Frequently Asked Questions

Hail damage on asphalt shingles shows as bruising, dimpling, or loss of granules. Look in your gutters for granule buildup. Metal flashing, AC units, and gutters often show obvious dents. The most reliable check is a professional inspection — Hilltop offers these free.

ACV (Actual Cash Value) pays the depreciated value of your roof. RCV (Replacement Cost Value) pays the full replacement cost. Most carriers default to ACV initially and release recoverable depreciation once work is complete. Your policy declarations page will specify which you have.

Under Colorado law (CRS 13-80-101), homeowners have up to 3 years from the date of loss to file a property damage claim. However, most policies have shorter notice-of-loss windows. Check your policy or call your agent. Don't wait — roof damage worsens over time and your claim documentation gets harder to establish.

No. You have the right to hire any contractor you choose. Insurance-company-preferred contractors are not required and may not always advocate fully on your behalf. You can choose Hilltop regardless of your carrier.

A public adjuster is a licensed professional who advocates on your behalf with the insurance company. Hilltop works alongside adjusters and handles documentation and supplementing directly with carriers in most cases. For large or contested claims, a public adjuster may add value — we can refer you to trusted ones.

A typical residential roof replacement in Denver Metro takes 1–2 days. Larger roofs, complex pitches, or extensive flashing work can take 3 days. We'll give you a realistic timeline at your estimate appointment.

We recommend Class 4 impact-resistant shingles for Front Range homes. They can qualify for a 20–30% premium discount from many carriers and provide significantly better performance in hail. We recommend TAMKO Titan XT as the standard choice and TAMKO Storm Fighter IR as the premium choice. We are TAMKO Pro Certified, which lets us register extended warranties non-certified installers cannot offer. We do not recommend TAMKO Heritage — it is a Class 3 product that does not hold up reliably to Front Range hail.

Repairs make sense for isolated damage — a few missing shingles, a failed flashing boot, or localized wind damage. If hail has damaged more than 30% of the surface area, or the roof is nearing end of life, replacement is typically more cost-effective and may be covered by insurance anyway.

An average 2,200 sq ft home in Denver Metro typically runs $8,000–$16,000 for a full roof replacement depending on pitch, material, and complexity. If you have a valid insurance claim, you may pay only your deductible. Hilltop provides free, written estimates.

Yes. Hilltop works with financing partners to offer monthly payment options. See our financing page for current offers, or ask during your inspection.

Yes. Colorado has no statewide roofing or general contractor license — licensing is issued city by city, and in some cases county by county. Hilltop Contracting is licensed as a roofing contractor in the municipalities we work in, bonded, and carries both general liability insurance and workers’ compensation coverage. We are a licensed roofing contractor, not a general contractor. We can provide certificates of insurance and our license for your jurisdiction on request.

Yes. Under IRC R806.2 — adopted in its 2021 edition by Aurora and most Front Range jurisdictions — enclosed attics must be ventilated at a minimum of 1 square foot of net free ventilating area per 150 square feet of attic floor. The 1/300 ratio most contractors quote is a code exception that requires 40–50% of the vent area in the upper attic with the balance in the bottom third. Ventilation is also a warranty condition: TAMKO's limited warranty excludes shingles installed without adequate ventilation from coverage entirely.

Common signs are an attic far hotter than outdoor temperature in summer, frost or condensation on the underside of the roof deck in winter, ice dams at the eaves after a snow, upstairs rooms that never cool down, and shingles aging faster than their rated life. On the roof, ridge vent and box vents installed together, or exhaust vents with no visible soffit intake, almost always indicate an unbalanced system. The most common defect is soffit intake buried under blown insulation — the vents look fine from the driveway but are sealed from inside.

Sometimes. Most homeowner policies include building ordinance or law coverage, which pays to bring a damaged structure up to current code during a covered repair. If your roof is being replaced under a covered claim and current code requires ventilation the existing roof lacks, that shortfall can fall under the code-upgrade provision. Outcomes depend on your policy, your limit, and your carrier — and on whether the code requirement and the shortfall were documented and submitted. Hilltop assesses intake versus exhaust on every roof and photographs the findings into the package sent to your adjuster.

Yes — Hilltop is a full-service exterior contractor. We handle roofing, siding, gutters, windows, and exterior paint. Having one contractor handle multiple trades after a storm simplifies your claim and project management significantly.

Yes. We photograph and document every slope, build the scope, and meet your adjuster on the roof so the damage is agreed on site instead of argued afterward. When the carrier’s scope misses work the roof actually needs, we supplement it with the photographs and code sections that support each line item. You stay the policyholder and make every decision — we handle the documentation and the back-and-forth with the carrier.

Yes, and we strongly recommend it. An adjuster inspection where no contractor is present is the single most common reason a claim comes back underpaid. When we are on the roof with your adjuster, disputed slopes get resolved in person, damage gets marked while both parties are looking at it, and the scope that comes back reflects what is actually up there. Tell us your adjuster appointment time and we will be there.

A denial is not the end of the claim. Carriers deny for specific stated reasons — no covered damage found, damage that predates the policy period, or an exclusion such as cosmetic or marring damage. Get the denial in writing with the reason cited, then have the roof inspected independently. If the original inspection missed damage, measured it wrong, or applied the wrong exclusion, that is grounds to request reinspection. Hilltop provides a free second opinion on denied Colorado hail claims.

Your deductible is your legal obligation, and no contractor in Colorado can waive it, absorb it, discount it, or rebate it. Under C.R.S. 6-22-105 that is illegal for the contractor and for the homeowner. What is legal: financing the deductible over time, confirming the claim was scoped completely so all recoverable depreciation is released, and checking whether your policy carries ordinance and law coverage that pays for code-required work. Colorado law requires insurers to offer law and ordinance coverage of at least 20 percent of the dwelling limit, so many homeowners have more available than they realize.

You can, but it usually costs you more than the roof would have. Colorado sellers must disclose known material defects, buyers’ inspectors flag hail damage routinely, and lenders can require repair before closing. Buyers who do proceed typically discount well past the actual replacement cost. It is also worth knowing that the claim generally belongs to the policyholder at the time of loss, so selling first can forfeit money you were already owed. If you are preparing to list, get the roof inspected before the buyer’s inspector does.

Yes. Solar detach and reset is part of what we do, and it is one of the most common reasons Denver Metro homeowners get turned away by other roofers. Panels come off before tear-off and go back on after the new roof is complete. When the roof is being replaced under a covered claim, detach and reset is frequently a supplementable line item rather than an out-of-pocket cost.

Yes. Metal is worth considering on the right home, especially for hail durability and long service life. That said, Class 4 impact-resistant asphalt shingle is the right answer for the large majority of Front Range roofs on cost, HOA acceptance, and carrier discount eligibility. We will tell you honestly which one fits your roof and your budget rather than steering you to the larger ticket.

A supplement is a request to your carrier for work the original scope left out. Adjusters write scopes quickly and from the ground more often than homeowners expect, so items like drip edge, ice and water shield, ventilation required by current code, steep or multi-story access, and decking replacement discovered at tear-off routinely get missed. A supplement documents each of those with photographs and the code or manufacturer requirement behind it. Supplementing is normal, expected by carriers, and it is the difference between a claim that covers the roof and one that leaves you short.

It is free, and there is no obligation. We inspect the roof, photograph what we find, and tell you plainly whether you have damage worth filing a claim on. If you do not, we will tell you that too — filing a claim with no covered damage helps nobody and can count against you. If you do, we will walk you through what happens next. You are not signing anything to get an inspection.

We respond within one business hour of your call or form submission, and we can usually be on your roof within a day or two during normal conditions. After a major storm the queue is longer for everyone in the market, which is exactly why calling early matters — the homeowners who call in the first week get inspected, documented, and into the claim process well ahead of the ones who wait.

Hilltop is headquartered in Aurora at 10730 E Bethany Dr, Suite 240, and we work throughout the Denver Metro area and the Colorado Front Range — including Aurora, Denver, Centennial, Parker, Lone Tree, Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Castle Rock, Thornton, Westminster, Arvada, and the surrounding communities. If you are not sure whether you are in our area, call us at 720-345-2070 and we will tell you straight.

Yes. We install and repair TPO, EPDM rubber, and modified bitumen systems, and we apply coating and restoration systems on flat roofs. On the commercial side we focus on light commercial — small retail, offices, strip centers, churches, and small multifamily. Flat roofs fail differently than shingle roofs: ponding water, seam separation, and failures at flashings, curbs, and parapet details are the usual causes, and hail bruising on a membrane is very easy to miss from the ground. Commercial hail and wind claims run through the same process we use on the residential side — full photographic documentation, an adjuster meeting on the roof, and supplements where the carrier’s scope falls short of what the building actually needs. Call 720-345-2070 to have a flat or light commercial roof looked at.

Yes. A roof certification is a written inspection report stating the roof’s condition and its remaining service life. Buyers, lenders, and title companies commonly ask for one when a roof’s age or condition comes up during a sale, and it can keep a closing on schedule. We inspect the roof, photograph the findings, and issue the certification. One thing worth knowing before you order one: if the inspection turns up hail or wind damage, that matters more than the certificate. A hail claim generally belongs to whoever owned the home at the time of the storm, so finding damage before you sell can be worth far more than the certification itself.

Sometimes, and it is worth asking before you agree to a full tear-off. If the membrane is largely intact and the substrate underneath is dry, a silicone or acrylic coating system can add years of service life for well under the cost of replacement. Coatings are not a fix for a saturated roof, widespread seam failure, or storm damage that qualifies for a claim — coating over wet insulation traps the moisture and costs you more later. We will tell you honestly which situation your roof is in. Where there is genuine hail or wind damage, replacement is usually both the correct repair and the one your carrier owes you.

We are a full-exterior contractor, not a general remodeler, and we would rather tell you up front than waste your time. We do not do cedar shake replacement, interior painting, interior remodeling, home inspections, or water damage mitigation. We do roofing — steep-slope, low-slope and flat, residential and commercial — plus siding, gutters, windows, and exterior paint. HOA architectural submittals are handled by the homeowner; we supply the product data and color information you need for the packet.