The 48 hours after a hailstorm are when most Colorado claims are won or lost. Not because the damage gets worse — though it sometimes does — but because the documentation, the contractor selection, and the order of operations all happen in this window. Get it right, and the claim moves cleanly through your carrier in 60–90 days. Get it wrong, and you are still arguing about line items six months later.
This is the exact playbook our team uses with our own customers when hail hits the Front Range.
The 60-second answer
In the first 48 hours after hail: stay safe, document everything from the ground (don't climb the roof yourself), schedule a professional inspection from a Colorado-based contractor, and avoid signing anything with door-knocking storm chasers. Do not call your insurance carrier yet — wait until you have a written inspection report in hand, because the order of operations affects what gets covered. Most reputable Colorado roofers offer free same-day or next-day inspections during hail season.
Hours 0–2: Make sure everyone is safe
Hail can be accompanied by tornadoes, flash flooding, and hail-driven debris. Before anything else:
- Check that everyone in the house is uninjured.
- If hail broke a window, move people away from the broken glass and tarp or board the opening from inside.
- If a tree branch is on the roof or a power line is down, call 911 or your utility company. Do not approach.
- Check the garage and any outbuildings for water intrusion.
If there's water actively coming into the house through a roof breach, get a tarp on it from inside the attic if possible. Do not climb the roof — the shingles are at their most slippery in the hour after a hailstorm, and most homeowner policies do not cover injuries from non-professional roof access.
Hours 2–12: Document everything
The next ten hours are the most important documentation window of your entire claim. Photo evidence captured close to the storm event is significantly more credible than evidence captured weeks later.
Walk the perimeter of your home and photograph:
- Every face of the home (front, back, both sides) from a distance and from 5–10 feet away
- Window screens (hail punches small round holes — easy to spot)
- AC condenser fins (dented fins are textbook hail evidence)
- Gutters and downspouts (look for dents, splits, granule accumulation)
- Garage doors (dimples and dents from any direction except dead-on)
- Any metal: vents, mailbox, light fixtures, fences, deck rails
- Outdoor furniture, deck wood, painted surfaces
- Cars (uncovered cars are powerful collateral evidence — the same hail that dented your hood hit your roof)
At the bottom of every downspout, look for granules. A pile of black or gray sand at the spout outlet is one of the strongest hail signatures available — it tells the adjuster the impact was severe enough to dislodge protective granules from the shingles.
Photograph from inside, too:
- Any water staining on ceilings or in the attic
- Any leaks, even small ones
- Broken or damaged interior items if a window was breached
Save the timestamp data. Most modern phones embed date and GPS coordinates in photo metadata automatically. Don't crop, edit, or send through messaging apps that strip metadata — keep originals.
Hours 12–24: Pull the weather data
While the storm is still fresh, pull the data that confirms it.
Search by your ZIP code on these sources:
- NOAA Storm Prediction Center — confirmed severe weather reports
- HailTrace — searchable hail event records by date and ZIP
- National Weather Service Boulder — local Front Range forecasts and warnings
Also check social media: local Aurora and Denver-area Facebook groups, NextDoor neighborhood pages, and the Twitter accounts of local TV meteorologists are often the fastest place to find timestamped footage of the storm. Screenshot or save what you find. Adjusters take third-party storm verification seriously when documentation is borderline.
If you can't find any record of severe weather at your address on the date you suspect, that's important information — it doesn't mean there's no claim, but it does change how the conversation with your carrier needs to go.
Hours 24–48: Schedule a professional inspection
You should now have:
- Photos of every exterior face of your home
- Photos of any interior damage
- Confirmation from a third-party weather data source
Now, schedule a professional roof inspection.
A few rules:
1. Choose a Colorado-based, locally-headquartered contractor. Storm chasers — out-of-state crews who follow major weather events — will be in your neighborhood within 48 hours of any significant hail. Many of them disappear in 90 days. If your roof has a workmanship problem 18 months from now, a contractor with no Colorado office cannot help you.
2. Verify the contractor's local presence before you let them on the roof. Look for:
- A physical Colorado business address (not a P.O. box)
- A Colorado-licensed phone number with local presence
- BBB accreditation (the BBB profile shows years in business at the Colorado address)
- Google reviews from named Colorado homeowners, not generic out-of-state reviews
- A working website on a domain that's been registered for more than a year
3. Insist on a written inspection report. The report should include photos, identification of impact points, collateral damage notes, and a written narrative. Verbal "yeah, I think you've got damage" is worthless to an adjuster.
Hilltop's free inspection in the Denver Metro takes 30–45 minutes and produces a written report the same day. Hilltop has been an Aurora-headquartered company since 2009, and we publish our office address openly: 10730 E Bethany Dr Suite 240, Aurora CO 80014. We don't operate in any state other than Colorado.
What NOT to do in the first 48 hours
Most claim mistakes are made in this window. The big ones:
Don't call your insurance carrier first. Waiting 24–48 hours to have an inspection report in hand before you file the claim gives you a documented baseline. If you call the carrier first, the adjuster's report becomes the baseline, and anything they miss has to be supplemented in later — a harder fight.
Don't sign a contract with a door-knocker the day of the storm. Reputable Colorado contractors are still inspecting roofs and writing reports on day one — they are not asking for signatures. Colorado law (CRS 6-22, the Colorado Roofing Bill) gives you a 72-hour right to cancel any roofing contract signed in connection with an insurance claim, but the cleanest move is simply not to sign within 48 hours.
Don't accept "we'll cover your deductible" offers. This is illegal in Colorado under CRS 6-22. Any contractor who offers to "make the deductible go away," "rebate the deductible," or "pay it themselves" is asking you to commit insurance fraud and is exposing you to civil and criminal liability. Walk away from that contractor immediately and report them to the Colorado Division of Insurance.
Don't climb the roof yourself. Most homeowner policies don't cover injury from non-professional roof access. Hail-coated shingles are extraordinarily slippery in the first 24 hours.
Don't tear off damaged shingles or "clean up" before an inspection. Damaged materials are evidence. Leave them in place until your contractor and the adjuster have both documented them.
Don't post photos publicly on social media before filing the claim. Adjusters do check social media, and a well-meaning Facebook post saying "looks like only a few cosmetic dents" can become a quote against you in a denial letter.
Red flags that should immediately disqualify a contractor
In the 48 hours after a major Colorado hailstorm, your home will likely be approached by 3–10 different roofing companies. Most are fine. A few are predatory. Disqualify any contractor who exhibits any of these:
- Door-knocks within the first 24 hours of the storm with a contract ready to sign
- Claims to be "in the area working on a neighbor's roof" as the reason they stopped by
- Offers to cover, rebate, or "make disappear" your insurance deductible
- Pressures you to sign immediately ("we have a crew today, this price is only good now")
- Cannot or will not give you a Colorado physical address
- Wants payment up front before any work has been done
- Has no website, no Google profile, or reviews older than 3 months
- Asks you to sign a "contingency agreement" or "AOB" (Assignment of Benefits) before you've decided to use them
A reputable contractor will give you a written inspection report, leave you to think it over, and follow up by phone in a day or two. They are not racing you to a signature.
Why these 48 hours matter so much
There are three reasons the first 48 hours carry disproportionate weight:
- Documentation strength decays over time. Photos taken 24 hours after a storm are more credible than photos taken three weeks later, when an adjuster could plausibly argue the damage came from a subsequent event or weather system.
- Storm-chaser pressure is highest right after the event. Most predatory contractors leave Colorado within 60–90 days of a major storm. Avoiding them in the first 48 hours is the single most important consumer-protection decision you will make.
- Carrier deadlines start running immediately. Colorado homeowner policies generally require notice "as soon as practicable" and require any lawsuit be filed within 1 year of the loss. The clock starts at the storm event, not at your discovery of damage.
When to call Hilltop Contracting
If a hailstorm hit your home in the Denver Metro or Front Range, call 720-345-2070 for a free, no-pressure inspection. We are an Aurora-headquartered roofing and storm-restoration company. Our team has 29 years of roofing experience, 18 years in storm restoration, and we have been on Colorado roofs since 2009. We will produce a written inspection report the same day, leave you to think it over, and never pressure you to sign anything you haven't read.
We call back within one business hour — every time.
For the full claim playbook from inspection through final depreciation release, read our Colorado Hail Insurance Claim Step-by-Step Guide.
This article is informational and reflects our team's experience handling Colorado hail and wind claims. It is not legal or insurance advice. Specific policy terms, deadlines, and entitlements vary by carrier and policy type — always read your declarations page or call your carrier directly to confirm your coverage.