Hail Damaged Slate Roof

Note the aluminum vent above.

Hail damaged slate roof.

As you can see many of these hail impacts punches holes right through the slate. Roofs with multiple shingle layers may be damaged by smaller hail stones due to a softer support surface directly under the top shingle layer. Hail is frozen water propelled through the air by the force of wind and gravity and it can damage a slate roof upon impact. Slate that has only been on the roof a decade or two is harder than older slate which can soften over time.

Hail damage is primarily displayed as holes with sharp edges in the slate although it can include slates with broken corners or edges. In deciding whether damage is from hail it s important to look at the overall pattern of damage across the roof. Hail damage to roof shingles can be very obvious or very difficult to uncover. Original slate was poor quality the installation was a side lap single layer of slate and the size of the hailstones.

Unfortunately there was a massive hailstorm in evanston that has caused severe roofing damage to many of the homes in the area. On june 6 2018 hailstones the size of baseballs hit parts of north texas from carrollton to coppell to arlington with significant property damage. External impacts are not limited to hail but may be from windborne or thrown rocks golf balls or even bullets. New slate is not likely to show bullet hole type damage.

Gutters are also susceptible to hail damage. As you can see on the first image below the surface granules have been knocked off of the shingle very clearly. It takes a trained eye to spot hail damage to roof shingles. A hail storm can severely damage or reduce the service life of a roofing system.

Breaks from hail impacts can be in the body of the slate or along the edge but may not be as visible if it does not totally dislodge the broken slate. Smaller hail typically does little damage to slate. In general slates can be perforated by objects either from inside or outside a roof. If your roof contains one layer of common asphalt shingles it usually takes a 1 or above diameter hail stoneto cause damage roof hail damage.

As shown in this photo a combination of a larger hail and an approximately 100 year old slate roof sustained significant damage as a result. Because seamless gutters are frequently feature aluminum or copper construction the signs of hail damage include telltale denting. Evanston slate tile and copper roofs are the finest roofs in the world and have been installed on homes in the area for many centuries. The damaged slates should simply be replaced.

Hail is a powerful force of nature that can even damage roofs made with concrete tiles if the stones are large enough and wind speeds are high. However there are some guidelines. It has been beat to death by the hail but only a few of the slates have been damaged. A roof with a single layer of slate is more likely to develop leaks as the result of a hailstrike.

There will be many people and companies that will attempt to address these challenges whether that means fixing or replacing the roofs. In most cases slate roof tiles are resistant to hail damage and other impact damage.