Quick answer
Most hail damage on a Calgary roof cannot be seen from the driveway. Here is how a professional hail inspection works, slope by slope, and how the report is built to hold up in front of your insurance adjuster.
Estimates by phone: (587) 804-9266 · Good Roofing · Calgary-owned since 2014 · 10-year workmanship warranty.
A hail damage roof inspection is a slope-by-slope check of your shingles, flashing, vents and eavestroughs for impact marks, documented with dated photos so you can decide whether to file an insurance claim. Good Roofing does it free in Calgary, starting with a drone flight so nobody walks a fragile roof, and you usually have the photo report within 24 hours. We have coordinated 2,800+ Calgary roof installations and repairs since 2014, recovered $14M+ in hail-claim settlements for homeowners, and hold 4.9★ from 237 verified reviews. Call (587) 804-9266 to book.
01 · Section
Quick answer — the 60-second version (citation-ready)
Book a hail damage roof inspection after any Calgary storm that dented cars, shredded leaves or left marks on your deck, even if the roof looks fine from the ground. A proper inspection checks every roof slope, not one, because hail falls at an angle and the windward faces take most of the hits. The inspector looks for bruised or fractured shingles, granule loss in circular spots, and dents in soft metal such as roof vents, flashing, eavestroughs and downspouts. Each finding is photographed with a scale reference and marked by slope. The result is a written report you can hand to your adjuster, plus an honest call on whether a claim is likely to clear your deductible. At Good Roofing the inspection is free, starts with a drone flight, and comes from a licensed, $5M commercial general liability + WCB covered crew that has worked claims with Intact Insurance / belairdirect, Aviva Canada, TD Insurance and other carriers. Call (587) 804-9266.
02 · Section
Why you cannot judge hail damage from the ground
Hail rarely tears shingles off. It bruises them. A hailstone that hits an asphalt shingle can crack the fibreglass mat underneath while the surface granules stay mostly in place, so the shingle looks intact from the lawn and fails over the next few seasons as water gets into the fracture. Calgary adds two problems. The city sits in the hail belt along the Alberta foothills, where summer storms build over the mountains and drop hail across whole quadrants in a few minutes. Then the Chinooks arrive, and freeze-thaw cycles open those bruises further each winter. That is why insurers and roofers both look for functional damage, meaning damage that shortens the life of the roof or lets water in, and not only for cosmetic marks. The sooner the inspection happens after a storm, the cleaner the evidence: fresh hits show bright, exposed asphalt, while older ones weather to grey and become harder to tie to a specific storm date.
03 · Section
What a professional hail inspection checks, in order
The order matters. Soft metal is checked first because it confirms hail size and direction before anyone interprets a shingle mark.
- 01Ground and soft metal. Dents in eavestroughs, downspouts, window wraps, air-conditioner fins and fence caps. Their size and the side of the house they are on tell the inspector how big the hail was and which way it was moving.
- 02Roof vents, flashing and pipe boots. Box vents, turbine vents and step flashing dent easily and photograph well. Dented metal on the roof is strong supporting evidence even when shingle damage is hard to see.
- 03Every slope, separately. Each roof face is checked and labelled (north, south, east, west and any smaller sections), because the windward slopes usually take far more hits than the sheltered ones.
- 04Test squares. On walkable roofs, inspectors mark out a test square on each slope and count the hits inside it. This is the common method adjusters use, so the counts in your report line up with theirs.
- 05Shingle-level damage. Bruises that feel soft when pressed, fractured mats, circular granule loss with exposed asphalt, and cracked or torn tabs. Each confirmed hit is circled in chalk and photographed with a scale reference.
- 06Skylights, chimneys and ridge caps. Cracked skylight domes, chipped chimney caps and split ridge shingles are listed separately, since they can change the scope of a claim.
- 07Attic, if accessible. Fresh stains or daylight at the deck are noted, especially if the storm also brought wind-driven rain.
04 · Section
Hail damage, or just wear? How inspectors tell the difference
Adjusters deny claims when they think the marks are age, foot traffic or manufacturing defects. A good inspection separates them before the adjuster arrives. Hail hits are random in spacing, roughly round, concentrated on the windward slopes, and often show a soft spot or a fractured mat underneath. Blistering from heat shows as small raised bubbles or pits spread evenly across sun-facing slopes, with no matching dents in nearby metal. Normal granule loss from age is even and shows up as granules in the eavestroughs over years, not as sharp circular spots after one storm. Mechanical damage from foot traffic or dropped tools clusters around vents, chimneys and access points. When the shingle marks, the dented metal and the storm date all agree, the evidence is strong. When they do not, we tell you before you file, because a denied claim stays on your record.
05 · Section
What you get at the end of a Good Roofing hail inspection
The deliverable is built for two readers: you, deciding whether to claim, and the adjuster, deciding what to pay for.
- 01A dated drone photo set covering every slope, taken before anyone walks the roof.
- 02Close-up photos of each confirmed hit with a chalk circle and a scale reference, labelled by slope.
- 03Soft-metal photos of vents, flashing and eavestroughs that support the storm date.
- 04A plain-language summary: repairable, partial replacement, or full replacement, and why.
- 05An honest claim recommendation. We compare the likely scope against your hail and wind deductible. Our Calgary roof insurance deductible guide explains the math, including percentage deductibles.
- 06An adjuster meeting on site if you file. We walk the roof with the adjuster and point to each documented hit, then write a scope that matches what we will install, with Class 4 impact-rated shingles and a 10-year workmanship warranty.
06 · Section
Timing, storm chasers and what to do in the first 48 hours
After a large Calgary hailstorm, out-of-province crews arrive within days, door-knock whole streets and offer free inspections that end with a contract on the spot. We don't door-knock. We don't pressure-sell. We don't show up uninvited after storms. Before you let anyone on the roof, check that the company holds a valid licence, carries WCB coverage and will still be in Calgary when you need warranty work. In the first 48 hours: photograph any dents on your car, deck and eavestroughs with your phone (the date stamp helps), cover any active leak from inside, and check your policy for the hail deductible and the deadline to report damage. Then book an inspection. If water is coming in now, call us for emergency tarping. Calgary emergency calls are typically on site within 4 hours, and the tarp photos become part of your claim file.