Keys Roofing

Hail Damage Roof Inspection in St. Louis

After a storm the roof either lost material or it did not, and the only way to know is for somebody to get on it and photograph what is up there.

This is not a mild market. NOAA's Storm Events Database logged 125 hail events in St. Louis County between 2020-2025, with stones measured up to 2.5 inches and averaging 1.32 inches. That count is of reported events, not of insured losses, and reporting density tracks population, so a busy county logs more reports than an empty one. Even read conservatively it means a roof in this area takes repeated impact.

What hail actually does to a roof

Hail damage is rarely a hole. On asphalt shingles it shows as bruising, where the impact fractures the mat under the surface and knocks granules loose. Those granules are the shingle's sunscreen. Once they are gone the asphalt underneath starts breaking down, and a roof that looked fine from the driveway begins failing three or four years later. That delay is exactly why storm damage gets missed.

The places to look are not always the field of the roof. Soft metal takes the clearest impressions, so gutters, downspouts, vents, flashing and the top of an air conditioner condenser often show the story before the shingles do. If the soft metal on a house is dimpled, the roof above it took the same strike.

What a roofing company is allowed to do about your claim

Less than most of them imply. Missouri's RSMo 407.725 forbids a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim, and forbids advertising that service too. So when a competitor's site offers to handle the paperwork or deal with your adjuster for you, it is advertising something the statute does not allow.

The useful version is unglamorous. A contractor climbs the roof, photographs what is there, measures it, and writes a scope describing the damage and the repair. When the adjuster comes out, the contractor is there as the person who knows the roof. The conversation with the insurer stays yours, which is also the only arrangement where your interests are certainly being represented.

Worth correcting while we are here: Missouri has no matching statute or regulation. The rule people cite governs automobile body parts, not roofs. Whether an insurer must replace undamaged slopes so the roof matches depends entirely on your policy wording. If you want someone who can actually negotiate for you, that is a licensed public adjuster, and by law they cannot also do your roof.

The work, and its limits

Keys does roofing, gutters and downspouts. It does not do siding, windows or general contracting, and saying so is more useful than a longer list would be. Shingles are Atlas and Malarkey.

Drainage is the unusual one. Most roofing companies here stop at the gutter and leave the water to find its own way, which it does, usually into a basement.

Getting it looked at

An inspection is a person on a ladder with a camera, not a sales appointment with a clipboard. You get the photographs and the written scope whether or not there is anything worth doing. If the roof is fine, being told so in writing is worth having.

Call Keys Roofing at (314) 220-2333

Straight through to the office. Roofing, gutters and downspouts only, across greater St. Louis.

Get the roof looked at

Send this and someone calls you back to book the inspection.

Before you sign anything

Get the scope in writing first. It should say what is being torn off, what is going back on, what happens when soft decking appears, and who carries the workmanship warranty as distinct from the shingle warranty. Ask whether the crew are employees or subcontractors and whether the salesperson attends the job.

Two warning signs specific to this state. A contractor offering to cover or rebate your deductible is offering something RSMo 407.725 bars. So is one promising to negotiate your insurance claim. Both tell you the company is comfortable operating outside the rules, which is worth knowing before it is on your roof.

Questions people actually ask

How long after a storm should I get the roof looked at?

Sooner is better, mostly for evidence. Damage does not repair itself and a fresh set of dated photographs is far more useful than one taken next spring, by which point the weather has moved on and so has the question of what caused what.

Can hail damage a roof without me seeing anything from the ground?

Routinely. Bruising fractures the shingle mat under the surface and knocks granules loose, and neither is visible from a driveway. That is exactly why it gets missed until the roof starts failing years later.

Does a metal roof need checking after hail too?

Yes, though for a different reason. Metal rarely leaks after hail, but large stones dent it, and dents are a cosmetic loss that some policies specifically exclude.