In addition to owning a roofing company in Aurora, Colorado, I am also a homeowner in Aurora, Colorado. My area has been hit with hail three times now since 2018 so as both a roofing company owner, and a homeowner, here are three things I would advise any homeowner to do following a major hail storm:
- Document all damages to your personal property, car and home: The first thing you should always do is take photographs of everything that was or may have been affected by the storm. Do this before you clean up debris and throw anything away. Most homeowners are able to replace personal property, fixtures, utility items and even plants as part of the insurance claim but only if that damage is documented through photos taken immediately after the storm.
- Use the storm as an opportunity to upgrade and transform your home or business: Storm damage sucks to deal with, but it can also provide you an opportunity to upgrade your home for a lot less. If you have storm damage to your roof, windows, siding, paint etc you will likely be able to upgrade those materials and systems at a fraction of the normal cost. Why is that? Because the insurance claim should cover the baseline cost – meaning if you want to upgrade your windows for example, the only thing you will need to pay is the difference for the upgrade, rather than paying the full replacement cost plus the upgrade cost that is required for a non-storm damage project.
- Find a contractor that will make your life easier: Working with a quality roofing contractor can make a massive difference in the amount of work that you end up getting done, not to mention to your stress levels in dealing with the repairs. In addition to the usual headaches associated with low quality contractors, inexperienced contractors can miss things in the insurance claims process that will lead to less work being completed and more out of pocket cost. You will likely have lots of contractors knocking on your door following a hailstorm. Look for a local, proven contractor that can handle all the trades associated with your claim (so you don’t have to hire multiple companies) and that has lots of experience dealing with insurance claims and ideally even has its own in-house supplementing/claims team (so you can make sure you get everything covered in the claim that should be covered). There are lots of great contractors out there but also a lot of bad ones. Take your time and chose carefully when selecting a contractor, choosing the right contractor can make all the difference.
If you live on the front range and need an honest opinion on your roof – give us a call at 303-377-2801 and we would be happy to complete a thorough roof inspection at no cost.