Hail Storms in North Texas
Well here we are another spring in North Texas. Hail Storms occurring every week or two and this is typical fair for the area and season. I will break my blog down into 4 sections. The 4 sections are Storm Damage, Insurance Company, Repairs and Warranties.
This past April it was you typical weather alerts, dry line, warm moist air from the gulf and low pressure it all stirs together to make falling ice.
This tears up everything it hits from roof, walls, windows and even livestock people and pets. Do not try to hit baseball size hail with a baseball bat and yes one of my roofers tried this and needless to say he was knocked out. This was the May 5th, 1995, The largest hailstorm in American History.
I will focus on what happens to composition shingles when hit by hail. During a hailstorm there is ice cold water falling, very high winds and ice sometimes big ice. The hail for the most part is falling at an angle close to straight down, sometimes driven by downdraft winds traveling 80 – 100 MPH. When this hail impacts the composition shingle it bruises or punches a whole completely through the shingle.
Most compositionn shingles are made up of a fiberglass mat material, with a tar and gravel surface covering. The gravel coverings purpose is UV protection from the sun. I know it makes the shingles have pretty colors but it is for sunlight protection first and foremost. Now, when the hail impacts the shingle it knocks a lot of the granules off and leaves a bruised, cracked and split shingles. Now think about this, how many places did it hit? There could be several big wholes, and work their way down to just granules missing. So another words if left l9ike this over time you may have 5 roof leaks to start and then it maybe be 50. Who knows? Now the storm has cam and gone. The blood pressure has risen and hopefully returned to normal. Next The Insurance Company.
