Gutter Dents Show Where the Hail Hit Your House

The gutter on the front of your house is one of the few storm marks you can reach from the ground. Hail that bounces off a shingle often hits the aluminum trough, the front lip and the downspout elbows on the same side of the house, and it leaves dents that stay put long after the storm passes. Before you climb a ladder, walk the gutter line with a phone and photograph what the hail left there, because those dents become part of the record of what happened to your house.

Why the gutter counts as evidence

Gutters are thin aluminum, and aluminum dents at a lower impact than a shingle needs to crack or lose granules. That is useful for a homeowner. A gutter dent shows that stones reached the lower edge of the roof plane above it. It does not prove the shingles on the upper slope were damaged. What it does is tell a roofer where to start the test squares, and it gives you a second set of photographs that is easy to take on a single morning.

Where to look on the gutter

Start on the side of the house that took the brunt of the storm, which is usually the side facing the direction the front came from. Hail often lands on the top of the front lip, on the upward-facing trough, and on the corners where the gutter runs past a window or a door. Look for round dimples with smooth edges. A dent with a crease, a fold, or a torn seam points more toward a branch, a ladder or a mower than to hail.

Check the downspouts next. The elbow at the bottom of each downspout sits lower than the gutter and can take hail that bounced off the ground or the driveway, so a dent there is weaker evidence than a dent on the gutter face. Note which downspouts carry the marks and which ones are clean. A pattern that matches on one side of the house but not the other tells you something about the storm.

How to photograph a dent so it shows

Flat midday light hides dents on bright metal. Shoot in the early morning or late afternoon, when the sun is low and angled across the gutter. If the light is still flat, hold a flashlight at a shallow angle to the metal and photograph again. Each dent should show as a small shadow on one side and a highlight on the other.

Put a coin or a tape measure in the frame so the size of each dent is clear. Take one wide photo of the full run of gutter, one medium photo of each section with a clear dent pattern, and one close photo of each dent. Name the files by side of the house and section, for example north wall gutter, east section, and keep the originals on your phone and in a cloud folder. Do not edit them. A photo that has been cropped or brightened in a phone app is harder to trust later, whether the reader is your roofer, your insurer or a second inspector.

What a gutter dent cannot tell you

A dent does not measure the hail. Some roofers use dent diameter as a rough check on stone size, but a dent in aluminum is not a calibrated measurement, and it does not record how many stones hit the roof above it. The number that matters for the shingles comes from a roofer counting hits inside marked test squares on each slope, and from checking the mats and granule loss in the spots those test squares mark. A gutter with twenty dents and a north slope with no damage is a real conflict, and the roofer should explain it in writing rather than wave it away.

Paint that has chipped inside a dent will start to show a dull grey or white line within a few weeks as the bare aluminum oxidizes. Freeze and thaw cycles can flake the paint further, so a dent often looks worse in January than it did in June. Photograph it early, before the finish changes.

Downspouts, the wall below, and the hangers

Hail can knock a gutter section partly out of its hangers, especially where the trough is full of water and debris when the storm hits. Look for a gap between the gutter and the fascia, a section that sits lower than the next one, or a joint that has opened. Those are separate from the dents and should be photographed as their own item, because a sagging run is a different repair from a dented face.

Look at the wall under each downspout too. If the downspout was pushed off the wall, or if the outlet at the bottom is bent, water is now landing against the siding instead of draining away. That is a storm fault and it belongs in the photo file, even though it looks like a gutter detail.

What to put in front of the roofer

Bring the gutter photos to the first visit, along with the roof photos and a list of dents by section. A roofer who is documenting properly will walk the gutter line with you, note the dent pattern in the written scope, and compare it to the test squares on each slope. Ask the roofer to write the gutter findings into the scope with photos and measurements, and to say which dents they believe belong to the storm and which they believe belong to a ladder or a mower. Keys Roofing puts a written scope with photos and measurements in your hands and attends as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer.

Missouri law (RSMo 407.725) bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating your insurance claim, so the gutter photos go to your insurer from you. Keep the originals, keep a copy of everything you hand over, and write down the date each item went to the insurer or the roofer.

Questions to ask before the ladder goes up

• Which gutter sections show dents, and which sides of the house do they face?
• Does the roofer count hits in test squares on each slope, and does that count match the gutter pattern?
• Are sagging hangers, opened joints and bent outlets listed as separate items from the dents?
• Does the written scope include the gutter findings, with photos and measurements?

Call the office at (314) 220-2333 if you want a roofer to walk the gutter line and the roof together, so both sets of marks are read on the same visit.