A practical pre-season checklist: document your roof before storms hit, know your deductible, trim what can fall, and make the ten-minute plan that saves cars and skylights.
The best time to think about hail is when the sky is blue. An hour of preparation before the season does more for you than a week of scrambling after a storm — mostly because the single most valuable thing you can own after hail is proof of what your home looked like before it.
Document your home while it’s undamaged
If you ever file a claim, the first question is "was this damage from the storm, or was it already there?" Homeowners who can answer with dated photos are in a completely different negotiating position than homeowners who can’t.
Photograph all four sides of your house from the yard, wide enough to see the full roofline.
Photograph gutters, downspouts, window screens, garage door, and AC unit up close — these soft-metal surfaces are where hail shows first.
If you have recent roof work, save the invoice and warranty somewhere you can find them.
Walk the attic with a flashlight once a year: existing water stains, daylight through boards. Know your baseline.
Store everything in one place (a cloud folder named "Home — [address]" works fine).
Know your insurance before you need it
Find your wind/hail deductible. Many policies use a percentage of your home’s insured value (1–2%) rather than a flat dollar amount — on a $500,000 home, a 1% deductible is $5,000. Better to learn that today than during a claim.
Check whether your roof is covered at replacement cost (RCV) or actual cash value (ACV). Our deductibles guide explains the difference in plain English — it can be the difference between a covered roof and a five-figure bill.
Confirm your policy’s deadline for filing storm claims. One year is common; some are shorter.
Reduce what hail can break
Trim branches that overhang the roof — hail plus dead limbs is how skylights and shingles lose.
Keep gutters clear so post-storm rain drains instead of backing up under shingles.
Note where cars, patio furniture, and grills go when a warning hits. Ten minutes of moving things is the cheapest hail insurance there is.
If you’re re-roofing anyway, ask about Class 4 impact-resistant shingles — many insurers discount premiums for them.
The ten-minute plan: Agree as a household: when a hail warning is issued, cars go in the garage, people and pets come inside, and nobody goes out to watch. That’s the whole plan. Households that have said it out loud actually do it.