Hail Damage to Your Roof in Canberra: What to Do After a Storm

First: Stay Safe

After a hailstorm the urge is to get up and look. Please do not. A roof after hail is wet, covered in ice that rolls like ball bearings, and may have broken tiles or sheets that will not hold your weight. Storms often come in waves, and lightning can return with the next cell.

• Stay off the roof and off ladders until the storm has fully passed and the surface is dry. Better still, leave the roof to someone with the right equipment.
• Keep well clear of any fallen power lines and report them to Evoenergy. Call 000 if anyone is in danger.
• If water is coming through a ceiling near a light fitting or power point, turn that circuit off at the switchboard if it is safe to do so.
• If a ceiling is sagging with water, keep people out of the room. A saturated ceiling can come down without warning.

The First Hour: Stop More Damage

Much of the damage after a storm comes from water getting in afterwards, not from the hail itself. A few simple steps limit that.

• Catch the water: buckets and towels under drips, and move furniture, rugs and electronics out of the way.
• Check the roof space if you have safe access through a manhole. A torch will show where water is coming in, even if the ceiling below looks dry so far.
• Clear what you safely can from ground level: hail that has piled up in a downpipe outlet or a low gutter corner can be cleared with a broom from the ground.
• Call the ACT SES on 132 500 if water is coming in and you need emergency help with a temporary cover. After a large storm they are very busy, so call early.

The First Day: Document Everything

If you are going to make an insurance claim, what you record in the first day makes the process far easier.

• Photograph and video the damage from the ground and from inside: broken tiles or dents you can see, damaged skylights, gutters and downpipes, water stains, wet insulation in the roof space, and damaged belongings.
• Photograph the hail itself with something for scale, like a coin or a ruler. It helps establish how severe the storm was at your address.
• Keep damaged items until your insurer says you can throw them out.
• Contact your insurer early. Check what your policy covers and what it asks you to do. Most policies expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, which is what temporary repairs are for. Ask before committing to permanent repairs.

We are not your insurer, and every policy is different, so the insurer's instructions come first. What we can do is give you a clear, independent picture of what has actually happened to your roof.

What Hail Actually Does to a Roof

Hail affects different roofing materials in different ways, and the damage is not always visible from the street.

Tile Roofs

Hail cracks and breaks tiles, and a cracked tile lets water straight through. Older concrete tiles that have lost their coating are more porous and more brittle, and terracotta can shatter on impact. The trouble is that a tile can crack without looking broken from below, and hail often damages the ridge capping and its mortar bed as well. A roof can come through a storm apparently fine, then leak in the next heavy rain.

Colorbond and Metal Roofs

Colorbond usually dents rather than breaking through, and many dents are cosmetic: the sheet still keeps water out. What matters is whether the coating has been cracked or chipped at the point of impact, whether any fixings or flashings have been disturbed, and whether ridge capping, barge covers or gutters have been crushed. Insurers treat cosmetic and functional damage differently, which is another reason an accurate report helps.

The Things People Forget

• Skylights: polycarbonate domes, especially older ones, crack or shatter.
• Whirlybirds and vents: dented whirlybirds seize and stop working.
• Gutters and downpipes: dented, pulled from their brackets, or blocked by hail and shredded leaves.
• Solar panels: the glass is built to take hail, but the mounts and the flashings around the roof penetrations below them should be checked.
• Pergolas and carports: polycarbonate and older fibreglass sheeting are often the first thing to go.

The First Week: Get the Roof Properly Inspected

Once the storm has passed and the roof is dry, have it inspected by a licensed roofer, even if nothing is leaking yet. Hail damage that is missed now tends to show up as a leak in the next storm, by which time it can be harder to link back to the original event.

Our roof inspection covers every accessible area of the roof and gives you a written report with photos, showing what the hail has damaged and what it has not. That report is yours to use however you need, including with your insurer. Where repairs are needed, we quote them in writing, explain what we will do and why, and carry out the work properly. Every job comes with our 5-year workmanship guarantee.

Be Wary of Storm Chasers

After a big storm, some operators door-knock affected streets offering quick repairs and asking for cash up front. Before you agree to any work, check that the builder is licensed in the ACT (you can look this up with Access Canberra), that the quote is in writing, and that you know exactly what is being done to your roof. A reputable roofer will not pressure you into signing on the doorstep.

Leaky Roof is a licensed ACT builder (Licence No. 2024368), fully insured, based in Kambah and working across all ACT suburbs.

Need Help After a Storm?

Call us on (02) 5133 5608 during business hours (Mon-Fri, 9am to 5pm) or book an inspection online. If water is coming in after hours, call the ACT SES on 132 500 for a temporary cover, then call us for the permanent repair. For more on stopping an active leak, see our guide to what to do when your roof is leaking, and our leak repair service.