I hope it works out for you.
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
Here in Sunny California, every Fall the Santa Ana winds blow. And when they do, fences with rotten posts blow over. And when they do, the Homeowners Insurance pays up to replace them.
Joe H
Just keep in mind the latest trend in home insurance...one claim, and the co. drops you (y'all know what co has been beat up in the news lately over this). Me, even in a modest starter house, keep a high deductible, and will not make any claim under 10k$. (Ann premium under $200). That's what insurance is for, major loss. Folks across street had adjuster on-site a couple weeks ago because their mailbox was vandalized. Maybe $100 to replace the box and post.....far less than even a $500 ded. Wasted time, and now they have a note in the ins. co's file....and in that database that they all share....ferget the name of the industry database -- blacklist thing.
For a 20 y.o. roof, me, being the fair and ethical person I am (G), I'd figure to bite the bullet and consider it my turf.
I re-roofed a lot of hail damage when I was in West Texas. It was a regular thing there, with roofs averaging 6-7 years between hail storms.
HOs could buy two kinds of insurance for hail damage, depreciating life and total replacement.
If you have total coverage, you should call a roofer to estimate it for the insurance.
If you haver depreciating life, the roof was already worn out and fully depreciated but you should definitely call the roofer right away - or you will have another kind of claim.
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin, et al
Are you sure about the coverage on the ROOF or is that the way that the whole house is covered? I have never heard of that variation in just roofing.
There are several standard classifications of home owners insurance HO-1, HO-2, etc. But a couple of those are applicable for any given home. For example some renters and condos. Here is a list.
http://home.quoteserv.com/homeowners/insurance_information.shtml
But the actual policies have to be designed for each state and so the details of what is covered will vary. I think that for most HO insurnace the home are all covered for replacement value. However, that can vary. For example I don't think older house are often covered or replacement value.
And here is another case. My house is 24 years old. Heavy laminated arch shingles (Timberline). About 10 years ago we had a hail storm and I did not realize that I had any damage until my neighbor was replacing his and he told me that he saw the damage when he was on his roof. I could see it when it was pointed out to me. So I filed a claim and got paid. But it was not that bad so I did not replace the roof at that time. While it is showing it's wear the section where the damage was is still is "reasonable" shape. However the front of the house, which no one can see except from a ladder, is getting bad and you can see the pock marks from the hail. A couple of years latter I changed insurance companies and when they check out the house they saw the condition of the roof so I have a rider that exclude the roof from replacement cost and thus it is only cash value on just the roof until it gets replaced.
BTW, the contents portion of insurance does come either way and IMNSHO it is a waste of money to get anything other than replacement value on contents. The cost is not much more. In the typical claim it does not make that much difference. But in a big claim it can really make the difference.
A WARNING FOR LURKERS -
I know that there are typcially a lot more people read these than post and this is the type of question many people that are HO might see it. When there are large storms there are "repair specialist" that follow the storms. They are not know as "specialist" for their special ability to repair damage caused by storms, but rather the ability to repair the HO's bulging wallet. Any repair to the actual home is accidental and in some cases worse than the orginal.
And there are people that will buy up local roofing companies (or "lease them" for a couple of months) so that they have a local name, address, and add in the yellow pages. SO BE CAREFUL.
For something like hail damage the need for repairs are not immediate and if possible wait several months.
INSURANCE CANCELLATION -
I am in the KC area. We had a very bad, wide coverage ice storm last winter and will often have a "good" hail storm every couple of years. But for the most cases the damage only covers a small area.
Anyway after the ice storm a number of people where getting non-renewal notices because of "excessinve" claims. Either pressure from the state insurance commission or a new law has changed that weather related damage is not counted in determining renewal. And now with the toronada I learn the news reports already commenting that the claims will not affect the insurance.
But for any one that has any questions about whether to make a "small claim" they can check with there state insuracne comission to see what are the rules in your state.
Also note that will large area of claims that the insurance companies will be scraping the bottom of the barrel for claims agents. When I had the hail damage the adjustor put down that I had a wood roof, not composition, and if was prcessed they only wanted to pay for replacing the damage shingles and not replacing the whole roof.
RE your Q, This was in texas so maybe they had different policy levels than other states, but, Yes, some of the HOs had total roof coverage. I think it was sold as an optioonal rider.
Good point about the traveling storm roofers. We called them "Hail Hounds", working out of the back of a station wagon..
Excellence is its own reward!
We had a hail storm last year that was pretty severe. I called our insurance company and asked them to look at our roofs. (2 houses) It was about 6 weeks before they came out due to the backlog of cases.
They called me at work a couple of days later, and told me what they found. One house was fine, they said. (And I agreed) The other house had an older roof and was damaged. They said the roof on the house needed replaced, but not the garage. (It had a newer roof)
There was some siding damage they said, but it looked old. I told them it was that way when I bought the house. (Which was true) So they didn't cover that.
The adjuster said they would drop a check in the mail in a couple of days. I got it and put it in savings.
I figure it's their business to determine what they're covering and what's a reasonable settlement. I didn't scam them or lie to them. So I don't see any problem with the settlement. So I'd suggest doing exactly what I did - Call the insurance company.
BTW - I do plan to replace the roof. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Don't confuse busiwork with productivity.
Here's another interesting tidbit on this topic, more or less.
A neighbor has a camp that is a rental house with a 2/12 roof and double coverage about ten or twelve years old. He bought new ionsurance coverage when he started renting it out and the insurance company sent out an inspector who apparently doidn't like the looks of the roof. They refused to cover him unless he got it re-roofed. Neighbor didn't like it but it makes sense when you consider that they were responsible for covering everything inside that might get damaged in a leak, not to mention that the sky's the limit with rentals..
Excellence is its own reward!
Did you save any of them? They may or may not be proof. If you get an insurance fella to come out and assess your marbles, pay your deductable, start upping your premiums now, and learn how to patch shingles. The latter, the insurance man wouldn't know anything about.