Hail on Porch Lights and Outlet Covers Belongs in Your Photo File

Most storm checklists walk the roof, the gutters and the siding, then stop. The porch light, the garage light, the doorbell housing and the outdoor outlet cover sit at about the height that hail reaches on a house, and they are rarely photographed. A homeowner who is deciding what to do next about a hailstorm needs a complete file, and the small fittings on the outside of the house belong in it.

Hail hits a light fixture in two places. The first is the housing. A stamped aluminum or steel fixture dents, and the dent is usually round, sometimes with a small tear or a ring where the paint has cracked. The second is the lens. Plastic lenses, usually acrylic or polycarbonate, can chip or star-crack when a stone strikes at an angle. Glass lenses are more brittle and tend to break into a few large pieces. Either way, the damage usually shows on the side of the house that faced the storm.

Outlet covers and house numbers take a similar beating. A molded cover can crack along one edge or lose a corner, and a metal house number can bend or lose its finish. The paint on a metal fixture is often the first thing to go, which leaves bare metal that starts to pit in the next wet season. A pitted fixture is not always a hail loss, though, and that is where the photos do their work.

Tell hail from age and weather

The hard part is separating a fresh hail mark from a fixture that was already worn. Freeze and thaw cycles in the St. Louis area crack older plastic lenses, and they tend to do it in branching lines that run from an edge or a screw hole. Sun turns many plastic lenses yellow and brittle over several summers. Hail usually leaves a different pattern: a single impact point, a crater or star with a clean center, and often a matching dent in the metal housing directly behind it.

Look at each fixture from more than one angle. Hail marks cluster on the side that faced the wind of the storm, which in most cases means the side of the house that faced the direction the front came from. A mark on the windward wall, next to dents on a gutter or a downspout nearby, is a useful pattern to record, because the same stones usually hit several things at once. A crack on the sheltered side with no dent behind it deserves a second look before it gets blamed on the storm.

Age cracks also tend to be symmetrical. If the same kind of fine crack appears on the lens of every fixture on the house, including the ones on the side that took no wind, the cause is more likely the material than the storm. Write that down too. A file that records what did not change is more useful than one that only shows the marks you expected to find.

Photograph each piece with a scale

A photo is only useful if someone can later tell what it shows and how big it is. Put a ruler, a tape measure or a coin beside each fixture before you shoot. Take one wide photo of the fixture on the wall so it is clear where it sits, one close photo of the damage, and one from a low angle so a dent or crack shows its depth. Leave the phone's date stamp on, and do not edit the original file. Crop copies if you need to, but keep the originals as they came off the phone.

Name each file for its location, such as back porch light, north wall, close, or front door outlet cover, west side, wide. Keep the originals in one folder with the storm date written in the folder name. If the fixture has a model number on its label, photograph the label as well, because a replacement often has to match the same model or the same housing size. Do this before any cleanup or repair. A cleaned lens can hide a fresh mark that matters later, and a fixture that has been taken down can no longer be photographed in place.

Walk the whole perimeter of the house, not only the side with the worst damage. Hail that hits one wall hard often hits the opposite wall lightly, and a fixture that looks clean from a distance can still show a dent under the paint when it is shot close. Count the fixtures that are damaged and the ones that are not. A file that shows both is easier to read than one that only shows the bad pieces, and it lets anyone reviewing it see how much of the house was affected.

Where the photo file goes

Missouri law (RSMo 407.725) bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim, and it also bars a contractor from saying anything about paying, waiving or covering a deductible. That rule shapes what a roofer can offer. Keys Roofing does not handle, file, fight or manage an insurance claim, and Keys does not discuss how a deductible is treated.

What Keys does is document the damage and put a written scope in your hands, with photos and measurements, so you can take it to whoever you need to see it. Keys can attend as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer, and the file it leaves with you is yours to keep and share. Whether a light fixture or an outlet cover is covered under your policy is a question for your policy and your insurer. The photo file lets you answer that question with dated, labeled evidence rather than memory.

Keep a copy of the file somewhere other than your phone. A cloud folder or a thumb drive works, and so does a printed set with the locations written on the back. Store the originals with the rest of your storm records, along with the dated roof photos and any notes from the people who walked the property. If your insurer asks for more detail later, having the original files and their dates ready is faster than rebuilding them from a camera roll.

Fixtures on the estimate

Small fittings often get left off a roof estimate, because they are not part of the roof. That is a reasonable split for a roof bid, but it means the fixtures need their own line in your file. Replacing a damaged light or outlet cover is frequently a job for an electrician, not a roofer, and the electrical work can be separate from the shingles, the gutters and the flashing. Ask who will handle each fixture before anyone orders parts.

A written quote for a fixture should be specific. It should list the make, the model or the housing size, the lens type, the cost of the part, and the labor to remove and reset each piece. A line that says replace exterior lights, with no detail, leaves you guessing at what you are buying and makes it harder to compare two quotes. If a fixture is older, the matching model may no longer be sold, and the quote should say what the substitute is and what it will look like on the wall. Replacement prices range widely, from a standard fixture off a shelf to a custom match for an older house, so the detail is what makes two numbers comparable.

Outlet covers are usually cheaper to replace than fixtures, but a cracked cover over a live outlet is still a job to hand to a licensed electrician. Do not leave a damaged cover open to the weather while the rest of the storm work is scheduled. Water in an outlet box is a hazard, and a photo of the open box, taken before anything is touched, is worth having in the file.

What to ask

• Which fixtures and outdoor fittings do you record in the photo file, and do you photograph the labels on them?
• Will each damaged piece be shown in a wide photo and a close photo, with a scale in the frame?
• Do you give me the written scope and the photos in a format I can keep, and do you date them?
• If a light fixture or outlet cover is damaged, is it on your scope, or does it go to an electrician I hire separately?
• Will you attend as the contractor if I want someone with me when my insurer walks the house?

If you want the house walked and the file started before the next front comes through, call Keys Roofing at (314) 220-2333.