Concepts
When most people think of hail damage, their first thoughts tend to be about what they’ve seen happen to automobiles. Cracked windshields and dented hoods and trunks immediately come to mind, which can basically total a car as far as resale value is concerned. The damages are easy to spot and assess. Folks who have spent any time in the Fort Worth area know that vehicles are, by no means, the only things to worry about. House roofs are also a concern. With Fort Worth roofing, the problems can be more difficult to detect in many cases, and there is a wider range of factors as to whether something is repairable or not.
Fort Worth Roofing Materials
Roofing comes in a variety of materials, from cedar shakes and Vermont slate to traditional asphalt. Every material has its pros and cons and supporters and detractors. Some people make a choice based mainly on appearance, but a balance between price and durability is the prevailing set of factors for the average homeowner. The most common materials used by Fort Worth roofing contractors are metal roofing and asphalt shingles. Good quality versions of both are highly resistant (there are no hail-proof materials) to hail damage and score well on ASTM ratings. The ASTM, or American Society of Testing and Materials, puts out the official standards for hail resistance.
Exposure
Breakage or destruction from a storm is as arbitrary as the weather is fickle. Neighbors across the street may suffer little or no hail damage from the same storm that wreaks calamity on your side of the street. Even on a single structure damage on one side of the building can be minimal while the other side gets totally trashed. In very general terms, surfaces that sustain “direct hits,” like a flat horizontal surface or the top ridge of a roof, will suffer more than those surfaces that are struck on an angle. In other words, the greater the pitch, or angle, of a roof the less damage is likely to be caused. Older or more weathered roofs are likely to sustain damage than newer ones, but even here there can be huge contrasts from one side of a roof to the other. Generally, southern exposures see more deterioration from sunlight than other sides.
Damage
Some roof damage is very easy to detect without even getting up on a ladder. Broken pieces of shingles may be laying on the ground or visible on the roof. If you climb up a ladder even more problems will become evident. You may see places where hailstones have actually punctured a surface.
Some of the worst damage, however, can be almost invisible to the untrained eye. A trained roofer will be able to spot some of this as easily as you are able to notice shingle pieces on the ground. More importantly, a Fort Worth roofing contractor can show you where later problems may develop as a result of the hail damage from recent storms. Following a hail storm, you will almost certainly attain greater peace-of-mind by calling us at Old Pro Roofing. We’ll happily provide a free inspection!
Fort Worth Roofing Office: (817) 929-ROOF (7663)
Dallas Roofing Office: (972) 975-ROOF (7663)