Your neighbors have dumpsters in the driveway and crews on the roof. Nothing on yours looks any different from the week before the storm, which tells you almost nothing.
Half the street is getting new roofs. Was mine hit too?
Maybe. Hail doesn't fall like rain, in an even sheet over a neighborhood. It comes down in swaths, and the edge of one can run between two houses. Wind direction counts for as much as stone size, since the slope facing into the storm takes the beating while the slope behind the ridge gets almost nothing.
Age and material change the answer too. An asphalt roof that's already given up granules to sun and freeze-thaw will bruise at a stone size that bounces off a newer one. Wood shake splits instead.
Nobody settles this from the curb, including the contractor who knocked on your door. Somebody has to walk the roof, or fly it close enough to read individual shingles, slope by slope. The Palmer Divide's higher ground tends to set off afternoon thunderstorms earlier and more reliably than the terrain below it, and the I-25 corridor through Douglas County is one of the most hail-prone stretches of the Front Range. Storms stack up here, and one slope can carry marks from more than one storm.
What does hail actually do to a shingle?
Picture the layers. An asphalt shingle is a fiberglass mat, asphalt coating on both sides, and ceramic granules pressed into the top. The granules aren't decoration. They're sunscreen for the asphalt, and once they're gone, sunlight works directly on the binder holding the whole thing together.
Hail does two things at once. It strips granules, which shows up as a scuffed patch or a dark spot where black asphalt is coming through. And it can fracture the mat underneath without breaking the surface at all.
Why a bruise matters more than a hole
A bruise is a soft spot. Press a thumb on it and it gives, a bit like a peach that's gone too far. No hole, no drip, nothing on the ceiling tonight. The mat has cracked, the asphalt above it has lost its cover, and that spot ages faster than the shingle around it. Enough cycles of freeze and thaw and it opens up, and by then tying the leak back to the storm is a hard argument.
From the driveway you see none of it. Not the bruise, not the granule loss across the upslope half of each tab, not the split in a plastic pipe boot.
What can I check myself without a ladder?
Look at the soft metal. Aluminum and thin steel dent at stone sizes asphalt sometimes survives, which makes the metal on your house the closest thing you've got to a hail gauge.
- Gutters and the gutter apron. Sight along the top edge and look for waves.
- Downspouts. Run a hand down the round back of one. Dents turn up there early and the eye skips them.
- The outdoor air conditioner. Aluminum condenser fins flatten easily on the side that faced the storm. That one is loud.
- Metal roof vents, turbine caps, chimney caps.
- Window screens pushed in or torn.
- Granules piled in the splash block where a downspout drains. Some shedding is normal. A fresh heap after a storm isn't.
None of that proves the roof is damaged. It proves the stones were big enough to be worth a look. Hammered gutters above sound shingles is a common outcome, and when that's what we find, we say so.
Should I file a claim right away?
Get the roof looked at first. Then decide.
Filing before anyone knows whether there's damage starts a process you may not need. Better order: somebody inspects every slope and the metal, you get a straight answer, then you call your insurer.
If there is damage, the paperwork has rules of its own, worth learning before anyone shows up with a clipboard. That's most of what our help with insurance claims is for: what an adjuster will and won't climb up to look at, how to document a slope so it holds up. Your policy sets the window for reporting a loss, and your insurer or agent will tell you what it is. Don't take a roofer's word for that, ours included.
Write down the storm date, or dates, while you still remember. Photograph the dented downspout and the flattened condenser fins before any of it gets replaced. If a flyer gave you a date, check it against your own memory.
What happens if I wait?
Two clocks are running. One is your policy's reporting window, and missing it can end the conversation no matter what's on the roof.
The other is physical. A bruised shingle keeps aging, the exposed asphalt keeps hardening, and the crack widens with every freeze and thaw. Wait long enough and hail damage stops looking like hail damage and starts looking like an old roof, which is how claims get denied.
A delayed problem also grows a second half: the brown ring on a bedroom ceiling, wet insulation above it, sheathing that comes off with the shingles. Storm damage work covers all of that, but the cheap version is the one caught early.
If it does need work, who pulls the permit?
We do, once we've confirmed which jurisdiction the address sits in. That matters more than people expect: Douglas County and the Town of Castle Rock run separate building divisions, with separate rules.
In unincorporated Douglas County, which takes in Highlands Ranch, Roxborough Park, Sedalia, Franktown, The Pinery, Stonegate and Perry Park, permits come from the Douglas County Building Division in Castle Rock. One is required when a repair covers more than one roofing square, which is 100 square feet, or when the roof is replaced. Each structure needs its own, so a detached garage is a separate application. Basic residential permits can be applied for online where asphalt or metal replaces asphalt or metal.
Inside town limits, Castle Rock's own building division handles it and gets more specific. A replacement needs a permit. Existing layers come off completely, no overlays. Ice and water barrier and drip edge are required at the eaves and the rakes. An inspection happens mid-roof, once the roof is dried in. And depending on how the property is classified for fire intensity on the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Map, a re-roof may have to meet state wildfire resiliency requirements.
Parker, Lone Tree, Castle Pines and Larkspur each run their own process, so we check by address rather than assuming.
One thing worth raising while the roof is open: whether to put Class 4 impact-resistant shingles back on instead of the product that just bruised. That rating comes out of a lab impact test, not a marketing department. Shingles that earn it take a strike without the mat fracturing. Some carriers offer a premium credit for them and some don't, so ask yours.
Does a free inspection obligate me?
No.
Nothing to sign, nothing scheduled, no contingency agreement traded for a look at your roof. You get what's up there, plainly, including the answer people don't expect from a roofing company: the roof is fine, leave it alone. We say that often.
If you want somebody on your roof after this round of storms, the number is 303-500-1667. Licensed and insured, shop on Malibu Street in Castle Rock, and Douglas County is home turf.