When it's time to get help

Call soon: these can't wait

• Water coming through the ceiling. Catch it, move valuables, and take photos. If the ceiling is bulging with water, keep people out of the room underneath.
• Missing sections or exposed decking after wind. An open roof plus the next storm means interior damage. Many roofers will tarp it the same week.
• A sagging roofline or cracking sounds under heavy snow. Leave the house if you hear cracking, and call for help from outside.
• A tree or large limb on the roof. Don't climb up. Call your insurer and a contractor.

Call this season: worth an inspection

• Hail an inch or larger fell near you since your last inspection. Your Roof Report shows the dates.
• Dents on gutters, downspouts, vents or the AC unit.
• Granules piling up in gutters on a roof that isn't new.
• Curling, cracked or lifted shingles you can see from the ground.
• Ice dams that come back every winter.
• You're buying or selling the house.

A storm-damage inspection from a local roofer is usually free. It doesn't commit you to anything, and you can get more than one.

Repair or replace?

A repair makes sense when the problem is local: one leaking pipe boot, a few blown-off shingles, a section of failed flashing, on a roof with plenty of life left. Replacement makes sense when damage is spread across slopes, when the roof is near the end of its expected life, or when repeated repairs are chasing new leaks.

Some rough guides that roofers use:

• If more than about a quarter to a third of a slope needs work, replacing that slope or the whole roof often costs less over time.
• Matching is harder on older roofs. A repair on a 15-year-old asphalt roof may never look the same color, and discontinued shingles can't be matched at all.
• Hail damage is often judged slope by slope. An insurer may replace the slopes facing the storm and repair or leave the rest, depending on the policy.

Those are rules of thumb, not standards. Ask any roofer who recommends replacement to show you, with photos, what they saw and where.

When waiting is fine

• A few granules after a new roof goes on. Loose surface granules are normal.
• Streaks or light moss with no leaks.
• A roof in its expected life with no storm since its last inspection.

Waiting isn't the same as ignoring it. Do the seasonal checklist each spring and fall, and the post-storm walk-around after every big hail or wind event.

Before anyone climbs up

• Know your policy's wind and hail deductible. Insurance in plain English
• Know what a Colorado roofing contract must include and what a roofer can't promise you. Hiring a roofer
• Take your own photos from the ground first, with dates.