When a Storm Hits Your Roof, Turn to Holthaus to Navigate the Claims Process

When a storm rolls through central Illinois, it doesn’t just scatter shingles across the yard. It leaves you standing in the driveway wondering what it’s going to cost, whether your insurance will cover it, and where to even start. If you’re like most homeowners we meet, a roof insurance claim is not something you’ve done before, and the whole thing feels confusing and stressful.

Here’s the good news: you’re not expected to know the ins and outs of a claim. That part is our job.

I’m Craig Stafford, the steep slope (residential) manager at Holthaus Roofing. Before I got into roofing, I spent years as an insurance adjuster, so I’ve been on both sides of the fence. That means I can read a roof the way an adjuster reads a roof, and I can help you understand what’s happening with your claim so the process feels a little less like a foreign language.

First, What a Storm Actually Does to Your Roof

Not all storm damage is the dramatic kind you can see from the ground. Sometimes it is — missing shingles in the flower bed, a limb through the gutter. But a lot of it hides.

• Granular loss. Those are the little bits of crushed rock on the surface of your shingles that protect the asphalt underneath. After hail, you’ll often find a pile of them washed down into the gutters. That’s a sign the shingle took a hit.
• Bruising and soft spots. Hail can bruise a shingle without tearing it. You can’t always see it, but an adjuster running a hand across the roof can feel it.
• Lifted or creased shingles. High wind breaks the seal that holds shingles down. They may look fine, but the next storm peels them back.
• Water stains on the ceiling. Generally, by the time you see a stain inside, water has been getting in for a while. That’s hidden damage catching up with you.

If you’ve got an active leak, call us — we’ll come out and look at it at no charge. The sooner we get eyes on it, the less chance a small problem turns into a rotten-decking problem.

How a Roof Insurance Claim Usually Goes

Every policy is a little different, so read yours, but the path generally looks like this:

• You call your insurance company and open a claim.
• They assign an adjuster to come out and inspect the roof.
• The adjuster writes up a scope of loss — what they believe the storm damaged and what they’ll pay to fix it.
• Your policy covers the repair or replacement minus your deductible, which is the part that’s on you.

Where homeowners get tripped up is in the middle of that. The adjuster is usually on your roof once, for a short visit, often with a dozen other roofs to get to that week. If something gets missed on that visit, it tends to stay missed.

Where a Former Adjuster Fits In

Here’s what we actually do once you’ve opened a claim. We get up on the roof and document the damage — photos of the hail hits, the granular loss, the creased shingles, all of it. Then, when your adjuster schedules their inspection, we meet them up there and walk through what we’re both seeing.

Because I’ve done the adjuster’s job, I know what they need to see and how they write it up. So I can point out the damage in the language they use, and make sure the things that are easy to miss on a quick visit actually make it into the report.

Now, I’ll be straight with you about where that stops. I’m not a public adjuster, and I won’t pretend to be. We don’t negotiate your settlement and we don’t fight your insurance company — in Illinois that’s a line we stay on our side of, and anybody who tells you different is overstepping. What we do is make sure the damage on your roof is documented correctly and that we’re standing there when the adjuster climbs up to look. Usually that’s what keeps a claim honest and complete.

What You Can Do Before We Get There

• Stay off the roof. A wet or hail-beaten roof is slick and unsafe. Take photos from the ground if you can, and leave the climbing to us.
• File promptly. Most policies give you a limited window to report storm damage, so don’t sit on it. Check your policy for the deadline.
• Save your receipts. If you pay for an emergency tarp or a temporary repair to stop water from coming in, keep the receipt — that’s generally reimbursable.
• Find your policy. Know your deductible and your coverage before the adjuster shows up, so nothing about the payout catches you off guard.

For the bigger picture on wind, hail, and what central Illinois weather does to a roof over time, see our complete storm damage and insurance claims guide.

What We Want for You: A Roof You Can Trust Again

A damaged roof is stressful. A confusing claim is stressful. But getting the roof replaced doesn’t have to be. When the work starts, we keep the job site clean, we keep a path into the house for you, and the dump trailer leaves with the crew at the end. A lot of homeowners tell us that, except for the brand-new roof, they’d barely know we were there.

And anything we put on a roof, we give it a ten-year workmanship warranty on top of the manufacturer’s coverage — so you’re covered long after the storm is a memory.

Holthaus Companies, Inc. (Holthaus Roofing) · 875 East Linn Street, Canton, IL 61520 · 309-647-9209 · Illinois roofing license 104.007039.