How hail bruises and cracks shingles, what a Winston-Salem roofer checks, and when a few repairs are enough.
Fastest: call (833) 751-2102. Or send this and we call you back.
Hail damage repair means finding where stones bruised, cracked or stripped the shingles, fixing or replacing those spots, and resealing any dented flashing or vents. Warnings for Forsyth County have cited quarter-size hail alongside 60 to 70 mph gusts. Winston-Salem Roofing connects you with an independent local roofer in Forsyth County who inspects the roof and quotes the work.
Hail rarely announces itself the way a fallen limb does. A roof can take a hit during an evening thunderstorm and show nothing from the driveway the next morning, because the damage is small, round and sitting on the shingle surface where you cannot see it from the ground. What you notice first is usually secondary: dimpled gutters, dented vents, a scatter of dark granules at the bottom of a downspout.
Severe thunderstorm warnings for Forsyth County have cited quarter-size hail together with 60 to 70 mph gusts, and the same warnings have named Winston-Salem, Kernersville and Clemmons along with Lexington and Thomasville. Hail and wind usually arrive in one storm, so a roof that was struck by stones may also have lifted tabs and bent edges. A good inspection looks for both, and that is the reason this page sits next to the wind damage roof repair page.
Winston-Salem Roofing is a call line, not a roofing company. You say what you saw, and you are put through to an independent roofer who serves your part of the Triad, who inspects the roof and gives you a price. Call (833) 751-2102 if you would like to be connected to one when a roofer is free to look.
Do not climb onto the roof to look for hail marks. Wet or granule-covered shingles are slick, and damaged ones can give way underfoot. Photograph dents in gutters and vents from the ground and let a roofer do the walking.
You tell the roofer when the storm came through, what you noticed on the ground and whether anything has leaked. Photos of dented gutters or vents taken from the yard help, but you do not need to climb up for them.
Hail strikes the slopes that face the storm harder than the sheltered ones, so a roofer walks or surveys each slope and notes the marks. Soft metals such as vents and flashing show the hits first and tell the roofer where the stones fell hardest.
A roof that has been on the house for a couple of decades already has worn granules and algae streaking, and neither is hail. The roofer looks for fresh round impact marks with the mat showing through, which is the pattern hail leaves.
A few cracked or bruised shingles can be replaced individually. When marks are spread across a slope, replacing that slope covering is often more sensible than dozens of patches.
New shingles are matched as closely as availability allows, dented vents and flashing are replaced or resealed, and loose granules and debris come off the lawn and out of the gutters.
No published price for hail repair in Winston-Salem has been verified here, so this page carries no dollar figures. What follows is what moves a quote, and the roofer who inspects your roof sets the number.
| Job | Typical range | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| A few shingles replaced on one slope | Smallest scope; quoted on site | Labor and a handful of shingles, plus a short visit |
| Damaged vents, flashing and drip edge | Priced per piece; quoted on site | Dented metal is cheaper to replace than to straighten, and the roofer decides |
| One full slope re-covered | Mid-range scope; quoted on site | Tear-off, underlayment where needed, new shingles, and a permit in the city |
| Whole-roof replacement after hail | Largest scope; quoted on site | Driven by roof size, pitch, layers and how much decking needs replacing |
Prices are set by the roofer after inspecting your roof and are confirmed on site before any work starts. Whether an insurer pays for any of it is the insurer's decision, not something a roofer or Winston-Salem Roofing can promise.
Hail leaves round marks where the granule surface has been knocked away or the shingle underneath has been bruised. The spots can be dark, shiny or soft to the touch. Cracks and dented soft metals nearby tell a roofer the stones landed hard enough to matter.
Asphalt shingle is a fiberglass mat coated with asphalt and topped with ceramic granules. A hailstone that lands hard enough knocks granules loose and can fracture the mat beneath, so the damage is a small, roundish area with no granules, sometimes with a soft spot under it. That soft spot is a bruise: the shingle is intact on top but weakened below.
Roofers also read the soft metals. Vent caps, drip edge and valley metal dent where a stone lands, and the pattern of dents tells the roofer which direction the storm came from and how heavy it was. A roof with clean metal and no marks on the shingles probably did not take a serious hit, even if the neighbor's did.
Hail marks are round, scattered and fresh, with the mat showing through; age wear is spread evenly across a slope; algae is a dark streak on the surface that does not break the granule layer. A roofer can tell them apart in one pass.
This matters in Winston-Salem because the median home here was built in 1977, so a lot of roofs are on a second or third covering and are carrying years of normal wear. Granules shed slowly as shingles age, and humid Piedmont summers feed algae that darkens the surface in streaks. Neither of those is storm damage.
If you suspect hail, the best evidence is timing and pattern. Marks that appear on the storm-facing slope, matched by dents in soft metals, point to hail. Even wear across all slopes, or dark streaks below the ridge, usually do not. See roof moss and algae treatment if the streaks are what you are looking at.
Have it looked at when a warning named your area and cited hail, or when you see dented gutters, vents or siding. A roofer's inspection is the only way to learn whether the marks go through the shingle surface, and hidden bruising can show up later as leaks.
A warning that cites quarter-size hail does not mean your roof was hit, because hail falls in narrow swaths and one street can miss what the next street takes. It does mean a look is reasonable, particularly if you see any secondary sign such as dented gutters or a granule drift under a downspout.
Waiting has a cost when damage is real. A bruised shingle can let water in slowly, and the first sign is often a ceiling stain weeks later. For that stage, see roof leak repair. Ask the roofer to show you photos of what they find, so you can see the marks too.
Ask what exactly was found and where, whether the repair is spot work or a full slope, who pulls the permit if one applies, and whether the quote is written down. Do not sign anything that hands an insurance claim to a contractor before you understand it.
Ask the roofer to explain the plan in plain terms and to show the marks. A roofer who tells you the whole roof is destroyed without showing you why deserves a second opinion. A roofer who finds a handful of damaged shingles and says so is giving you useful information even if the job is small.
Check the contractor's licence or registration with the issuing authority. North Carolina issues no roofing licence of its own, and general contractor licensing applies above the threshold set in state law, so confirm what the contractor holds and what the job requires.
Suited to a roof with a limited number of clearly damaged shingles, often on one or two slopes. The roofer lifts the course above, removes the damaged piece and slides in a new one. On an older roof, the new shingle will not match the faded ones around it, which is a cosmetic issue rather than a leak risk.
When hail marks run across most of one slope, a roofer may recommend stripping that slope and re-covering it. This is a re-roof of part of the house, and in Winston-Salem re-roofing needs a building permit, so ask the roofer who pulls it and how it affects the quote.
Chosen when damage covers most of the roof or when the shingles were already near the end of their life. The hail then becomes one reason among several. Read the roof replacement page for how that job runs.
Warnings for Forsyth County that have cited quarter-size hail have also cited 60 to 70 mph gusts, damage to roofs, siding and trees, and have named Winston-Salem, Kernersville and Clemmons. The practical lesson is to check for wind damage on the same visit: tabs lifted or creased by gusts do not look like hail marks but let water in just the same.
Roof age matters more than usual here. With the city's median home built in 1977 and about 15,546 homes from the 1970s and 18,059 from the 1980s, a large share of Winston-Salem roofs are older coverings. Older shingles take less to crack, so a stone that would bounce off new material can break an aged shingle.
Re-roofing in Winston-Salem requires a building permit, while patching or replacing a few shingles typically does not. The Forsyth County Inspections Division at 100 E. First Street, Suite 328 is the place to confirm which side of that line a particular repair falls on.
Most hail damage roof repair calls are scheduled the same day when a technician is free, and you approve the price before any work starts.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
What 60 to 70 mph gusts do to roofs around Winston-Salem, and how lifted, creased or missing shingles get repaired.
Assessing and repairing wind, limb, hail and tree damage to Winston-Salem roofs after thunderstorms and winter storms.
A new roof on a Winston-Salem home: the permit step, published price estimates and what to ask an independent roofer before you agree.
Stay inside until the storm passes, then look from the ground: photograph missing shingles, debris and any water coming in, and keep off the roof.
Yes. Hail can bruise a shingle or strip its granules and leave the roof dry for a while. The damage shortens how long the shingle protects the roof and can turn into a leak later. That is why a roofer's inspection is worth having even when nothing has dripped.
That is for your insurer to decide, and neither a roofer nor Winston-Salem Roofing can promise an outcome. A roofer can document what was found, with photos and a written description. Read your policy and ask your insurer what it needs before you commit to a repair.
There is no single size that applies to every roof. Warnings for Forsyth County have cited quarter-size hail, and damage depends on stone size, wind and how old the shingles are. Older, brittle shingles break more easily than newer ones, so age is part of the answer.
Re-roofing needs a building permit in Winston-Salem. Patching or replacing a few shingles typically does not. A slope replacement sits in between, so ask the roofer and confirm with the Forsyth County Inspections Division, which can be reached at (336) 727-2624.
A homeowner who owns and occupies the house may re-roof it without a contractor in North Carolina, but working on a roof is dangerous and a mismatched patch can leak. Most people have a roofer do hail repairs, who can also spot the damage you cannot see.
Hail repair deals with the impact marks stones leave on shingles, vents and flashing. Storm damage repair is wider and covers wind, falling limbs and water entry too. Many storms bring both, and the storm damage roof repair page covers the wider job.