How a hail claim works, explained by someone who isn't your insurer.

By documenting the damage properly and filing promptly. Claims generally turn on whether the damage is sudden and storm-related rather than gradual wear, and on whether there is a clear dated record of it. We supply the photographs and measurements. Your insurer decides, and no contractor can promise you an outcome.

Actual Cash Value pays what the roof was worth at the time, with age and wear deducted. Replacement Cost Value pays what it costs to replace it, usually in two parts, with the rest released once the work is done. Which one you have is written in your policy, and it is worth knowing before a storm rather than after.

Policies set their own deadlines and they vary, so check yours rather than trusting a number from a stranger. The practical answer is sooner rather than later: documentation taken close to the storm date is far easier to make sense of than documentation taken a year on.

That is between you and your insurer and it varies by carrier and by how the claim is classified. We genuinely cannot tell you, and we would rather say so than guess. Your agent can.

Not necessarily, but the next steps are yours and your insurer's. Most policies have a review or appraisal route written into them. What we can do is make sure the documentation is thorough and the damage is clearly recorded. We cannot appeal on your behalf.

No. Choosing who works on your house is your decision. What matters more than the list you pick from is whether the contractor is local, registered and still here in five years. Ours is Nebraska registration 30526-25, and the trucks park at 1113 E Overland in Scottsbluff.

Crews that show up door to door within days of hail, pressure you to sign before an adjuster has seen anything, promise to make the deductible go away, or ask for money up front. We do not knock on doors, and we are still here after the storm chasers have moved to the next county.