Your guttering is probably part of the same hail claim

When hail comes through Green Country, everybody looks up. That is the natural reaction and it is also why one of the most commonly damaged items on a property gets left out of the settlement entirely.

Guttering is aluminium, it is thin, it is horizontal, and it is sitting in exactly the same storm as your roof. If the hail was large enough to bruise shingles, it was large enough to dent guttering. The difference is that nobody thinks to mention it.

Why it gets missed

Three reasons, and none of them are sinister.

• The homeowner is focused on the roof, because that is the expensive thing and the thing that leaks.
• Gutter damage is dents rather than holes, so it does not look urgent even when it is real.
• An adjuster assessing a roof claim is assessing a roof, and if nothing else is presented, nothing else is assessed.

That third one is the important one. Adjusters are not searching your property for things to pay you for. They are evaluating what has been put in front of them.

What hail actually does to guttering

The obvious damage is cosmetic denting along the top face of the gutter and the visible face of downpipes. That alone can be claimable depending on the policy, but the functional damage matters more.

Impacts can loosen the hangers holding the gutter to the fascia, which changes the fall. A gutter that no longer runs consistently towards its downpipe holds standing water, and standing water is weight. Over a season that pulls the run further out of line, and eventually water is going over the front edge in heavy rain rather than down the pipe.

Where that water then goes is the real problem. It goes against the fascia, down the wall, and into the ground immediately against the foundation, which is the last place you want a concentrated volume of water in Oklahoma clay.

How to check it yourself, safely

You do not need to get on a ladder for a first look.

• Stand back and sight along each run. A gutter that has lost its line will be visibly wavy.
• Look at the downpipes, especially any elbow sections, for dents and separation at the joints.
• After the next heavy rain, watch where water actually comes off. Overspill at a particular point is a fall or a blockage problem.
• Check the ground below the runs for a trench or channel forming, which tells you water has been landing there repeatedly.
• Look at the fascia board behind the gutter for staining or softness.

Any of those is worth mentioning before an adjuster visit rather than after.

Get it inspected with the roof, not separately

The reason we handle roofing and guttering together is that they are one system and they take one storm. Replacing a roof and leaving damaged guttering underneath it means the new roof is draining into something that no longer works properly.

It is also simply more efficient to do both while access equipment is already on site. One of our customers had exactly this done after a hail storm, roof and guttering replaced together, with the insurer approving the work and the whole job completed in two days.

Mark it before the adjuster arrives

This is the practical step that changes outcomes. We go over the property before the adjuster comes and physically mark every point of damage we find, which explicitly includes guttering, siding and doors, not only the roof.

Then we are there during the inspection, walking the same property, so everyone is looking at the same marked damage at the same time. One customer described it plainly: Driller came out and marked the roof and the doors that were damaged, then came out again when the insurance company came so they made sure the damage was seen.

If the first settlement misses the guttering anyway, that is what supplements are for. It is a normal part of the process rather than a sign something has gone wrong.

Worth a look

If you have had a roof claim settled in the last couple of years and nobody ever mentioned the guttering, it is worth having someone look. Inspections are free across Tulsa and Green Country. Call (918) 508-1771.