Hail damage: what to do after the storm

A hailstorm in the valley is a short event with a long tail. The damage is real but mostly invisible from the ground, and the paperwork decisions come due fast. The sequence that keeps it in your hands:

Document first, not last

Photograph what you can safely reach: dented gutters, bruised shingles where they are visible, the soft metals that take the hit (vents, flashing edges, any painted trim). The marks you see at ground level are the hint, not the whole story, but they establish the date and the fact of the event before either fades.

The inspection comes before the claim

The real assessment is on the roof, not on the ground: impact marks on shingles, granule loss patterns, and the dent pattern on soft metals that confirms the hail size. A written report gives you the evidence a claim actually runs on. Whether the damage warrants a claim is a judgment call between you and your insurer, but the inspection is the document that makes it a decision instead of a guess.