Tag Archives: hail damage

Car Hail Damage: Hitting on Hail for the Last Time

Spending two weeks in TN in August gave me plenty of time on my daily morning run to see all kinds of damage from hail (in April) described by my son and daughter-in-law who live there, as “the biggest we’ve ever seen”.  I couldn’t help noticing the beat up siding, holes the size of baseballs in vinyl siding and car dents large enough to fry an egg in.  Ok, I am exaggerating on the egg part a bit, but the car surfaces did kind of remind me the peel of an orange…full of dimples.  It was not pretty.

Car Hail Damage

KNOXVILLE (By Mona Nair WATE-6 News Reporter) – Drivers around East Tennessee are still waiting for repairs to their cars three months after the late April storms.

The April 27 severe weather brought down some golf-ball sized hail, denting many cars or breaking their windows and windshields or both.

In all, 100,000 cars in Knoxville were damaged during late April. Getting vehicles repaired means getting in a long line, every step of the way.

“With as many people getting hail damage estimates and still coming in to get repairs, it could easily require two to three years possibly,” said Jeff Neubert of Joe Neubert Collision Center in West Knoxville.

He also says the average repair time for each vehicle runs from four to six weeks.

What is the cost to you, the vehicle owner? The insurance deductible, higher insurance rates, lower resale or trade in value, not to mention having to do without your vehicle for four to six weeks. The hard dollars, over the life of a newer model vehicle can easily run into the thousands.

An easy preventative solution exists, which could have prevented the car hail damage to many of these vehicles. Parking cars in garages! Like many areas, very few homes in the Knoxville area have garages.

For the financial pain of one vehicle damaged, a significant dent (pun intended) could be made towards the investment into your new garage.

Consider the advantages of a garage – besides protecting your vehicle from the elements (resulting in higher resale or trade in values), a garage adds value to your property, and affords security for possessions other than just your vehicle.

And, a new garage is affordable – Hansen Buildings has 100% financing available, for qualified home owners. With new home construction slow, materials prices are a bargain. This could be the ideal time for you to make the investment and avoid having to say, “Oh, hail” again!

To receive more pole building tips and advice subscribe to the pole barn guru blog!

Steel Roofing: Hail, Hail the Gang’s all Here

A couple weeks ago I posted about vinyl siding damage due to hail storms in the Knoxville, Tennessee area. Vinyl siding was not the only thing damaged – on my four mile running loop are numerous yard signs from roofers. The roofers are replacing shingles which were damaged by the same storm.

When I first began providing building kits in the Midwest, I was stymied by the number of clients in Michigan who were asking for shingled roofs, instead of steel.

Initially, I thought this must be a regional aesthetics thing. My curiosity finally got the best of me, so I asked about it. The answer – fear of steel roofing being damaged by hail! I never would have guessed.

My first reaction was to call each of the six steel companies who supply steel roofing and siding for our buildings. Only one of them had ever even had a claim submitted to them for hail damage! This certainly seemed contrary to the perception of pole building clients in Michigan.

Metal roofs are very tough and highly resistant to hail damage.  Hail will not penetrate a metal roof.  Even a new asphalt shingle roof won’t protect a home from the next hailstorm.  In fact, many metal roofing products have the highest impact resistance and hail rating (Class 4) granted by Underwriters’ Laboratory (UL).  This means that a sample of the product did not crack when hit twice in the same spot by a 2-inch steel ball, which, in a storm, would translate into a huge hailstone.  As a result of metal roofing’s superior performance in hail prone areas, some insurance companies even provide a reduced rate for homes protected by metal roofs.

The durability of the metal roofs along my running route would seemingly back up the tested results – nowhere along my running loop was a single steel roof being replaced, or even showing signs of cosmetic damage.  My son’s new garage in Maryville, TN, (built less than a year ago), has a steel roof and has not a dent or even a hint of one on his roof.  I’d like to think this is where we got the phrase, “Strong as Steel!”

To receive more pole building tips and advice subscribe to the pole barn guru blog!

What the Hail? Protecting against hail damage

What the Hail?

I’ve been visiting my son and his wife in Maryville, TN.

I used to be a competitive long-distance runner, and while I absolutely hate running, I enjoy eating whatever I want even more, so I run to eat.

My lovely daughter-in-law set me up on a four mile loop to run. Those of you who are familiar with eastern Tennessee know the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains do actually offer the ability to have a four mile loop which is ALL UP HILL.

As my oxygen deprived body was running the loop, I noticed every house I went by, which had vinyl siding, looked as if it had been the victim of a drive by grenade attack. We are talking about serious damage.

Upon returning from my run, and spending 30 minutes flat on my back trying to recover, I asked about all of the siding damage.

Hail Damage

Hail damage from an April storm

Apparently a late April storm had brought golf ball sized hailstones to the area – creating all of the siding hail damage I witnessed.

This caused me to start to wonder about what kind of warranties the vinyl siding manufacturers had against hail damage.

On one major vinyl siding manufacturer’s website I found, “In the event of damage caused by hail during the warranty period, it is the owner’s responsibility to pursue the cost of replacement or repair of damaged material through homeowner’s insurance or any other applicable insurance coverage. Any cost incurred by the owner in excess of the insurance contribution will be reimbursed by Manufacturer (excluding any insurance deductible), except that manufacturer will not be liable for costs in excess of the value of the replacement material required to replace the material damaged by hail. Manufacturer will not be responsible for the cost of the labor required to install the vinyl siding or to replace any hail damaged material.”

This seems to be pretty consistent with the other vinyl siding hail warranties I am reading on the internet.

It seems to me – if I was going to use vinyl siding, I’d make sure I had good homeowner’s insurance.

To receive more pole building tips and advice subscribe to the pole barn guru blog!