Hail damages a metal roof by denting the panels, a tile roof by cracking or shattering individual tiles, and a flat or low-slope roof by bruising the membrane in a way that is invisible from the ground. None of that resembles the granule loss and bruised mat that every shingle guide describes. The difference matters most on metal, where a Texas policy can carry an endorsement that excludes denting outright if the dents do not let water through. Same storm, same hail, three completely different arguments with your insurer.
Almost everything written about residential hail damage assumes asphalt shingles, because most Texas roofs are asphalt shingles. If yours is not, the standard advice does not just fail to help. It points you at the wrong evidence.
The one thing that transfers across all three materials
The vocabulary transfers even when the evidence does not. Insurers sort hail damage into two categories on every material: damage that affects the roof covering's ability to keep water out, and damage that only changes how it looks. That split is the entire fight on a metal roof, and it is worth understanding before an adjuster ever arrives. This site works through the general version of that distinction in functional versus cosmetic hail damage.
What does not transfer is the inspection method. The test square, meaning the chalked-off ten-by-ten area with a hit count inside it, is a shingle convention. It is what adjusters use on asphalt. On a standing seam metal panel or a concrete tile field, counting hits inside a square is not the measurement anyone is actually making.
Metal: denting is the whole conversation
Hail hits metal and leaves a dent. On a thin-gauge panel, a large stone can leave a visible dish. On a heavier gauge, the same stone may leave almost nothing. Metal does not lose granules, does not bruise a fiberglass mat, and does not crack the way asphalt does when it ages.
Two things can actually happen to a metal roof in hail:
| What happened | Does water get in? | How it is usually treated |
|---|---|---|
| Denting or dishing of the panel face | No, if the panel is not opened | Frequently treated as cosmetic |
| Puncture through the panel or coating breach | Yes, or eventually yes | Functional damage |
| Seams opened, fasteners loosened, flashing displaced | Yes | Functional damage |
| Dents on gutters, vents, hoods, soft metals | Not on the roof itself | Evidence of hail size, not roof damage |
That last row is worth more than homeowners expect. Soft metal accessories dent at smaller hail sizes than roof panels do, which is why the vent hoods and the gutter apron are the first place anyone looks. They establish that hail of a given size hit this address. What they do not establish is that the roof covering failed.
The Texas endorsement that decides the metal argument
Here is the part the general "will insurance cover hail damage to a metal roof" pages tend to gesture at without naming.
Texas has specific, named endorsements that exclude cosmetic hail damage to roof coverings. The Texas Department of Insurance approved them in Commissioner's Bulletin B-0030-98, effective May 2, 1998: endorsement HO-145 for attachment to the Texas homeowners forms (HO-A, HO-B, HO-C), and endorsement TDP-022 for the Texas dwelling forms (TDP-1, TDP-2, TDP-3). The bulletin defines cosmetic damage as damage that alters the physical appearance of the roof covering but does not allow water to penetrate it and does not cause the roof covering to fail at its intended function.
The condition attached to those endorsements is the detail almost nobody surfaces: under that bulletin, they apply to risks that are eligible for and receiving the premium credit for an impact-resistant roof covering meeting UL Standard 2218. In plain terms, the discount for the tougher roof and the exclusion for its dents were designed as a pair.
If a metal or impact-rated roof went on your Texas house and the premium went down, that is exactly the moment to check whether an exclusion went on with it. Your own policy is the only place the answer exists. A full walk-through of where the endorsement list sits is in reading your declarations page before you call anyone.
Two honest limits on that. Bulletin B-0030-98 is a 1998 filing and carriers have filed their own endorsement language since, so your policy may use different wording under a different form number. And the exclusion is optional, not automatic. Neither this page nor any contractor can tell you whether it is on your policy without reading your policy.
Tile: the damage is per-tile, and the roof is fragile underfoot
Concrete and clay tile behave differently again. Hail does not wear tile down gradually. It either does nothing or it breaks a specific tile, leaving a crack, a chipped corner, or a spall where a chunk of the surface has popped off. The failure is discrete and countable rather than spread across a slope.
That creates two problems that are unique to tile.
The first is that a broken tile is not automatically a leak. There is an underlayment beneath the tile doing real waterproofing work, which is why insurers and homeowners often disagree about whether cracked tiles are a covered loss or an appearance problem. The second is availability. Tile profiles and colors get discontinued. If the matching tile no longer exists, a repair that should be simple becomes a conversation about whether a slope or the whole roof gets replaced, which is its own dispute covered in partial approval and one-slope payouts.
There is also a plain safety fact about tile that shingle guides never have to state. Tile breaks under foot traffic. People walking a tile roof to inspect it can create damage that was not there before, and then nobody can tell which cracks came from hail and which came from boots. That is a reason to keep everyone off a tile roof, including anyone offering a free inspection.
Flat and low-slope: the damage you cannot see from anywhere
On a flat or low-slope roof with a membrane, hail creates bruising. The impact fractures the material below the surface while the top still looks intact. It is the closest analogue to a bruised shingle mat, and it is genuinely difficult to see. On many membranes, the only reliable confirmation involves being on the roof, and sometimes cutting a test sample out of it.
This is the material where the honest answer is the least satisfying: a ground inspection will not settle it. What a homeowner can do from the ground is confirm hail hit the property using the soft metal around the building, then look for interior evidence, which is covered in signs of a roof leak in the attic after a storm. Beyond that, it is a professional inspection or nothing.
What to actually do, on any of the three
Do not get on the roof. This is not a hedge, and it is the same answer for all three materials. Metal panels are slick and dent under weight. Tile breaks. Membranes are slippery and hide the very damage you would be looking for. The ground-level method in how to check a roof for hail damage from the ground is the right starting point regardless of what your roof is made of.
From the ground or a window, in order:
- Photograph the soft metal. Gutters, downspouts, vent hoods, turbine vents, AC condenser fins, the mailbox, the fence cap. These document hail size and impact direction without touching the roof.
- Note which side got hit. Hail arrives at an angle. Damage is usually concentrated on the slopes facing the storm, which is directly relevant when an insurer approves one slope only.
- Look inside. Attic stains, damp decking, daylight through the deck.
- Match it to a dated event. Public weather records let you tie the damage to a specific storm date rather than to a vague "last spring."
- Then get a professional on it. For tile and flat especially, that is not optional caution, it is the only way the question gets answered.
Everything you gather feeds the claim file, and documenting roof damage for insurance covers what form that documentation should take.
What this page will not tell you
It will not tell you whether your dents are covered. That depends on your policy form, whether a cosmetic damage endorsement is attached to it, and what an inspection finds. It will not tell you that a denial on a metal roof is wrong, because on a policy carrying that endorsement, a denial for dents that do not leak may be exactly what the policy says.
What it does say plainly is that the argument on your roof is material-specific, that the evidence a shingle guide teaches you to collect is often the wrong evidence, and that on a Texas metal roof the single most useful thing you can do before calling anyone is find out whether HO-145 or its equivalent is sitting on your declarations page. Sources here were verified at the time of writing against the Texas Department of Insurance and the cited bulletin, not against contractor marketing.
FAQ
Will insurance cover hail dents on a metal roof in Texas?
It depends on whether your policy carries a cosmetic damage exclusion. Texas approved endorsements HO-145 (homeowners forms) and TDP-022 (dwelling forms) in TDI Commissioner's Bulletin B-0030-98, which exclude hail damage that alters the roof covering's appearance without letting water through or causing it to fail. If no such endorsement is attached, denting is evaluated like any other hail damage claim. Your declarations page is the only place to confirm which applies to you.
Does a dented metal roof still work?
A dent that does not open a seam, puncture the panel, or breach the coating generally does not stop a metal roof from shedding water, which is precisely why insurers classify it as cosmetic. A puncture, an opened seam, loosened fasteners, or displaced flashing are a different matter and are treated as functional damage.
How do I check a tile roof for hail damage?
From the ground, with binoculars or a zoom lens, looking for cracked, chipped or spalled tiles and for tile fragments in the gutters and on the ground. Do not walk on it. Tile breaks under foot traffic, and damage caused by an inspection becomes impossible to separate from damage caused by hail.
Can hail damage a flat roof without me seeing anything?
Yes. Hail on a membrane roof often produces bruising that fractures the material below an intact-looking surface. It is one of the few roofing situations where a ground inspection genuinely cannot answer the question and a professional inspection is the only route.
Is it worth getting an impact-resistant roof if the dents will not be covered?
That is a real trade-off, not a marketing point, and it is a decision about risk rather than about claims. The premium credit and the cosmetic exclusion in the TDI bulletin were built as a pair, so the honest framing is that you are buying a roof less likely to fail and giving up a claim for how it looks afterward. Whether that trade works for you depends on your policy and your priorities, and this site does not make that call for anyone.