Hail leaves marks that are easy to miss from the ground. We get up on the roof and look at the shingle surface directly: bruised mats, granule loss around each impact, dented flashing and vent caps. Soft metal tells the story fastest. A roof can look fine from the driveway and still have lost the granule layer that protects the mat underneath. That damage shows up months later as water in a ceiling that never leaked before.
Our inspection covers the whole system, not just the slope that faced the storm. We check field shingles, valleys, ridge, penetrations, gutters and every piece of soft metal on the property. Then we walk you through what we found, with photographs, and we say plainly whether you are looking at a repair or a replacement. Some hail-struck roofs need a few squares of work and new flashing. Others have simply reached the end of their service life.
The median home in Madison was built in 1979, and roofs on houses that age are often carrying a second covering, older decking, and flashing details done to the practice of their day. Age narrows the margin. A newer roof can take a hail strike and keep shedding water for a season; a tired one starts letting moisture in at the first hard rain after. We do residential and commercial roofing, steep slope and flat, in Madison and Sun Prairie.
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TPO is a single-ply membrane, typically 45 or 60 mil, with a polyester scrim laminated between the top and bottom plies. Seams are hot-air welded into one continuous sheet. On low-slope commercial roofs, we look at how the membrane is held down, mechanically attached or fully adhered, and whether there is a cover board under it. Hail bruises the membrane over the scrim and opens welds at the laps.
Standing seam panels run vertically with concealed clips that let the metal move as it expands, and the seams get mechanically locked or snapped closed. Exposed-fastener panels rely on gasketed screws that back out and leak over time. The finish matters as much as the steel: a PVDF coating holds color longer than polyester. Hail leaves dents, and dents that crack the coating start corrosion underneath.
Hail damage is often not visible from the ground. On asphalt roofs it shows as bruised spots where the impact fractures the mat under the granules, and those spots leak months later. Metal shows dents, and flat systems show punctures at the seams. We check soft metals first, vents, gutters and flashing, since they register hits early. We work in Madison, Fitchburg, Middleton and Sun Prairie.
Repairs make sense when the damage is confined and the surrounding field still has life in it. We lift the course above, pull the nails, slide the damaged shingle out and set a replacement into the sealant strip. Weathered shingles rarely match new stock exactly, so we discuss that up front. In housing built around 1979, the bigger question is usually the flashing at walls and chimneys.
Most houses we open up in Madison were built around 1979, and that median build year tells us a lot before we ever get on the ladder. A roof that age has usually been covered twice. Second layers hide soft decking. Old flashing gets reused because pulling it means touching the chimney or the sidewall, and someone decided that could wait. Decades of use turn those small compromises into the leaks people call us about.
Water rarely announces itself where it enters. A stain over the dining room can trace back several feet uphill to a valley or a cracked boot around a vent pipe. Moisture that works under shingles at the eaves has nowhere to go but into the decking. Ridge vents that were never balanced with intake leave attics damp, which shortens the life of everything above and rots sheathing quietly. We track water to its source before we start repairs.
Flat and low-slope roofs bring their own list: ponding near drains, seams that have lifted, curbs and penetrations sealed with something never meant to last. On residential and commercial property alike, failures show up at transitions, not out in the open field. That is where metal meets membrane, where two planes change direction, where a previous installation stopped short. Small structural problems stay small if someone looks at them. Annual maintenance on an older roof catches these while they are still repairs.
Hail damage is priced off the roof you already have, not the one in a brochure. Most of what moves the number is visible from your own driveway or attic. Median build year here is 1979, so a tear off often turns up more than one layer.
| What changes the price | Which way | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Layers already on the deck | costs more | Every old course comes off and gets hauled before new material goes down. |
| Truck and dumpster access to the roofline | costs less when close | Short carries beat wheeling material around a fenced yard or a tight lot. |
| Soft or spongy decking under the shingles | costs more | Bad sheathing gets replaced by the sheet once tear off exposes it. |
| Pitch and the fastening the slope calls for | costs more | Steep roofs slow the work and call for heavier material. |
| Flashing at chimneys, sidewalls and valleys | costs more | That metal is cut and bent by hand at every joint. |
| Vents, dishes and skylights in the field | costs more | Each penetration comes off, gets sealed, and goes back. |
| Low slope sections and where water drains | costs more | Flat areas need a different system and a watertight tie in. |
Between bids, compare the same items: layers included in the tear off, how decking replacement is billed and by what unit, whether flashing is new metal or reused, and who hauls the debris.
Most roofs we replace here are asphalt shingle, and the material earns its place: it handles a Wisconsin roof line well, and the installation is straightforward to get right. Standing seam and exposed fastener metal go on plenty of homes too, usually where someone wants a longer service life. Commercial property, in Madison or out toward Middleton, mostly runs flat systems: single ply membrane over insulation. Different materials, one requirement. The roof moves water off the building and keeps it off.
We pull the old layers down to the deck before anything new goes on. Sheathing that has gone soft gets replaced. Then underlayment, ice and water membrane at the eaves and valleys, then the field. Flashing takes most of the attention: chimneys, sidewalls, pipe boots, every place a system meets something that is not roof. Ventilation gets checked while we are up there, since intake and exhaust decide how long the materials actually last.
Housing around here has a median build year of 1979, so we work on a lot of roofs carrying their second or third covering. Older decking, older framing, details that were fine under one layer and are not fine under three. On those houses we look at structural condition before we talk materials, because good shingles over a bad deck buy you nothing. Repairs are the right answer when the system underneath is sound. Maintenance catches moisture while it is still small, which is the whole point of long-term performance.
Coverage on a roof comes from two separate places, and they are worth keeping straight. Materials carry whatever the manufacturer puts in writing, with terms that vary by product line and by how the system is installed. Workmanship is the installer's side of it. We go through both with you before anything is ordered, using the manufacturer's own documentation rather than a summary of it, so you can read the exclusions and the transfer language yourself. Anything we agree to on our end gets written into the contract. If a term is not in that paperwork, treat it as not said.
Most coverage disputes on residential roofs trace back to installation, not materials. Fastener placement, flashing at walls and chimneys, ventilation, underlayment laps: get one wrong and the manufacturer has grounds to decline. So we install to the published spec for the product on your roof, and we pull permits through the City of Madison so the work is inspected by someone other than us. Photos go in the file before anything gets covered up, along with product labels and lot information. Housing here runs to a median build year of 1979, so many roofs carry older repairs underneath that are worth documenting while they are open.