You do not need to climb on your roof to know it took a beating. After a Colorado hailstorm, the evidence is often hiding in plain sight all around your property. You just need to know where to look.
Every year, we inspect thousands of roofs across the Colorado Front Range after hailstorms. And every year, we meet homeowners who had no idea their roof was damaged because they never looked beyond the shingles. The truth is that hail does not just hit your roof. It hits everything. And the damage on the things you can see from the ground often tells you exactly what happened to the things you cannot see up on the roof.
Here is a ground level inspection guide that any Colorado homeowner can use after a hailstorm. No ladder required.
Why a Ground Level Inspection Matters
First, the practical reason: safety. Climbing on a wet, potentially damaged roof is dangerous. Professional roofers have the training, equipment, and insurance to do it safely. Homeowners generally do not. Falls from residential roofs are among the most common serious home improvement injuries in the country. There is no reason to take that risk when you can learn so much from the ground.
Second, the strategic reason: documentation. Your ground level photos and observations become part of your insurance claim file. The more thoroughly you document damage around your property, the stronger your case when the adjuster arrives. Everything you find on the ground supports what the professional inspector finds on the roof.
Check Your Gutters and Downspouts
Your gutters are one of the most reliable ground level indicators of hail severity. Walk along the edge of your house and look up at the gutters from below. Hail leaves distinctive round dents in aluminum gutters. Small hail (under three quarters of an inch) might leave subtle dimples. Large hail (over one inch) leaves obvious, deep dents that are visible from 10 feet away.
Look at your downspouts too. Dented downspouts confirm that the hail was hitting surfaces at the level of your roofline, which means your shingles, flashing, and vents were exposed to the same impacts.
One more gutter check: look inside the gutters or at the ground below the downspout discharge point. A heavy accumulation of dark, sand like granules is a sign that the hail knocked the protective coating off your shingles. Some granule loss is normal over time, but a sudden large deposit after a storm is a strong indicator of hail damage on the roof surface. roof repair services
Look at Your Siding and Window Trim
Hail does not discriminate. If it hit your roof, it hit the sides of your house too. Walk around the entire perimeter of your home and look at the siding from different angles.
On vinyl siding, hail damage shows up as cracks, holes, or dents depending on the hail size and the temperature at the time of the storm. Cold vinyl is more brittle and cracks on impact. Warm vinyl is more flexible and tends to dent.
On wood siding or trim, look for round impact marks or chipped paint in a pattern that corresponds to hail hitting from the direction of the storm.
On fiber cement (like James Hardie), hail damage is less common because the material is harder, but large hailstones can chip or crack it.
Window trim and frames are especially telling. Soft vinyl window frames and aluminum trim dent easily, and those dents confirm the hail event at your specific property.
Also check your window screens. Hailstones punch right through screens, leaving holes that are unmistakable evidence of hail size. A screen with multiple holes from one inch hailstones tells a clear story.
Inspect Your AC Unit and Outdoor Equipment
Your air conditioning condenser is one of the best hail damage indicators on your entire property. The aluminum fins on the condenser coil are soft and thin. Even moderate hail flattens them on contact, and the damage is obvious from a few feet away.
Walk over to your AC unit and look at the top and the side that was exposed to the storm direction. Bent, crushed, or flattened fins confirm that your property took significant hail. Insurance adjusters specifically look at AC units during their inspections because the damage is so clear and measurable.
Check any other outdoor equipment too: satellite dishes, security cameras, exterior light fixtures, garden tools or equipment that was left outside. Anything made of soft metal, plastic, or thin material will show evidence of the hail event.
Your Car Is a Hail Damage Report Card
If any vehicles were parked outside during the storm, they are quite possibly your best evidence. Car bodies are made of thin sheet metal that dents easily from hail, and those dents are impossible to ignore.
Photograph every dent on every vehicle. The size and distribution of car dents directly correlate to the hail size that hit your property. If your car looks like a golf ball, your roof almost certainly has damage too. Insurance companies and adjusters understand this correlation.
Even if your car was in the garage, check any neighbors' vehicles that were parked outside. The hail that hit their car hit your roof at the same time.
Visible Shingle Damage You Can Spot From the Ground
You might not be able to see individual hail hits on shingles from the ground, but there are some things you can spot without a ladder.
Missing shingles are obvious. If pieces of shingle material are lying in your yard or you can see bare spots on the roof surface, that is storm damage. Curling or lifted shingles along the edges or at the ridge line are visible from the driveway at the right angle. Dark spots or patches on the roof surface that were not there before the storm can indicate areas where granules were knocked off, exposing the darker asphalt mat underneath.
Use your phone's camera zoom to get a closer look at the roof surface from the ground. You will not be able to diagnose hail damage this way, but you can identify areas that look different from the rest of the roof and point them out to your inspector.
The Soft Metals Test: Mailbox, Garage Door, and Fence
This is one of the most useful ground level checks you can do, and insurance adjusters use it themselves. Walk around your property and examine every soft metal surface that was exposed during the storm.
Your mailbox is a perfect indicator. A standard metal mailbox sitting at the curb takes the same hail your roof did. Round dents on the top and the storm facing side confirm hail size and intensity.
Your garage door, if it is metal, will show dents from significant hail. Look at it from an angle rather than straight on, because the light will catch the dents and make them more visible.
Metal fence posts, gates, and chain link components all show hail damage clearly. Even painted wood fence boards will show round impact marks where the hail struck.
Collectively, these soft metal indicators paint a comprehensive picture of what the hail event looked like at your specific property. They are compelling evidence because they cannot be faked or explained away as normal wear and tear. storm and hail damage services
What You CAN'T See From the Ground
Here is the honest reality. A ground level inspection tells you a lot about whether your property took significant hail, but it cannot tell you the full story about your roof.
The most consequential hail damage on a roof is often invisible from the ground. Hail impacts bruise the shingle mat without breaking through the surface. You can only detect this damage by pressing on the shingle and feeling for soft spots, which requires being on the roof. Granule displacement from hail impacts exposes the asphalt to accelerated UV degradation, but from the ground, it can look like normal granule loss. Cracked or displaced flashing around chimneys, skylights, and vents is almost impossible to evaluate from ground level. Damage to ridge cap shingles at the peak of the roof is not visible from most ground level vantage points.
This is why a professional roof inspection is not optional after a significant hailstorm. Your ground level observations help you decide whether to call for an inspection and give the inspector valuable context. But only a trained inspector on the roof can give you the full picture. schedule a free inspection
Photo Documentation Tips
When you are walking your property and documenting damage, a few techniques will make your photos much more useful for your insurance claim.
Always include a reference object for scale. A coin, a ruler, or even your finger next to a dent or hole gives the viewer a clear sense of the damage size. Take both wide angle and close up shots of every damaged area. The wide shot shows location and context. The close up shows damage detail. Make sure your phone's location services and date stamp are enabled so every photo is automatically tagged with where and when it was taken. Take photos in good light. Midday sun with clear skies is ideal. Photos taken in shadow or at dawn and dusk can obscure damage details. Walk your entire property perimeter, not just the side facing the storm. Hail can hit from multiple angles, especially if wind shifts during the storm. If you take video, narrate what you are seeing as you walk. Your verbal description adds context that photos alone do not capture.
Get Your Free Professional Roof Inspection
Your ground level inspection is the first step. The next step is getting a certified professional on your roof to assess the full extent of the damage.
Gates Enterprises provides free post storm roof inspections across the entire Colorado Front Range. Our inspectors have assessed thousands of hail damaged roofs, and they know exactly what to look for. We document everything in detail, review the findings with you, and support your insurance claim from start to finish.
We are quadruple certified by GAF, Owens Corning, Malarkey, and CertainTeed. Less than 1% of roofers carry all four certifications. That means we can install any major shingle brand to the highest manufacturer standards with the best warranty available. about Gates Enterprises
Call Gates Enterprises at (720) 766-3377 or contact us to schedule your free roof inspection today. Do not wait for a small problem to become a big one.