Commercial Roofing
Low raking light across a membrane shows hail bruises that midday sun hides. On a flat commercial roof in Edinburg, TX, a strike seldom punches through the sheet. It leaves a round, slightly dished mark, a scuffed patch in the surface or a fractured spot in the reinforcing fabric, and the leak arrives weeks later when a hard rain finds the hairline. Large hail crossed the metro area that includes Edinburg in spring 2012, and forecasters describe such hail as unusual for the Valley, so a roof may have no earlier hail record to measure a new mark against.
I start by finding every strike mark, then decide which ones changed what the roof can do.
The marks differ by material. On a single-ply sheet, I look for dished circles, cracked surface coating and bruises where the reinforcing fabric fractured under the impact. On a modified bitumen or built-up roof, the granule surface is knocked loose in round patches, exposing the asphalt to sun and weather. On metal, dents matter most where they crease a seam or loosen a fastener head. A coated roof shows cracks in the skin that can look like cosmetic craze lines until water sits on them.
I mark each strike with chalk, number it and photograph it up close and from a distance. A grid of numbered marks across a roof section also shows direction, because the side that faced the storm usually carries the heavier damage.
Not every round mark is hail. Roof traffic leaves scuffs near equipment and along service paths, age leaves crazing and chalking across the surface, and heat leaves blisters and wrinkled seams. Hail marks come as a random scatter over the whole exposed area, similar in size and depth, and they appear on soft metal such as vent caps and gutters too. When I find the same dent pattern on a condenser fin or a vent hood, I treat it as confirmation of the storm. Because Valley summers are long, a new strike often sits beside older heat and UV damage, and the two have to be recorded separately.
Test cuts settle the doubtful cases. A small core at a suspected bruise shows whether the membrane, the cover board or the insulation below took the force.
The impact travels downward. Under a thin membrane, soft insulation can compress in a bowl shape at each strike, and that dip holds water after rain. A dense, fiber-reinforced cover board spreads the load and protects the foam beneath it, which is why I note what lies under each membrane before I decide whether a bruise is cosmetic. Compressed insulation feels soft underfoot, and an infrared moisture survey finds the areas where water has already followed a crack inside.
If the cores show a dry, intact assembly, the surface marks are sealed or monitored. If they show wet or crushed insulation, the repair has to include it, not only the sheet.
Thicker, reinforced membranes tolerate hail better than thin ones, and age matters as much as thickness. A TPO roof that has weathered several Valley summers can be stiffer and less able to absorb an impact than a fresh sheet of the same gauge, so I check how flexible the material is before judging a mark. Standing seam panels usually dent without leaking, but a dent that distorts a seam or pulls a clip changes the weathertightness of that run, and the report describes those items differently from cosmetic dents. Coatings crack or lose adhesion in a circle at each strike, and the restoration question is whether the crack reached the substrate.
The count matters less than where the marks fall and what they reached. A handful of fractured spots on a roof with dry insulation can be patched one at a time, each patch tied into sound sheet. A dense scatter across a section whose membrane is already brittle moves the plan toward a larger repair or a replacement of that section, because the patches would outnumber the sound sheet between them. Before any work is priced, I give the facility director two numbers: what it costs to fix the marks, and what the roof will be able to do afterward.
A manufacturer warranty also sets limits on which repair methods are acceptable, so the paperwork is read before any work begins. Roof warranty management keeps those terms next to the repair record, which matters when a patch has to be accepted later.
A hail claim runs on dates and documents. Numbered strike marks, core results and moisture readings support the loss, and the date of the storm helps separate hail from conditions that were already present. The photographs are labeled by roof area, so an adjuster can compare the same section against the original report without walking the roof twice. Our insurance claim documentation follows that structure.
Owners in McAllen and Edinburg who share a portfolio can use one format across buildings, with each roof measured against its own marks and its own assembly. That keeps a claim for one building from being argued with the numbers of another, and it gives the owner a single set of columns to read across the whole portfolio.
Some can. Sealed and monitored marks on a dry assembly are reasonable to schedule, and a commercial roof inspection after the next season shows whether they changed. Cracked reinforcement, crushed insulation and any mark near a drain or seam should not wait, because water finds them first. Where a temporary fix is needed, I seal the opening, photograph it and record it as temporary so it appears in the next scope.
Wind and rain from Hurricane Hanna in 2020 and Hurricane Dolly before it did their own work on Valley roofs, and a hail record never replaces that history. Work on an occupied building is planned around operating hours and access, and wind-driven hail often lifts edges as well, so the perimeter gets the same checks used for wind damage roof repair.
For a while, as long as the marks stay readable. Dents stay visible on metal for a long time, but surface scuffs on a membrane weather and chalk. A prompt walk with numbered photographs fixes the record before another season of sun and rain changes it.
Often not, which is what makes hail slow to find. Water enters when a fractured fabric layer or a cracked surface lets moisture wick inward, and that can take several rain events to show as a ceiling stain.
Warranty terms decide which repair methods and materials are acceptable, so the paperwork is read before work begins. Where the terms require a specific detail or inspection, the scope names it and the photo record shows it was done.
A small cut, closed the same day. I fill it with matching insulation and tie a patch into the membrane, then photograph it so the record shows a closed test area with its location marked on the roof plan.
Dents alone are often cosmetic. What changes the answer is damage at seams, clips and fasteners, where a dent can open a path for water. I check each of those and list the dents separately from the weathertightness items.