What to Do After a Hail Storm in Minnesota (And How to Spot Real Damage)

The hail stops, the sun comes back out, and within an hour there's a guy in a truck knocking on your door telling you your roof is "totaled." If you've lived in the Twin Cities through one storm season, you know exactly what I'm describing. Here's the calm, in-order version of what to actually do, from a roofer who has stood on hundreds of these roofs.

First thing: a hailstorm is not an emergency in the way a tree through your living room is. Unless you have water actively coming inside, you have time to do this right. The single most expensive mistakes I see homeowners make in the Twin Cities all come from moving too fast and signing something in the driveway. So take a breath, and let's go in order.

Step 1: Document the Storm Before You Do Anything Else

Before you climb on anything or call anyone, write down what you know while it's fresh:

• The date and rough time the storm hit your address.
• Photos of any hail on the ground next to something for scale, a coin, a golf ball, your hand. Insurance cares about stone size, and that evidence melts in twenty minutes.
• Anything obvious from the ground: dented gutters, a shredded screen, leaves and shingle granules washed into the driveway.

You don't need to prove your case here. You just need a timestamp. Minnesota gives you a window to file a hail claim, but that window starts ticking on the date of loss, and "I think it was sometime in June" makes everything harder later.

Step 2: Know What Real Hail Damage Looks Like

Here's the part the door-knockers don't want you to understand, because if you can tell real damage from normal aging, you can't be talked into a claim you don't need. Hail damage to an asphalt roof has a specific signature. From the ground, with a pair of binoculars, here's what's real:

• Dents on metal gutters, downspouts, or the fins of your AC unit. This is the most reliable hail indicator there is. Metal doesn't lie, and it's at eye level. If the AC fins are peppered with dings, the roof took the same hits.
• Bare black spots where the granules are knocked off. Fresh hail bruises look darker than the surrounding shingle because the protective granules are gone and the asphalt mat underneath is exposed.
• Cracked or split shingle edges. Not curled from age, sharply cracked from impact.
• Soft spots when you press a shingle that feel like pressing a bruise on an apple, a giveaway the mat is fractured underneath.
• Granule piles in the gutters and at the bottom of downspouts. A heavy dusting right after a storm is different from the slow shed of an aging roof.
• Damaged window screens, soft metal vents, or a battered mailbox. Collateral evidence that the stones were big enough to matter.

What is not hail damage: granule loss in straight lines (that's foot traffic or wear), blistering in little raised circles (that's a manufacturing or heat issue), and the general curling and cupping of a roof that's simply old. A storm chaser will point at all three and call it hail. A good inspector will tell you the difference.

If you take one thing from this: dents in the soft metal at eye level are your honest second opinion. The roof took whatever the gutters and AC fins took.

Step 3: Do Not Sign Anything in the Driveway

The crews that flood the metro after a storm, the ones with out-of-state plates, work on volume. They want a signature before the next truck gets to your street. You are under zero obligation to give it to them. A real inspection comes with no paperwork attached, and the honest answer might be "you're fine, don't file." I tell homeowners that all the time, and it saves them a claim on their record they didn't need.

This is also where Minnesota law protects you in a way worth knowing: a contractor cannot legally waive, rebate, or absorb your insurance deductible. Anyone offering to "cover your deductible" or do the job "for whatever insurance pays" is breaking the law, and usually planning to make it back by inflating the claim, which can void your coverage. If you want the full walkthrough of how the claim itself works, I wrote a separate Minnesota roof insurance claim guide that goes deep on it.

Step 4: Get One Honest Inspection

You want a real roofer on the roof before you call your insurance company, not after. Here's why the order matters: if you file first and the adjuster comes out and finds borderline damage, you've now got a claim on your record whether it gets approved or not. If a roofer you trust looks first and confirms insurance-grade damage, you call your carrier already knowing you have a legitimate case.

A proper inspection is a roofer physically on the roof, chalking the hail hits, photographing the test squares, checking the soft metals, vents, and flashing, and handing you a written assessment. Not a drone flyover, not a "we can see from the ground." When I do a free inspection across the Twin Cities, you get photos and a written report within 24 hours that says one of three things: file a claim, it's a repair, or you're fine for now.

Step 5: If There's Damage, This Is How the Claim Goes

Once you've confirmed real damage, the process is more predictable than most people fear:

1. You file the claim with your carrier. It has to be in your name, but the documentation from a good inspection makes the call easy.
2. The carrier sends an adjuster. Your roofer should be on the roof with that adjuster, pointing out what's covered. This single step is where settlements get won or lost. I've found anywhere from $1,500 to $12,000 in covered scope that the adjuster's first pass missed.
3. The adjuster issues a scope. Your roofer checks it line by line against Minnesota code and manufacturer requirements, and files a supplement with documentation for anything left out. Carriers approve well-documented supplements regularly.
4. The work gets done, and you pay your deductible. That's the entire bill from you. The carrier pays the rest directly. No surprise balance.

That's the whole game. The homeowners who come out of a hail claim feeling good about it are the ones who had someone standing on the roof representing them, not the carrier. That's the entire reason our storm damage process is built the way it is.

The One-Minute Version

• Photograph the hail and the date. It melts; the evidence with it.
• Check the soft metals, AC fins and gutters, at eye level for dents.
• Don't sign an Assignment of Benefits in your driveway. Ever.
• Get one honest roofer on the roof before you call insurance.
• If it's real, file, get your roofer on the roof with the adjuster, and pay only your deductible.

Northern Forge Construction is a Coon Rapids–based roofing contractor serving the Twin Cities metro. MN Licensed BC809688. Owner Luis Hernandez is on every job site, every day. This article is general information, not legal or insurance advice; check your own policy for your deductible and filing window.