Homeowners who have been through a hail claim describe the inspection as the strangest part of the process: somebody walks the roof for an hour, draws chalk squares on it, and comes down with a verdict that decides tens of thousands of dollars. It is worth knowing what is happening up there, because very little of it is guesswork.

The standard method is a test square — usually a marked ten-by-ten-foot area on each slope — within which the inspector counts hail strikes. Each slope gets its own square, because hail is directional. A storm that drove in from the southwest leaves a damaged southwest slope and a nearly untouched northeast one, and the count per slope is what determines whether the damage qualifies as a full replacement or something less.

What counts as a strike is specific. A genuine hail hit on an asphalt shingle leaves a bruise: granules knocked loose, with a soft spot underneath where the mat has been fractured. Press on it and it gives slightly, like a bruise on fruit. That fractured mat is what matters, because it is where water eventually gets through and where the shingle will fail years early. What does not count is the ordinary wear everybody’s roof has — blistering, manufacturing marks, mechanical scuffs from foot traffic, and plain granule loss from age. An inspector who cannot tell those apart either misses real damage or claims damage that is not there, and carriers scrutinize both.

Collateral evidence matters just as much, and it is the part homeowners can check themselves from the ground. Hail that is large enough to bruise shingles also dents soft metals, so inspectors look at gutters, downspouts, roof vents, flashing, the aluminum fins on the air conditioner, mailboxes, and screened enclosures. Barbara’s home has a screened lanai across the back, which is exactly the kind of surface that records a hail event. When soft-metal damage lines up with the strike counts on the roof and with the storm date, a claim becomes difficult to dispute.