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    The roofing library · 9 documents · newest first

    Hail & Storm Damage

    Field references for reading a roof after severe weather — hail sizing, damage identification and the public weather records behind a date of loss.

    Every document here names its publisher. Documents were gathered from public circulation and are posted in good faith with attribution — no ownership is claimed, nothing is sold, and rights holders can have anything removed on request. Read the content notice

    Forensic paperPDF · 23 pages · 4.0 MB

    Discerning Wind-Related Damage to Residential Roofs

    A 2025 forensic engineering paper on separating genuine wind damage on residential roofs from installation defects, mechanical damage and age-related deterioration, aimed at making wind assessments repeatable rather than impressionistic.

    NAFEJournal of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers — Azzi · 2025

    Training manualPDF · 118 pages · 39.6 MB

    Haag Certified Inspector — Residential Roofs Course Workbook (2023)

    The full 118-page workbook for Haag's residential roof inspector certification: hail formation and indications, wind characteristics, impact and wind testing, weather data sources, and repair-versus-replacement cost analysis. This is the training most carrier inspectors carry.

    HaagHaag Education · 2023

    Forensic paperPDF · 12 pages · 1.0 MB

    Dating Hail: Determining When Hail Impact Damage Occurred

    Forensic engineers' methods for dating hail damage on a building that has seen several storms — weathering of the impact site, oxidation, surrounding surfaces and storm data — which is exactly the question behind a carrier's "this predates your policy" denial.

    NelsonASCE Forensic Engineering 9th Congress (2022) — Verhulst, Bosley and Donaldson, Nelson Forensics · 2022

    Forensic paperPDF · 11 pages · 1.0 MB

    Evaluating Interply Bitumen in Bituminous Membrane Samples for Hail Impact Distress

    A forensic laboratory paper arguing that examining interply bitumen in built-up and modified-bitumen membrane samples reveals hail impact distress that surface inspection and standard delamination testing miss. Relevant to commercial low-slope hail disputes.

    NelsonASCE Forensic Engineering 9th Congress (2022) — Donaldson, DeLeon and Simpson, Nelson Forensics · 2022

    ClaimsPDF · 8 pages · 2.2 MB

    Evaluating Composition Shingles: State Farm Consumer Hail Brochure (560-2258-5)

    State Farm's public-facing brochure showing homeowners what hail damage to composition shingles looks like versus weathering, blistering, foot traffic and manufacturing defects. It is also what a State Farm adjuster's damage vocabulary is built on.

    State FarmState Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company · 2014

    Forensic paperPDF · 4 pages · 891 KB

    Manufactured Hail Damage: Telling Fraud From Storm Damage

    A roof consultant's field guide to spotting deliberately fabricated hail damage — hammer strikes, dime-spinning, mandrel punctures — by what real ice cannot do to mineral granules, and by checking the peripheral surfaces a genuine storm always marks.

    RCIInterface (RCI, Inc.) — Lyle D. Hogan, PE, RRC, FRCI · 2013

    Forensic paperPDF · 8 pages · 1.5 MB

    RICOWI Hailstorm Investigation Program: Dallas/Fort Worth, May 2011

    Reports the second RICOWI hailstorm investigation, in which seven teams inspected more than 100 roof systems after the May 24, 2011 Dallas/Fort Worth storm to document how different roofing products — including impact-resistant products — performed against substantiated hail sizes.

    RCIInterface (RCI, Inc.), excerpted with permission from RICOWI — Herzog · 2012

    Forensic paperPDF · 7 pages · 621 KB

    Correlating Hail-Strike Bruises With Hailstone Size, Roof Pitch, and Storm Direction

    A six-year field study of 729 residential hail-strike inspections by EES Group, correlating bruise counts against hailstone size, roof pitch and the elevation's orientation to the incoming storm. Useful when arguing why one slope shows damage and another does not.

    RCIInterface (RCI, Inc.) — Petty and Kasberg, EES Group, Inc. · 2009

    Forensic paperPDF · 10 pages · 1001 KB

    Guidelines to Assess Hail Damage to Shingle Roofs

    Engineers from Nelson Architectural Engineers set out a repeatable method for assessing hail damage on residential and commercial shingle roofs, covering the parameters that drive severity — age, material, hail size, impact angle — and how to document them.

    NelsonNelson Architectural Engineers, Inc. (ASCE) — East, Lozos, Verhulst, DeLeon and Ahuja