Hail damage: invisible from the driveway, obvious in the file.

What hail does

A bruise, not a hole.

Hail rarely punches through a shingle. What it does is worse because it hides: the impact crushes the granule layer and fractures the fiberglass mat underneath. That bruise sheds granules over the following months, the mat cracks open in the sun, and the roof starts failing from a storm nobody remembers. This is why adjusters date-match damage to storm events, and why documentation within days beats discovery within years.

The rough thresholds we inspect against

• Under 1 inch: cosmetic granule scuffing on most asphalt roofs; usually below claim threshold, worth a baseline report anyway.
• 1 to 1.25 inch: the claim line. Bruising on aged or builder-grade shingles, soft-metal dents on vents and flashing that prove the event.
• 1.5 to 1.75 inch: widespread mat fractures on most asphalt roofs; the June 26 event on our storm log ran at this size (illustrative).
• 2 inch and up: punctures, cracked decking, broken windows. This is emergency-tarp territory; call the storm line first.

How we document it

A Kestrel hail inspection covers test squares on every slope, chalk-circled impacts photographed with a size reference, soft-metal collateral (vents, gutters, flashing), and ground-level collateral like screens and AC fins. The result is a file an adjuster can approve without a fight, which is the entire point. If the count is below claim threshold, the report says so and you keep it as a dated baseline for the next storm.

Done with hail claims forever? Impact-rated Class 4 shingles and standing seam metal both exist for exactly this county. The materials comparison runs the numbers.