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After the storm: roof and siding repair on rural Iowa properties.
Hail, wind, derecho. The first 24 hours after storm damage matter. Here is what to do, what to document, and how a contractor and your insurance adjuster actually work together.
One of the more memorable projects in our short history at NXT Build was an extended repair sequence after a wind event hit a working ranch in our service area. Multiple buildings damaged. Fencing down. Siding stripped off the south elevations. Mark Harting at H&H Ranch called us in, we walked the property, and over the next few weeks we worked through the rebuild while his insurance adjuster ran the claim in parallel. That sequence (the first walk, the documentation, the work with the carrier, the actual repair) is what this post is about.
Hour zero: stop the bleeding, do not touch the damage
The first thing to do after a major storm is the most counterintuitive: do not start cleaning up. We get calls every spring from rural Iowa homeowners who have already swept the deck, pulled the siding down off the lawn, and started stacking the debris. Then the adjuster shows up, and there is nothing left to document.
In the first 24 hours, the priorities are: get water out of the house if water is getting in (tarp the roof, cover broken windows), photograph everything before you move it, and write down what you saw happen if you witnessed the event. Save anything that came off the building (shingles, siding panels, trim pieces) in a pile somewhere safe. The adjuster will want to see it.
Documentation: the part most homeowners under-do
When we go out to a storm-damaged property, the first thing we do (after making sure the building is safe to walk) is a complete photographic inventory. Every elevation of the building. Every damaged slope of the roof. Close-ups of every hail strike, every torn shingle, every dented gutter. Wide shots that show context.
For insurance claims, the documentation is half the battle. If you can show the adjuster a complete photographic record of the damage, organized by elevation and supported with measurements, the claim moves faster and pays out more accurately. If the documentation is incomplete, the adjuster has to fill in the gaps with assumptions, and the assumptions usually favor the carrier.
Roof damage: what we look for
For an asphalt shingle roof after a hail or wind event, we walk every slope. We look for: missing shingles, lifted shingles where the seal failed, hail bruises (the granules are knocked off in a circular pattern, exposing the asphalt mat), torn shingle corners, cracked or split shingles, and damage to the flashings at penetrations and valleys.
Hail damage in particular is easy to miss if you are not specifically looking for it. A hail strike on an asphalt shingle does not necessarily knock the shingle off. It bruises the mat, knocks granules loose, and shortens the useful life of the shingle by years. A roof with widespread hail bruising will start leaking in two to five years even if it looked fine the day after the storm.
Siding damage: easier to see, harder to match
Wind-driven debris and hail damage to siding is usually visible from the ground. Dented vinyl, cracked or punched panels, sections that lifted off the building entirely. The challenge with siding repair is matching the existing color and profile. Most siding manufacturers cycle their color options every few years. If your house is more than five or six years old, you may not be able to source an exact match for the original panels.
When we run into that, the call is usually whether to do a partial repair (mismatched but cheaper) or a full elevation re-side (visually consistent but more expensive). For insurance claims, most carriers will pay for the partial repair but not the full elevation re-side. The homeowner has to decide whether to absorb the difference or live with the mismatch.
Working with your insurance adjuster
For most rural Iowa storm-damage claims, the sequence runs like this. You call the carrier and file the claim. They assign an adjuster. The adjuster comes out, walks the property, and writes an estimate. You receive a check (often called the actual cash value or ACV payment) that covers the depreciated value of the damage, minus your deductible. The work gets done. You submit final invoices. The carrier pays the depreciation (the difference between the ACV and the replacement cost value or RCV).
That is the simple version. The complicated version involves disputes about scope, supplemental claims when the contractor finds damage the adjuster missed, code-upgrade costs that the original policy may or may not cover, and matching requirements (the legal question of whether the carrier has to pay for matching siding or shingles even when only part of the elevation is damaged).
We work with adjusters on probably a third to a half of our roofing projects in any given year. The relationship is usually constructive: the adjuster wants an accurate scope, we want a complete scope, and the homeowner wants the building back to whole. Where it gets adversarial is when the adjuster writes a scope that misses real damage, or when the carrier disputes the contractor estimate. In those cases, supplemental documentation and direct phone calls between the contractor and the adjuster usually resolve it.
What we do not do
We do not chase storms. We do not show up uninvited after a major weather event. We do not promise to “get your insurance to pay for a new roof.” Those tactics belong to the out-of-state storm-chasing contractors who flood Iowa after every major hail event, do substandard work, and leave the homeowner with claim disputes and warranty problems that follow them for years.
If your roof, siding, or any other part of your rural Iowa property took damage in a storm and you need a contractor who will walk it honestly with you and work cleanly with your adjuster, give Collin a call at (563) 581-3819 or set up a free site walk through the contact page.