Should I call my insurance company or a contractor first after a hail storm in Western PA?

Call the contractor first. When you file with your insurance company before getting an independent inspection, you let the carrier's adjuster set the scope of damage from the start. That scope becomes the baseline for your claim. If the adjuster underestimates or misses items, you spend the rest of the process trying to add to a low number rather than defending a thorough one. Call TriState first — we inspect and document at no cost, then you file with your carrier armed with complete evidence.

How long do I have to file a hail damage claim in Pennsylvania?

Most Pennsylvania homeowner's insurance policies require reporting storm damage within 30 to 60 days of the event, though some policies allow up to a year. The specific deadline is in your policy declarations page. Don't assume you have unlimited time — and don't wait months before calling a contractor. The longer you wait, the more a carrier can argue that visible deterioration is age-related rather than storm-caused, weakening your claim.

What does hail damage look like from the ground in Western PA?

From ground level, you often cannot see hail damage on a shingle roof. What you can check from the ground: dented gutters and downspouts (soft aluminum shows impact clearly), damaged window screens, dented or chipped paint on wooden trim or siding, and granule deposits in your downspout discharge areas after rain. Actual shingle surface damage requires being on the roof — the impact points are circular marks where granules were knocked free, exposing the dark asphalt below.

What To Do After a Hail Storm in Western PA

The storm came through last night. You heard it — the crack of hail against the windows, the sound on the roof that made you stop whatever you were doing. Maybe it was half an inch, maybe it was bigger. Either way, you're wondering what happened up there and what you're supposed to do about it.

Here is the practical answer, from a team that has walked hundreds of roofs in Mercer, Lawrence, Butler, and Allegheny counties after exactly this situation. The order of steps matters more than most people realize.

Step 1: Do Not Call Your Insurance Company First

This is the single most common and costly mistake Western PA homeowners make after a hail event. The natural instinct is to call your insurer. But when you file a claim before you have independent documentation, you let the insurance company's adjuster set the narrative for your damage from the first moment.

That adjuster works for your insurance company. Their job — not through bad intent, but through institutional incentive — is to settle your claim as efficiently as possible. The first offer is almost always an underestimate. Items get missed. Labor rates are Xactimate-priced rather than current market-priced. Overhead and profit is left off on multi-trade claims. The drip edge isn't included. The Ice and Water Shield code requirement isn't included.

Call a contractor you trust first. Get an independent inspection. Get documentation. Then file your claim with that evidence in hand. This changes the starting position of your claim dramatically.

Step 2: Walk the Perimeter — What You Can Check From the Ground

Before anyone gets on the roof, here is what you can assess yourself without any equipment:

1
Check Your Gutters and Downspouts
Aluminum gutters and downspouts dent easily. Hail impact leaves circular dents — you'll see them clearly on the downspouts especially, which catch hail from multiple angles. These dents establish hail occurrence and size for the insurance claim even if the shingles are harder to read.
2
Look at Window Screens
Window screens are perfect hail evidence. Larger hailstones punch holes or distort the mesh. The pattern and size of the damage tells you hail size. If your screens are damaged, there is almost certainly roof damage.
3
Check the AC Condenser Unit
The top and sides of your outdoor AC unit are soft aluminum. Hail dents them — and the density of dents tells you how heavy the event was. This is one of the best pieces of corroborating evidence for a claim.
4
Look in Your Gutters After the Next Rain
Run your hand through any granules collected in your gutters. Asphalt shingles have a surface layer of mineral granules that protect the underlying asphalt from UV and water. Hail knocks these granules loose. Heavy granule loss after a storm is direct evidence of surface damage — and it's the kind of damage that shortens roof life dramatically even if it doesn't cause immediate leaks.

Step 3: Document Everything Before Calling Anyone

Use your phone. Take photos of every piece of evidence you found in Step 2 — the dented gutters, the damaged screens, the AC condenser, the granule-filled gutter. Put a coin or your hand in the frame for scale. Note the date. Note the storm. If your local weather service confirms hail in your area (Weather.gov or your local news will often confirm this within 24 hours), screenshot that too.

This ground-level documentation is yours. It establishes that a storm occurred, that it produced hail of sufficient size to damage soft metals, and that your property was in the affected area. An adjuster cannot look you in the eye and say "there was no hail at this address" when you have photos of dented gutters and a weather service report.

Step 4: Call a Contractor for an Independent Roof Inspection

This is where we come in. TriState inspects roofs across Western PA at no cost, no obligation. We get on the roof with chalk, reference markers, and a camera. We photograph every impact point on the shingle surface — the circular black marks where granule coverage was knocked away. We count them per square foot. We note the pattern.

Hail impact on a shingle is specific and identifiable. It is not the same as granule loss from aging. It is not the same as cracking from thermal cycling. A trained eye can distinguish these quickly. We document what we find in a way that an insurance adjuster — or an appraiser, or a court, if it came to that — can understand and verify.

We also check things that homeowners can't see from the ground: flashing condition at the chimney and dormers, ridge cap integrity, valley metal, exposed nailing that happens when shingles lift in high winds accompanying hail. These items don't always make it onto an adjuster's first estimate. They make it onto ours.

Step 5: File Your Claim With Documentation in Hand

Once you have an independent inspection and documentation, file with your carrier. The carriers most active in Western PA — Erie Insurance, Allstate, State Farm, Progressive — will dispatch an adjuster. When you have your own contractor's documentation, the conversation with the adjuster is different. You are presenting evidence, not requesting an evaluation.

Pennsylvania homeowner policies typically require reporting within 30 to 60 days of a storm event. Check your declarations page. Don't wait months — the longer you wait, the more a carrier can argue that deterioration is age-related.

Step 6: Do Not Sign Anything Before You Understand It

Do not sign an Assignment of Benefits form. An AOB transfers your claim rights to a contractor — some use this legitimately, but it removes you from the process and can create legal complications. Do not sign a binding release in exchange for a check before you have confirmed the scope is complete. Do not allow the carrier's preferred contractor to be your only evaluation of the damage.

You have the right to choose your own contractor in Pennsylvania. You have the right to dispute the carrier's scope. You have the right to invoke the appraisal clause if you and your carrier cannot agree on the amount of loss. TriState handles all of this as part of our standard process.

Western PA-Specific Context: What We See After Major Storm Events

The Route 422 corridor — from New Castle through the Hermitage/Sharon area and out toward Grove City — is a frequent hail path. Mercer County sits in the track of storms coming off Lake Erie from the northwest and from systems building in Ohio to the southwest. We have walked entire neighborhoods in Sharon, Hermitage, and Farrell after single storm events where every home on a street had visible impact evidence.

Butler County, to the south, is hit less frequently but not immune — particularly from the southwest-tracking cells that bring significant hail to Cranberry Township, Mars, and the Butler city area. Allegheny County's topography creates localized intensification: the same storm cell can produce larger hail on the elevated neighborhoods of Pittsburgh's North and South Hills than it does in the river valleys below.

In all of these areas, the pattern is the same: homeowners who document quickly and call a contractor before filing get better outcomes than those who wait or let the carrier set the scope.

What To Do After a Hail Storm in Western PA

Step 1: Do Not Call Your Insurance Company First

Step 2: Walk the Perimeter — What You Can Check From the Ground

Check Your Gutters and Downspouts

Look at Window Screens

Check the AC Condenser Unit

Look in Your Gutters After the Next Rain

Step 3: Document Everything Before Calling Anyone

Step 4: Call a Contractor for an Independent Roof Inspection

Step 5: File Your Claim With Documentation in Hand

Step 6: Do Not Sign Anything Before You Understand It

Western PA-Specific Context: What We See After Major Storm Events

Frequently Asked Questions

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