Hail is the most common storm damage we see on RVs on the north side of Houston, and it is also the most commonly missed. Not because it is subtle, but because it lands where nobody looks.
Why owners miss it
You walk around the rig after a storm, you see no dents in the sidewalls, and you conclude you got away with it. But an RV presents almost no vertical surface to falling hail. What it presents is a very large flat roof, and that is where all of the energy goes.
So the damage is on the roof membrane, on the air conditioner shrouds, on the vent covers, on the skylight and on the refrigerator vent. Every one of those is out of sight from the ground, and most owners never go up there.
What hail actually does to a roof
On a rubber or TPO membrane, hail does not usually punch a hole. It bruises. The impact crushes the membrane against the decking underneath and breaks down the material at that spot without opening it. The roof looks fine and stays watertight, for a while.
What follows is that those bruised spots weather far faster than the rest of the roof. Six months or two years later, one of them opens. Water gets into the decking, then into the walls, and by the time there is a stain on the ceiling the repair is structural.
The plastic parts are more straightforward. Air conditioner shrouds crack or shatter. Vent covers break. Skylights craze and then split. Those are visible, cheap individually, and add up quickly across a roof.
How to tell, without getting on the roof
If your roof is not rated to walk on, do not walk on it. Some are not, and putting a foot through the decking is a worse problem than the hail.
From a ladder at the back, look across the roof at a low angle rather than straight down. Bruising shows as a pattern of shallow circular dimples, and low light makes them visible in a way that overhead sun does not. Check the air conditioner shrouds and vent covers for cracks. Look for grit or fragments of white plastic in the gutters, which is often the first sign.
Inside, check the ceiling around every roof penetration. Vents, the air conditioner, the skylight. Discoloration or a soft feel means water is already in.
What to do next
Get it looked at properly, and do it before you clean anything up or throw a tarp over it. Insurers argue hardest about damage that cannot be tied to a specific storm, and tidying up first makes that argument harder.
Our free roof inspection is free. If we find hail damage we can go straight to a written RV insurance claim estimate with photographs and a line by line breakdown, and take it up with your adjuster directly.
Is it worth claiming
Usually yes, and more often than owners assume. A roof with membrane bruising, two cracked shrouds and a split vent cover is rarely a small bill once it is done properly, and hail is a sudden and accidental event, which is the kind of damage policies are written to cover.
The claims that fail are the ones filed years later for a roof that has simply worn out. That is why looking after a storm rather than after a leak matters so much.
Why the timing of the claim matters
Most RV policies require prompt notice of a loss, and adjusters date hail by the storm. Report it six months later and you are asking an insurer to accept that damage found in April came from a storm in October. Sometimes they do. Often they call it wear.
There is a practical reason as well. A bruised membrane weathers from the day it is bruised, so every week between the storm and the repair is another week of the problem growing, and the end of that road is a soft spot in the roof. That secondary damage is where a manageable claim turns into a roof replacement, and insurers are entitled to be sceptical about damage that was left to worsen.
What a policy usually covers
Assuming you carry comprehensive on the RV, hail is a covered peril and these are normally paid:
- Roof membrane repair or replacement caused by the impact
- Air conditioner shrouds and other rooftop components
- Vent covers, fans and skylight domes
- Sidewall and skin damage
- Glass, including the windshield on a motorhome
- Interior damage caused by water that came in through the storm damage
That last one is worth reading twice. Interior damage from the hail event is usually covered. Interior damage from a leak you knew about and did not fix usually is not. That distinction decides a lot of claims.
What it usually does not cover
- Existing wear, dried sealant and rot that predates the storm
- Damage that got worse because the claim sat
- Cosmetic dimpling, on some policies, depending on the wording
- Your deductible, which on an RV is often higher than owners remember
There is a quieter trap as well. If the roof was already at the end of its life, an adjuster may value it accordingly. A roof with current sealant and a record of inspections is worth more in a claim than an identical roof with no history. Maintenance is not only maintenance, it is evidence.
Where owners lose money
Accepting the first number without an independent estimate. An adjuster figure is an opening position based on what they could see. If nobody has opened the roof, it is a valuation of visible damage only.
Getting a quote from a shop that will not write it up properly. A one line quote saying repair roof gives an adjuster nothing to approve. A proper estimate itemises materials, labour hours and each component, in the format insurers work in.
Repairing before the damage is documented. Once it is fixed the evidence is gone. Photograph everything first, then repair.
If a storm has been over you recently, ring us on 346 708 4612. Looking costs nothing.