Wind and storm damage
The dramatic damage is easy. The damage that costs you a roof five years early is the kind you cannot see from the ground.
Asphalt shingles work by bonding to each other. A heat activated strip on the underside seals to the course below, and the roof becomes a single surface rather than a set of overlapping pieces.
Wind’s main work is breaking that bond. Nothing leaves the roof. The shingle sits exactly where it was, no longer attached to anything but its nails, and it flutters in every subsequent wind until it works itself loose or takes in water underneath.
On the Strand this happens gradually, through ordinary onshore weather, and all at once in a named storm. It is the single most under-recognised category of roof damage here, and because it photographs badly it is the most argued about in claims.
Where it shows first
Edges. Rakes, eaves and ridges, where wind gets underneath. If the starter course was skipped or the drip edge omitted, this is where you find out.
Ridge caps. Often the first thing to lift, and visible from the ground with binoculars.
Anything that projects. Vents, boots, satellite mounts. Wind works at them and at the seal around them.
The first week after a storm
Photograph before you tidy. Wide shots that establish the property, then close ones of every individual thing. Anything that came off the roof gets photographed where it landed.
Make temporary repairs to prevent further damage, keep every receipt, and keep the damaged material. Tarping is expected. Beginning permanent repairs before the loss is documented is not, and it costs people money.
Write down the storm and the date. A named storm is helpfully unambiguous.
Partial claims and matching
Wind damage concentrates. Insurers scope the elevations that were damaged, which frequently means a partial repair.
The recurring dispute is matching: a shingle that has spent ten years in salt air and sun will not match a new one, and whether you are owed a full replacement for that reason depends on specific policy language. It is worth reading that language before the conversation, because it is the only thing that settles it.
Questions people ask
- Nothing came off. Do I still need it looked at?
After a genuinely serious blow, yes. The commonest wind damage is a broken seal between shingle courses, which leaves everything in place and no longer bonded. It looks like a roof and behaves like loose tiles in the next storm.
- How long do I have to file?
Policies set deadlines and they are shorter than people assume, particularly for wind. If a named storm passed, get it assessed while the date is unarguable.
- The damage is all on one side. Will they replace the whole roof?
Not automatically. Insurers scope what was damaged. The argument, where there is one, is usually about matching, and whether it succeeds turns on your policy wording rather than on fairness.