Storm

Storm Damage Roof Checklist for Maple Grove

By Maple Grove Roof Repair · September 7, 2026 · 6 min read

Maple Grove's storm season runs from late May into September, and it comes in two forms. Hail cores that ride the same track from Rogers down through Maple Grove and Plymouth into Brooklyn Park, dropping stones from pea to golf-ball size on whatever's under them. And straight-line winds from bow echoes and the occasional derecho, 60–80 mph gusts that arrive with a wall of dust and leave shingles in the yard and a silver maple on the garage. This is the checklist for the morning after either one.

First: safety and the ground

Before you look up, look around. Downed lines along the street — call Xcel Energy, don't touch them. A tree on the house — stay out of the rooms under it until someone has looked at the framing. Then take out your phone and start photographing before anything gets moved or cleaned up.

• Hail on the deck or lawn, next to a coin or a tape measure for scale, with the time stamp
• Shingles, granules and shingle fragments in the yard, and the slope they came from
• Dents in gutters, downspouts, the mailbox, the grill lid, the AC condenser fins, window screens and siding
• Any water inside — ceilings, walls, the attic
• Broken branches and where they landed

Those photos are the start of your claim file. The soft metals matter most: if the gutters and roof vents are dented, the shingles almost certainly are, and an adjuster knows that.

Second: what you can see from the ground

Walk all four sides with binoculars if you have them.

• Missing shingles — bare patches showing black underlayment or wood
• Lifted or flapping shingles, especially along the ridge and the rake edges facing the storm
• Creased shingles — a horizontal line across a tab where wind folded it back
• Granule wash — a dark slurry at the downspout outlets, or bare spots on the roof
• Roof vents and pipe boots knocked crooked or missing caps
• Sagging gutters pulled loose by debris or ice-heavy leaves
• Skylight glass cracked or the flashing bent

Do not go on the roof. A wet, granule-covered roof on a two-story is dangerous, and a storm-damaged roof can have soft spots you can't see. Everything on this list can be documented from the ground; the rest is our job.

Third: what hail actually does to shingles

From the ground, a hail-hit roof looks fine. That's the whole problem. Up close, each strike is a bruise — a dime- to quarter-sized spot where the granules are gone and the fiberglass mat underneath is crushed. You can feel it as a soft spot with your thumb. Each bruise exposes asphalt to UV, and in two or three summers it cracks through and leaks.

Adjusters count hits in 10x10-foot test squares on each slope. In practice, eight or more clean hits in a square usually means the slope is replaced. That's why a hail claim is so often a full-roof replacement on a house that looked fine the morning after, and why hail damage roof repair Maple Grove homeowners get done by a patch crew is rarely the right answer.

Wind damage is different: creased and lifted shingles are individually replaceable if it's a few, and a slope replacement if it's most of the slope.

Fourth: what to do in the first 48 hours

1. Call a licensed roofer for an inspection. We walk the roof, mark the hits with chalk, run test squares on every slope, photograph everything, and tell you whether it's worth a claim against your deductible. Sometimes the answer is no, and that's worth knowing before a claim goes on your record.
2. Tarp anything open. Exposed decking or a missing section needs a tarp before the next rain — $300–$700, and it's covered as emergency mitigation. Keep the receipt.
3. Call your insurer with the photos and the inspection. Get the claim number and the adjuster's name.
4. Check the deductible first. Many Minnesota policies now carry a separate wind/hail deductible of 1–2% of the dwelling limit — $4,000–$8,000 on a $400,000 house. A $600 repair isn't a claim.
5. Don't sign anything on the doorstep. See below.

Fifth: the people knocking on your door

Within 48 hours of a real hail event, crews with out-of-state plates and magnetic door signs work every street around Rice Lake and Weaver Lake. Some are fine. Many aren't licensed here, and the roof they install will have nobody to call when it fails.

Three things to know. Every residential roofer in Minnesota needs a Department of Labor and Industry license, and you can look one up at dli.mn.gov in a minute. Minnesota law prohibits a contractor from paying or rebating your deductible — a "free roof" is a padded invoice. And the same law gives you 72 hours to cancel a storm-damage contract if your insurer denies the claim. Our hail and storm damage page explains how the claim works, and the guide on questions to ask a Maple Grove roofing contractor covers the rest.

Sixth: the trees

One local detail worth its own line. Hennepin County has lost tens of thousands of ash trees to emerald ash borer, and a dead ash comes apart in wind that a healthy one shrugs off. If there's a dead or dying ash within reach of your roof — gray bark, bare upper branches, woodpecker holes — get it down before the next storm, not after. Silver maples and cottonwoods drop big limbs too. A limb through the decking is a $1,500–$5,000 repair with the tree work on top, and it's the one storm event that no shingle rating prevents.

After the storm passes

If the roof is 20 years old and the insurer approves two slopes, ask whether it makes sense to put the payout toward a full replacement with Class 4 impact-rated shingles or steel. Often it does, and it means the next hail core is a non-event.