How To Protect Your Fort Worth Home From Storm And Hail Damage

Fort Worth and Tarrant County take hail every year, usually in a concentrated stretch between March and June. The homes that come through it best are not lucky. They had three things sorted before the season started.

Before The Season: Three Things That Matter

1. Know The Condition Of The Roof Now

A pre-season inspection with photographs does two jobs. It finds the lifted flashing, failed pipe boot or loose ridge cap that turns an ordinary storm into an interior leak. And it creates a dated record of the roof's condition, which is exactly what settles the argument later about what is storm damage and what is age.

That record costs nothing and is the single most useful thing you can have when an adjuster arrives.

2. Deal With The Trees

Limbs over the roof plane scrape granules off shingles in wind, drop debris that traps moisture, and in a serious storm come down on the roof itself. Cut branches back several feet. This is the cheapest storm protection available and the most consistently ignored.

3. Clear The Drainage

Gutters and downspouts full of last autumn's debris back water under the first course of shingles during the exact downpour you needed them for. Clear them, check the hangers, and make sure downspouts discharge five to ten feet from the house. North Texas clay swells and shrinks with moisture, and foundation movement costs far more than a roof.

When The Roof Is Due Anyway: Upgrade The Material

If a replacement is coming, this is the decision that changes the next twenty years. A Class 4 impact-rated shingle is tested against a steel ball dropped from a set height, and it holds up better against the stones that actually fall in Tarrant County. Many Texas insurers discount the wind and hail portion of the premium for one. Ask your carrier what the figure is, because it recurs every year and it is rarely mentioned unless you ask.

Also worth pricing: reinforced ridge and hip caps, upgraded underlayment, and having the ventilation corrected while the roof is open.

The Week After A Storm

1. Stay off the roof. Photograph from the ground, and from inside the attic with a torch during daylight.
2. Photograph the soft metal. Dented gutters, downspouts, air conditioner fins, window screens, fence boards. This dates the event and demonstrates stone size better than anything on the roof.
3. Confirm the event. NOAA's Storm Events Database is public and lists what Tarrant County recorded, including reported hail size.
4. Mitigate, do not repair. Tarp an opening, contain water inside, keep receipts. Do not start permanent work before the claim is inspected, because the damaged material is the evidence.
5. Get a photographed inspection before the adjuster visit, and have your roofer there for it.

Two Things To Refuse

An offer to cover your deductible is insurance fraud under Texas law and puts your claim at risk. A contract presented at your door that assigns your claim benefits to the contractor should not be signed without reading it properly. Neither is urgent, whatever you are told.

Sources: NOAA Storm Events Database · Texas Department of Insurance, Storm Claims