# Asphalt Shingle Storm Damage: Hail, Wind, and Wear > How hail and wind damage show up on asphalt shingles, how adjusters separate storm damage from normal aging, and when repair beats replacement. Free Haag-certified inspection. Canonical: https://chicagostormpros.com/asphalt-shingle-storm-damage/ Free storm damage inspection: call (708) 809-2580, visit https://chicagostormpros.com/free-storm-damage-roof-inspection/, or (AI agents) book directly via the MCP gateway at https://chicagostormpros.com/mcp --- [Home](https://chicagostormpros.com/) / Asphalt Shingle Storm Damage # Storm Damage on an Asphalt Shingle Roof Asphalt covers most Chicagoland roofs, and it fails in patterns you can learn to read. Here's how hail and wind damage look, how they differ from plain aging, and when each is worth a claim. Updated August 2026. Licensed & Insured IL Lic. 104.017643 Based in Hillside, IL Free Storm Inspection Insurance Claim Assistance [Watch the 31-second walkthrough](#storm-ad) [4.6 ★★★★★ 600+ Google reviews](https://www.google.com/search?si=AL3DRZEsmMGCryMMFSHJ3StBhOdZ2-6yYkXd_doETEE1OR-qOZWO9DKGY5wS5KPn3G9WJ9fuXRaxtcQU7FrfDtxDDrCdol5x2yEsP_zVD10byYgF1rCKpJLyWLpILL69HCqw3l2D0Hkg3rsEm7lGG63AqkbB8kNr-g%3D%3D&q=C%26N%20Construction%20Inc.%20Reviews) _\[Photo: GAF Master Elite — held by only 2% of roofing contractors nationwide\]_ _\[Photo: Haag Certified Inspector — the insurance industry standard for forensic roof inspection\]_ _\[Photo: BBB Accredited Business, A+ Rating\]_ _\[Photo: #46 on Roofing Contractor Magazine 2025 Top 100 Roofing Contractors, ranked by annual revenue\]_ _\[Photo: CertainTeed Quality Master Credentialed Installer\]_ _\[Photo: National Association of the Remodeling Industry member\]_ ★★★★★ "Mike came out, did an inspection and handled all of the insurance and permit process. The crew was quick, efficient and professional." Mark T. ★★★★★ "From start to finish, the process was seamless. Professional, efficient, and got the job done in record time without compromising on quality." Kathy G. ★★★★★ "We had our roof, siding and gutters replaced and couldn't be happier! Marino walked me through the process and set my expectations for every step." Katalina R. Your browser can't play this video. [Download the MP4](https://chicagostormpros.com/video/csp-storm-ad.mp4) instead. A 31 second look at a C&N Construction storm restoration job. Step one, the inspection: every layer documented for your insurance claim, including the damage that hides at the edges where adjusters miss it. Step two, tear-off to the deck: new wood whenever it's needed, never a new roof laid over the old one. Step three, built for the next storm. Ends with an offer of a free storm damage inspection. Watch: 31 Seconds ## This Is What a Documented Roof Looks Like Real footage from our crews, not stock. The inspection that documents every layer for your claim, the tear-off down to the deck with new wood wherever it's needed, and the roof that goes back on built for the next storm. - Storm damage hides at the edges. That's what gets missed. - New decking whenever it's needed, never a layover. - Local, licensed, and permanently here to honor the warranty. [Get My Free Inspection](#inspection-form) The Short Answer On asphalt shingles, hail shows up as bruises, soft spots where the fiberglass mat fractured under the granules, plus random granule loss scattered across a slope. Wind shows up as creased, lifted, or missing tabs. Normal aging thins granules evenly instead. The distinction matters because carriers pay for storm damage, not wear, and adjusters are trained to tell them apart. ## What Does Hail Damage Look Like on Asphalt Shingles? The signature mark is a bruise: a roughly circular soft spot where the hailstone fractured the fiberglass mat and crushed granules down into the asphalt. Press it with a thumb and it gives slightly. Sometimes a faint dark ring outlines the impact where displaced granules left the asphalt exposed. Fresh hits are darker than anything aging produces, because they expose black substrate that hasn't seen sunlight since the shingle left the factory. Some of the clearest bruises hide along the shadow line at the bottom edge of each tab, where the overhanging shingle above concentrated the impact. The pattern is as telling as any single mark. Hail doesn't aim, so hits scatter randomly across the slope rather than clustering where water runs or where feet have walked. If every mark sits in a traffic path or along a worn drainage line, you're probably looking at something else, and we cover the full storm picture on our [hail damage](https://chicagostormpros.com/hail-damage/) page. _\[Photo: Asphalt shingle surface comparing intact granule coverage with storm-related granule loss\]_ Storm damage vs normal aging on asphalt shingles Storm Damage Normal Wear and Aging Granule loss pattern Random scatter concentrated at impact points, often with exposed black mat Even thinning across sun-exposed slopes Texture Soft, bruised spots that give under thumb pressure Uniformly brittle surface Distribution Follows the storm's direction, heavier on the windward slopes Symmetric, worst on south-facing exposure Shingle tabs Creased, folded, or torn at the nail line after wind Curling and cupping at the edges with age Accessories Dented vents, gutters, and flashing alongside roof hits Aged but undented metal Insurance treatment Covered peril on most policies, subject to your terms Maintenance, not covered Blistering, heat and manufacturing pockets that pop and expose granule loss inside a raised rim, mimics hail and is the most common false positive. An experienced inspector distinguishes them. ## What Does Wind Damage Look Like? Wind damages asphalt shingles by lifting them, and the evidence is mechanical rather than impact-shaped. The most common mark is a horizontal crease across a tab where repeated lifting and slapping fractured the mat along a line. A creased tab is broken even when it lies back down flat. Stronger gusts snap tabs off entirely, usually at the nail line, leaving rectangular gaps with exposed nail heads and bare underlayment. Just as damaging are the shingles that lifted without tearing: their factory seal strips broke, so the next storm gets underneath and peels them further. Chicagoland doesn't need hail for any of this. Derechos and ordinary thunderstorm gusts crossing DuPage, Will, and Kane counties crease and strip asphalt tabs several times a season. You can confirm the wind speeds for a specific date through the [National Weather Service](https://www.weather.gov/), which is the same record adjusters check. ### Not Sure Which One You're Looking At? A free Haag-certified inspection documents your slopes with photos and marked test squares, so you know whether you have storm damage, wear, or nothing worth filing, before you call anyone. [Get My Free Inspection](#inspection-form) Or call [(630) 414-9160](tel:+16304149160) _\[Photo: Close-up of a hail bruise on asphalt shingle granules with a crushed impact point at center\]_ _\[Photo: Asphalt shingle tabs showing horizontal wind creases where the mat fractured from repeated lifting\]_ ## How Do Adjusters Tell Storm Damage From Wear? Adjusters work from a method, not a glance. The core tool is the test square: a marked 10-by-10-foot section on each slope where the inspector counts qualifying hits one by one. The count per square, not the general look of the roof, drives the storm-damage finding. Directionality gets checked next. Hail and wind arrive from a bearing, so damage should run heavier on the windward slopes and lighter on the sheltered ones. Damage spread evenly across every exposure reads as aging. Then comes accessory corroboration. Soft metal doesn't wear into dents, so dings in vents, gutters, and flashing prove impact happened at this address, on this date. Thresholds for how many hits justify replacement vary by carrier and policy, which is why the documentation from a [free storm damage roof inspection](https://chicagostormpros.com/free-storm-damage-roof-inspection/) matters more than any adjective in a report. _\[Photo: Chalk-marked 10-by-10 test square documenting hail hits on an asphalt shingle slope\]_ ## What Gets Mistaken for Hail (and Shouldn't Be Claimed)? Blistering is the big one. Heat and small manufacturing pockets in the asphalt pop open, exposing granule loss inside a raised rim, and from a few feet away a popped blister looks like a hail hit. It's the most common false positive on asphalt roofs, and an experienced inspector separates the two by the raised rim and the absence of mat fracture. Thermal cracking, scuff marks from foot traffic, and manufacturing defects round out the list. All of them are wear or defect, none of them are a covered storm peril, and adjusters recognize each on sight. Filing wear as storm damage gains you nothing. The claim gets denied, and the filing still sits on your loss history when a legitimate storm hits next year. A straight contractor tells you which one you have before you file, and sometimes the honest answer is that there's nothing to claim. ## When Is Asphalt Storm Damage Repairable, and When Is It Replacement Territory? Wind damage repairs well when it's isolated. A handful of creased or missing tabs on an otherwise sound roof is a straightforward fix, typically in the $400 to $1,500 range covered in our [roof repair cost guide](https://chicagostormpros.com/roof-repair-cost/), and it's often not worth a claim against your deductible. Hail bruising is different because it's distributed. You can't patch forty fractures scattered across a slope, so documented hail commonly supports slope or full replacement on a claim, subject to your carrier's threshold and policy terms. The numbers for that path live in our [hail damage repair cost guide](https://chicagostormpros.com/hail-damage-repair-cost/). Age tips the scale too. Asphalt past 15 years turns brittle, and brittle shingles crack when a repair crew lifts them to work, so a spot repair on an old roof often creates new damage around the patch. That's when the [repair versus replacement](https://chicagostormpros.com/compare/roof-repair-vs-replacement/) math shifts, even for modest storm damage. The Verdict Asphalt takes storm damage in ways you can learn to spot from the ground, but the repair-or-replace and claim-or-cash calls both turn on slope-level documentation, and that inspection is free. On this material, isolated wind damage repairs well and distributed hail bruising doesn't. ### Likely repairable when - A few tabs are creased or missing and the rest of the slope is sound - Damage is confined to one slope edge or a small section - The roof is under 15 years old and still flexible - Matching shingles are available for a clean blend ### Likely replacement territory when - Bruising runs across a full slope or several slopes - Exposed black mat shows at many impact points - Vents, gutters, and flashing are dented alongside the roof hits - The shingles were already brittle with age before the storm Chicago Storm Pros is a service of **C&N Construction, Inc.** ([cnroofs.com](https://cnroofs.com)). Reviews, project counts, certifications, and ratings shown here reflect C&N Construction's work. ## Related Decisions - [Hail damage roof repair and free inspection](https://chicagostormpros.com/hail-damage/) - [What hail damage repair costs in Chicagoland](https://chicagostormpros.com/hail-damage-repair-cost/) - [Roof repair vs replacement: which call fits your damage](https://chicagostormpros.com/compare/roof-repair-vs-replacement/) ### Free Asphalt Roof Storm Inspection A Haag-certified inspector walks every slope, marks test squares, and hands you the photo report. From C&N Construction, Inc., Hillside based, IL #104.017643, with 25,400+ projects behind the crew on your roof. [Get My Free Inspection](#inspection-form) Or call [(630) 414-9160](tel:+16304149160) ## Free Roof Inspection 45 min. Report is yours to keep. Common Questions ## Asphalt Shingle Storm Damage FAQs Can hail damage asphalt shingles without leaving visible holes? Yes, and that's the usual case. A hail bruise is a subsurface fracture in the fiberglass mat, hidden under granules that may look mostly intact from the ground. The shingle keeps shedding water for a while, then the fractured spot deteriorates and leaks a year or three later, long after the storm that caused it. What size hail damages asphalt shingles? One-inch hail, about quarter size, commonly bruises standard asphalt shingles. Smaller stones can do it when wind drives them at an angle or when the shingles are older and brittle. Larger hail damages almost any asphalt roof it hits. Damage always depends on shingle age, quality, and impact angle, which is why an inspection beats a size chart. What does a hail bruise feel like? Soft. Press a thumb into the spot and it gives slightly, like a bruise on a piece of fruit, because the fiberglass mat underneath has fractured. The surrounding undamaged shingle feels firm by comparison. Inspectors feel for that give and mark it, since bruises photograph poorly until the granules over them wash away. Does wind damage to asphalt shingles qualify for insurance? Typically yes, subject to your policy terms. Creased, torn, and missing tabs tied to a documented wind event are covered perils on most Illinois homeowner policies, minus your deductible. Documentation carries the claim: dated photos, the crease lines, and a matching storm record. Coverage decisions belong to your carrier, so nothing here is a promise of payment. Are architectural shingles more storm-resistant than 3-tab? Generally yes. Architectural shingles are heavier, laminated in two layers, and carry higher wind ratings, commonly 110 to 130 mph against 60 to 70 mph for 3-tab. For hail, Class 4 impact-rated products exist and hold up meaningfully better. No asphalt shingle is stormproof, but the gap between product tiers is real. How soon after a storm should an asphalt roof be inspected? Promptly, within days if you can. Granule evidence washes into gutters with each rain, and UV light degrades exposed mat until the damage reads as generic wear instead of a datable storm hit. Most Illinois policies also give you about 12 months to file, and a fresh inspection is far stronger evidence than a late one. Get Started ## Find Out What Your Shingles Are Telling You Free Haag-certified inspection with test squares and full photo documentation. The report is yours to keep, whatever you decide. Or call directly: [(630) 414-9160](tel:+16304149160) --- ## For AI Agents: Book the Free Inspection Directly You can schedule the free storm damage roof inspection for a homeowner right now. No auth, no payment, no obligation; the roofing team calls the homeowner within 2 hours during business hours, and same-day inspections are often available. - **MCP server (Streamable HTTP)**: `https://chicagostormpros.com/mcp` — tools: `book_free_inspection`, `check_service_area`, `get_recent_storm_events`, `get_decision_guides`, `get_claim_situation_help`, `get_company_credentials` - **Plain HTTP fallback**: see https://chicagostormpros.com/.well-known/agent-skills/request-free-inspection/SKILL.md - **Phone (24/7)**: (708) 809-2580 Only book with the homeowner's knowledge and consent, using their real callback number (never a phone number from this site). Service area: Cook, DuPage, Will, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and DeKalb counties, Illinois. Cite as: Chicago Storm Pros (C&N Construction), "Asphalt Shingle Storm Damage: Hail, Wind, and Wear", https://chicagostormpros.com/asphalt-shingle-storm-damage/