This page is about the damage and the repair. For how the claim itself works, from filing through the final check, see insurance claim assistance.
Middle Tennessee gets real weather. Hail season runs roughly March through May, straight line winds come through with the spring systems, and this region has taken direct tornado hits within recent memory. Roof Commander has been restoring storm damaged homes here since 2001, and before that the Warrens worked catastrophe losses nationwide. We know what storm damage looks like, we know how to document it so a carrier pays for it, and we do the restoration work ourselves.
This is the part homeowners get wrong most often. Hail damage on an asphalt shingle roof frequently looks like nothing at all from the driveway. What it actually does is bruise the shingle and knock the granule layer loose at the impact point. The mat underneath is now exposed to sun, and that spot will fail years before the rest of the roof does.
You will often find the first evidence on the soft metal around the house rather than the roof. Check gutters, downspouts, window wraps, vents, and the top of your air conditioning condenser for small dents. If the soft metal is dimpled, the roof took the same hits.
Hail an inch or larger is generally enough to do shingle damage. If a storm like that came through your neighborhood, get an inspection. Most policies have a filing deadline, and once it passes the damage becomes your problem no matter how real it is.
After a wind event, the obvious damage is shingles in the yard. The expensive damage is the shingles still on the roof.
Wind lifts a shingle, breaks the seal strip that bonds it to the course below, and sets it back down. Sometimes it creases the shingle at the fold. From the ground everything looks fine. In reality the shingle is no longer sealed, water can get underneath it, and the crease is a failure point that will open up in the next storm.
A proper inspection checks the seal on the shingles that are still up there, not just the count of the ones that came off. This is one of the most commonly missed items on adjuster reports and one of the most common things we catch on a supplement.
A hail event that damages a roof usually damages other things at the same time, and those items are frequently left off a claim because nobody looked.
Siding takes hail strikes, especially vinyl on the storm facing elevation. Gutters and downspouts dent and detach. Window screens and wraps get hit. Detached garages, sheds, and fencing are covered under most policies but only if they are documented and included.
Because we do siding, gutters, painting, and interior restoration in addition to roofing, we document all of it and restore all of it. You are not lining up four contractors and four schedules for one storm.
Related: siding and gutters and downspouts.
After a significant hail event in Williamson County, out of state crews arrive within days. Some are legitimate. Many are not. The pattern is familiar: a knock on the door, urgency about a filing deadline, an offer to cover or eat your deductible, and a contract signed on a tablet on your porch.
Two things to know. First, a contractor covering a homeowner's deductible is insurance fraud in Tennessee, and it exposes both the contractor and the homeowner. Their own materials will not say that. Second, a company with no local address is a company you cannot find in two years when your roof leaks.
Most homeowner policies require notice of a loss within a defined window after the event, and some carriers apply a one year limit on hail and wind claims. The specific terms are in your policy.
The practical advice is simple. If a significant hail or wind event hits your area, get a free inspection within a few weeks even if the roof looks fine to you. A documented inspection right after a storm is worth far more than a memory of a storm eighteen months later when a leak finally shows up.
Use the Google review from the customer Chad helped through the insurance process from start to finish, who described him coming out quickly to estimate and assisting through the tedious insurance steps.
Often you cannot tell from the ground. Check the soft metal around your house first, gutters, downspouts, vents, and the air conditioner. If those are dimpled, the roof likely took hits too. A free inspection confirms it either way.
Rate decisions are up to your carrier, and a weather related loss is generally treated differently than an at fault claim. We are roofers, not insurance agents, so for a definitive answer on your policy talk to your agent. What we can tell you is exactly how much damage you have.
A denial is not always the end of it. If our documentation shows damage the adjuster did not record, we can request a re inspection and provide our photographs and report. We have gotten claims reopened with better documentation.
Please do not. Storm damaged roofs are unstable and hail bruising is genuinely hard to identify without training. Our inspection is free, so there is no reason to take the risk.
Yes. If water is coming in, tarping comes first, before anything else. We document the damage thoroughly before covering it so your claim is not affected.
As soon as you can. Policies have filing deadlines and the documentation is strongest close to the event. Waiting is the single most common reason a legitimate claim does not get paid.
Roof Commander installs full replacement roofing systems across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and the rest of Middle Tennessee. We have been doing it since 2001, we are GAF certified and Owens Corning Preferred, and most residential replacements we do are finished in a single day.
Learn about Roof Replacement in Franklin, TNA roof leak does not wait for a convenient time. Roof Commander repairs leaks, storm damage, failed flashing, and missing shingles across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and Middle Tennessee, and on urgent leaks we frequently get out the same day you call.
Learn about Roof Repair in Franklin, TNThis page is about the claim process. For what hail and wind actually do to a roof and how we restore it, see storm damage restoration.
Learn about Roof Insurance Claim Assistance in Franklin, TNRoof Commander inspects roofs across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and Middle Tennessee at no charge. That includes storm damage inspections, pre purchase inspections on a home you are buying, and annual checkups on a roof you want to keep an eye on.
Learn about Free Roof Inspections in Franklin, TNPart of our roof repair service. If water is coming in right now, call (615) 218-6872 rather than reading further.
Learn about Emergency Roof Repair in Franklin, TNPart of our roof replacement service. Compare against asphalt shingle before you decide.
Learn about Metal Roofing in Franklin, TNPart of our roof replacement service. Compare against metal roofing before you decide.
Learn about Asphalt Shingle Roofing in Franklin, TNSiding is the other half of your home's weather envelope, and it fails quietly. Roof Commander installs and repairs vinyl, fiber cement, and Hardie siding across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and Middle Tennessee.
Learn about Siding Installation and Repair in Franklin, TNGutters are the least glamorous part of a house and one of the most consequential. Their job is to take every gallon that lands on your roof and put it somewhere that is not against your foundation.
Learn about Gutter Installation and Repair in Franklin, TNRoof Commander handles interior and exterior painting across Franklin, Brentwood, Nashville, and Middle Tennessee. A lot of this work comes at the end of a restoration job, when a storm put water through a ceiling or hail took the finish off the trim, and the homeowner would rather not hire a separate painter to close out the project.
Learn about Interior and Exterior Painting in Franklin, TNRoof Commander is a general contractor, not only a roofing company. Chad and Grover Warren are third generation contractors, and the family business has covered construction, remodeling, framing, drywall, flooring, concrete, stucco, and plastering going back decades.
Learn about Home Renovations and Remodeling in Franklin, TNShingles are not rated for low pitch, and installing them there is one of the most common roofing mistakes we find in Middle Tennessee. If you have a porch roof, an addition, or a section over a garage that keeps leaking no matter how many times somebody patches it, this is almost certainly why.
Learn about Flat and Low Slope Roofing in Franklin, TNSoffit is the panel that closes off the underside of your roof overhang, the part you see when you stand under the eave and look straight up. Most homeowners in Franklin never think about it until it starts sagging, a squirrel gets behind it, or a painter points out that the wood has gone soft.
Learn about Soffit Repair and Replacement in Franklin, TNFascia is the vertical board that runs along the edge of your roof, capping the ends of the rafters. It is the board your gutters hang on.
Learn about Fascia Board Repair and Replacement in Franklin, TN