What Is Hail and What To Do About Hail Damage
Hail storms can cause massive amounts of damage in a short period of time, which means you need to know what it is, when it occurs and how to handle the destruction that is evident after it passes.
What Is Hail and When Does It Occur?
Hail is ice that forms inside of updrafts within a thunderstorm. Rain droplets are carried up high enough in the storm so they freeze. When they become heavy enough, it drops from the sky. Hailstones can form in various sizes, some as small as peas and some as large as grapefruits. The length of the storm and the size of the hail determines the amount of damage that happens. When stones reach the size of a half-dollar coin, they can cause minor cracks in roofing and siding. If the stones grow to the size of tennis balls, prepare to take your car to Auto Glass Burlington VT for windshield repairs.
What To Do About Hail Damage
Hail can be extremely destructive to a roof surface, causing cracks in the shingles, fractured fiberglass mats or weakened seals. Some of this you can notice on your own, but other times you need a professional to come out and inspect the roof after a storm. You can file an insurance claim after you’ve determined there is a problem and they will also send out an inspector. They will provide quotes for damage repair so you can hire a roofing contractor to come out and replace the areas that need it.
Car damage can also be handled by your insurance company. They will need to send out a representative to assess the damage and give you quotes just like a home insurance assessor needs to do.
When you know a storm is coming with the potential for hail, do as much as possible to protect what you can. Park your car in the garage if possible and bring in delicate potted plants to protect them.