48-Hour Hail Storm Checklist for Michigan Homeowners

In the first 48 hours after a hail storm hits your Michigan home, do five things in order: photograph the damage and the hail itself, get any open roof tarped, do not sign anything with a roofer who knocks on your door, notify your insurer, and schedule a free inspection from a local, licensed roofing company. Do those five and you keep every option open. Skip them and you can lose leverage on your claim, your deductible, or your whole roof.

I am Aaron Scott, licensed Michigan residential builder and owner of Roofing Army. Our storm teams work out of Oxford, Rochester Hills, Ferndale, and Plymouth, and we have handled hail claims across Oakland and Macomb counties for years. This is the checklist we walk homeowners through on the phone the morning after a storm.

What Should You Do in the First Hour After Hail?

Stay inside until the storm is completely done, then check for anything urgent: water coming through a ceiling, a broken skylight, a window that took a direct hit, or a tree limb on the roof. If water is coming in, cut the power to any affected light fixtures and set buckets. Then start the checklist below. The order matters, because insurers and contractors will both ask what you did and when.

What Is the 48-Hour Hail Damage Checklist?

• Photograph the hail before it melts. Put a coin or tape measure next to hailstones on the lawn or deck and shoot them. This is the only evidence of hail size you will ever have, and it goes away in an hour.
• Photograph everything from the ground. Dented gutters and downspouts, splattered marks on siding, torn window screens, dents in the AC condenser fins, pockmarks on the deck or fence. Soft metal shows hail clearly and tells the adjuster the storm was real.
• Do not go on the roof. Wet shingles after a storm are slick, and walking on hail-bruised shingles can make the damage worse. Roof photos come from a professional or a drone.
• Get an open roof tarped within 24 hours. If hail or wind opened the roof, exposed decking cannot sit through the next rain. Call for emergency tarping and keep the receipt; reasonable temporary repairs to prevent further damage are generally a covered expense.
• Do not sign anything at the door. Within hours of a storm, door-knockers will offer a free inspection in exchange for a signature. Some of those forms are contracts. Some are assignments of your insurance benefits. Take the card, say thank you, and close the door.
• Notify your insurer. Call the claims line or use the app to report the date and a short description. You do not need a contractor's estimate to open a claim. Note the claim number and the adjuster's name.
• Schedule a free inspection with a local roofer. You want documented roof-level photos before the adjuster arrives, from a company that will still be in business next year. Our storm damage inspection includes drone photos of every slope.
• Start a claim folder. Photos, the tarping receipt, the claim number, every name and date. We explain what happens next in how to file a roof insurance claim in Michigan.

How Do You Photograph Hail Damage Properly?

Adjusters look for patterns, not single dents. Shoot wide first, then close. For each side of the house, take one photo showing the whole elevation, then close-ups of the gutters, downspouts, siding, and any window trim. Include something for scale in every close-up. Photograph the date and time on your phone if it does not embed automatically.

Inside, photograph any ceiling stain, wet insulation you can see through an attic hatch, and any water on floors. If the damage is severe enough that the adjuster will not see it before repairs, video walking through the house is worth doing too.

What you cannot photograph safely is the roof surface itself, and that is where hail does its real damage: bruised shingle mats, knocked-off granules, cracked pipe boots and vents, and dented flashing. That is what our drone and walk-through inspection captures, and every image is uploaded to your job portal so you and the adjuster can look at the same evidence.

Should You Tarp the Roof Yourself?

No. Tarping is one of the most dangerous things a homeowner can do after a storm: the roof is wet, the damage is unknown, and hail-damaged shingles crumble underfoot. A professional crew secures a tarp in under an hour with wood battens screwed through the tarp into the decking, which holds in wind. Improvised tarps held down with bricks or nailed at the corners come off in the next gust and can do more harm than good.

If the roof is not actually open, you probably do not need a tarp at all. Hail bruising does not leak immediately; it shortens the life of the shingle and shows up as leaks over the following months. A tarp is for missing shingles, holes, and impact damage that exposed the deck.

Why Should You Not Sign With a Door-Knocking Roofer?

Hail brings out-of-state crews to Southeast Michigan within a day. Their business model is volume: sign as many roofs as possible, collect insurance money, and leave before the warranty calls start. The pitch is polished and the urgency is fake. A few of their tools:

• "Free roof, we handle everything." There is no free roof. Your insurer pays the claim minus your deductible, and someone who offers to waive or "cover" your deductible is proposing to inflate the claim.
• Contingency agreements and assignments of benefits. These commit you to that contractor if the claim is approved, or hand them the right to deal with your insurer directly. Read every word before signing anything.
• Pressure to decide today. Your claim does not expire this afternoon. Michigan's Home Solicitation Sales Act gives you the right to cancel a door-to-door sale until midnight of the third business day after you sign, but it is far better not to sign in the first place.
• No local address, no Michigan license. Ask for the residential builder or maintenance and alteration contractor license number and look it up on the LARA website. If they cannot produce one, the conversation is over.

We wrote a full storm chaser red flags checklist if you want the long version.

What Happens After the First 48 Hours?

Once the roof is secure, the claim is open, and you have a documented inspection, the pace slows down. The adjuster schedules a visit, usually within a week or two. We attend that meeting whenever the homeowner wants us there, so the adjuster and our inspector are looking at the same drone photos and the same test squares. If the claim is approved, we write the scope of work off the adjuster's report and give you five quotes at different price points, so you can see exactly what the insurance covers and what an upgrade would cost.

Every price we charge is public. A full replacement at 2226 Judy Lane in Shelby Township came in at $22,746.56 for 2,274 square feet; 4586 Lehigh Drive in Troy was $15,118 for 2,202 square feet. Both are in our job gallery with photos. We never take a deposit, our crews are in-house rather than subcontracted, and a project manager is on site for every job. If your roof in Rochester Hills, Troy, Shelby Township, or anywhere in Southeast Michigan took hail this week, book the free inspection today and get the photos on record before anyone else tells you what your roof needs.