How Hail Damage Affects Your Home’s Roof and Siding
Hail is one of mother nature’s harsher blows. Hail is formed as water that should typically come down as rain but gets pushed back up into the colder parts of the sky. If the weather is so tumultuous that this process becomes circulatory, it creates a little ball of ice that grows larger and larger. This is when the trouble really starts, as the ice ball gets bigger it becomes harder for the wind, that’s pushing it back up into the colder part to keep it up there. Like Sir Issac always says ”what goes up, must come down” as the ice ball grows in density the pull of gravity becomes stronger and stronger. Until eventually the rock of ice comes plummeting to earth, depending on the weight of the hail will determine the speed at which it falls. You can do the math, but these bad boys can range in velocities from twenty miles per hour all the way up to a possibly terminal velocity of one hundred and twenty miles per hour. Whew! That’ll sure put a dent in your day!
Houses and hail are never a good combination and obviously the bigger the hail, the more damage it’s going to cause. The obvious hail damage happens when large dense ice rocks pulverize your roof and siding. Smashing your windows and skylights, cracking holes in your roof tiles and homes plastic or even wood siding. After the storm, you go outside and do whatever expressive thing it is you do with your arms and exclaim whatever expression it is you’re fond of saying when you discover the damage that was done to your property.
Depending on the type of roof and siding your house has, identifying the hail damage can be a bit more tricky than just doing a once-over with your eyes. This means that even if you walk outside after a hail storm and do not see any glaringly obvious damage, smashed tiles, or siding, there could still be damage!
I know that is hard to hear, but it’s better you know now than find out the hard way. The hard way is when you go back inside and shrug, you didn’t see any damage after that last hail storm, so you figure, no big deal, the house made it through the storm unscathed. Only to find a few weeks or months later that you’ve got leaks in the roof with massive water damage and a huge mold problem and wonder “where did it come from, what the heck, that roof is young and the siding is new!?!”
Hail impacts can cause small fractures in your roof and siding. These small fractures can be seen if you take a close look and know what you’re looking for but a cursory glance from afar will most certainly miss them. These small fractures will let in rain and moisture, and if they remain for too long, they will compromise the integrity of your roof and siding and cause major problems down the line.
If you suspect that your home may have experienced hail damage, don’t delay! Call ARC Contracting at 888-743-8086. We are located in Appleton, Wisconsin and serve the surrounding Fox Valley and Madison areas.
