Storm damage
Storm Damage Roof Repair in Howell, Michigan
HAAG-certified inspectors, documented damage reports your adjuster can actually work from, and a team that handles the insurance claim from the first call to the final inspection. This is our specialty, not a sideline.
What should I do after a storm damages my roof in Michigan?
Do four things, in this order. First, document everything with photos and dates — including any hail on the ground and damage to soft targets like gutters, screens, and your A/C unit. Second, get a professional inspection before you call your insurer, so you know what you actually have. Third, file the claim promptly — Michigan law generally requires any lawsuit under a property policy to be filed within one year of the date of loss, and that clock starts at the storm, not at the denial. Fourth, do not sign anything with a contractor who showed up at your door uninvited.
74
Confirmed severe weather events in Livingston County since 2020
1.00"
Hail size that can damage a 3-tab shingle roof
90 mph
Peak wind gust recorded in Livingston County, Aug 24, 2023
HAAG
Certified hail and wind damage inspectors on staff
Livingston County gets more severe weather than people think
Howell is not in tornado alley, and that lulls a lot of homeowners into assuming their roof has not been hit. The record says otherwise. According to NOAA's Storm Events Database, Livingston County recorded 74 confirmed severe weather events between January 2020 and May 2026 — 57 thunderstorm wind events, 9 hail events, 3 tornadoes, 4 county-wide high wind events, and 1 ice storm. That is roughly 11 severe events a year, every year.
Every confirmed hail event in Livingston County since 2020
| Date | Location | Hail size |
|---|---|---|
| February 18, 2026 | Fowlerville | 1.25" (half dollar) |
| February 18, 2026 | Parshallville | 1.00" (quarter) |
| June 19, 2025 | Parshallville | 1.00" |
| July 23, 2024 | Chilson | 1.00" |
| June 15, 2023 | Pinckney | 1.50" (ping pong) |
| June 15, 2023 | Fowlerville | 1.00" |
| June 15, 2023 | Fleming | 1.00" |
| June 15, 2023 | Chilson | 1.00" |
| September 14, 2021 | Howell | 1.25" |
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database. Neighboring counties recorded larger stones over the same period, including 2.75 inch hail in Davison (Genesee County) on July 20, 2023 and 2.00 inch hail in Ypsilanti the same day.
The wind events worth remembering
August 24, 2023 was the worst day in recent memory. A severe squall line pushed 60 to 80 mph gusts across southeast Michigan, with a 90 mph gust measured near Parkers Corners in Livingston County and roughly 500,000 customers losing power at the peak. NOAA recorded $800,000 in property damage around Oak Grove alone, affecting more than 400 homes.
March 30, 2025 brought an early-season squall line with an 81 mph gust in Brighton and 75 mph in Howell. On August 16, 2025 storms blew out a window at the 1881 Howell Opera House and cancelled the Melon Festival. And on March 13, 2026 an intense low-pressure system pushed 50 to 71 mph winds across the region with around 200,000 DTE customers out.
Michigan recorded 33 tornadoes in 2025 — the state's third most active year on record. Livingston County itself has taken three tornadoes since 2020, including an EF1 near Fowlerville in August 2023 and an EF1 that tracked from Plainfield to Gregory in May 2025.
What hail damage actually looks like
This section matters because "my roof looks fine" is the reason most legitimate hail claims never get filed — and because knowing the real standard protects you from a storm chaser telling you every roof in the neighborhood is totaled.
The size threshold
Haag Engineering — the forensic engineering firm whose research the property insurance industry treats as the reference standard — puts the minimum damaging hail size at 1.00 inch for 3-tab shingles and 1.25 inches for laminated architectural shingles. The National Weather Service classifies hail as "severe" at exactly 1.00 inch. In practical terms: if a severe-warned hail storm passed over your house, your roof is worth inspecting. Every one of the nine confirmed hail events in Livingston County since 2020 met or exceeded the 3-tab threshold, and four of them met the architectural threshold.
Functional damage vs. cosmetic damage
This is the distinction your claim will turn on. Haag defines functional damage as a reduction in the water-shedding capability or the expected service life of the roofing material. Cosmetic damage — dents in metal, minor granule loss, marks that change appearance without shortening service life — is a different thing, and increasingly a thing Michigan policies specifically exclude by endorsement.
On an asphalt shingle, two signatures make a hail hit functional: a fracture of the fiberglass reinforcement mat, which you can feel as a soft spot and confirm from the back of a removed shingle, and granule loss down to exposed asphalt over an area large enough to accelerate UV breakdown. Haag's own long-term research found that shingles with only minor granule loss showed no substantial erosion after ten years of subsequent weathering. We say that plainly because a contractor who tells you minor granule loss alone is a total loss is setting you up for a denial.
How a HAAG-certified inspection is done
- 1Soft targets firstBefore anyone gets on the roof we examine gutters, downspouts, fence tops, mailboxes, window screens, and A/C condenser fins. These establish that hail of a given size actually fell here and which direction it was driven from. This is the step that separates a real inspection from a sales walk-through.
- 2A 10 by 10 test square on every slopeWe chalk a 100 square foot test square on each directional slope, because wind-driven hail hits windward faces disproportionately. We avoid areas under overhanging trees and areas of concentrated foot traffic so the sample reflects true exposure.
- 3Every shingle in the square, by handEach shingle is examined and hand-manipulated to check for creases, breaks, soft spots, and mat bruising. Bruising is felt with a thumb, not spotted from a ladder.
- 4Count and extrapolateDamaged units in the square are counted and extrapolated across the squares on that slope, giving a defensible damage figure per elevation rather than an opinion.
- 5Photograph and reportYou get a documented report with dated photographs, slope-by-slope findings, and the storm date it corresponds to — the format an adjuster can actually work from.
Wind damage: still on the roof does not mean undamaged
Asphalt shingles bond to each other with a heat-activated sealant strip. Wind frequently breaks that bond without removing the shingle. The tab lifts, flexes, and settles back looking untouched from the driveway — but from the roof it lifts under a hand with no resistance, and the next storm drives water underneath it.
Full-scale testing by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety found that seal quality, not headline wind speed, decides whether shingles hold — we cover that finding and what it means for install timing on our roof replacement page.
Translated: the variables that cause wind failures on Michigan roofs are seal integrity and age, not just headline wind speed — and damage almost always starts at the edges. Rake, eave, ridge, and any previously unsealed course. Not the middle of the field, which is exactly where a homeowner looks.
How the insurance claim actually works
We handle nearly the entire process. Most homes that have suffered storm damage have coverage for it, and we work directly with your insurance company from the inspection through the final invoice.
- 1Free documented inspectionBefore you file anything. You need to know whether you have a claim before you open one — a claim filed on damage that will not qualify is not free to you.
- 2We help you fileWe give you the storm date, the documented damage report, and the photographs. You make the call to your carrier; we make sure you are calling with evidence.
- 3We meet your adjuster on the roofThis is the step that decides the outcome. We walk the roof with your adjuster, show the test squares, and make sure nothing gets missed or written off as cosmetic that is not.
- 4Scope and supplementIf the adjuster's scope leaves out required work — code-mandated ice barrier, drip edge, ventilation, or a slope that was under-counted — we document it and supplement the claim.
- 5We build the roofFull restoration to current Michigan code, with the same warranty as any of our replacements.
- 6Final paperworkCertificate of completion, final invoice, and warranty registration. Depreciation recovery gets submitted where your policy is replacement cost.
Five things Michigan homeowners should know about their policy
- ACV vs. RCV
- Michigan law requires policies to provide at minimum the actual cash value of the property at time of loss — that is replacement cost minus depreciation. Replacement cost coverage is an upgrade, not a legal entitlement. Check your declarations page and find out which one you have before a storm, not after.
- Labor can no longer be depreciated
- Under a Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services bulletin effective in January 2025, insurers may not apply depreciation to labor costs when calculating actual cash value on homeowners claims. DIFS's reasoning was straightforward: labor is not a physical object that can depreciate. On a roof, where labor is roughly half the bill, this is a substantial consumer protection — and many pre-2025 ACV estimates were calculated in a way that would no longer be permitted.
- Cosmetic damage exclusions
- A growing number of Michigan carriers have added endorsements excluding cosmetic damage to exterior surfaces. Not all have. Search your declarations page and endorsement list for the words "cosmetic damage" or "cosmetic loss" now, while you have time to change carriers if you do not like the answer.
- Michigan has no "matching" law
- Some states require an insurer to replace undamaged material so the finished result matches. Michigan does not have a matching statute or regulation. Whether you get a full slope or just the damaged section comes down entirely to your policy language — look for terms like "uniform appearance," "line of sight," or a restrictive "common construction" clause.
- The 60-day payment rule
- Michigan's insurance code provides that if benefits are not paid on a timely basis, they bear simple interest at 12% per year from 60 days after the insurer received satisfactory proof of loss — unless the claim is reasonably in dispute. Failure to pay timely is treated as an unfair trade practice.
The one-year clock — read this carefully
Michigan's insurance code provides that an action under a property policy must be commenced within one year after the loss, or within the period specified in the policy, whichever is longer. Two things people routinely get wrong about this. First, it is the deadline to file a lawsuit, not the deadline to file a claim — but because the clock starts on the date of the storm rather than the date of a denial, a homeowner who sits on a hail claim for eleven months has almost no runway left. Second, the clock is tolled — paused — from the time you notify your insurer of the loss until the insurer formally denies liability, so time spent in ordinary claim handling does not count against you. A Michigan Court of Appeals decision in February 2026 further held that a vague or ambiguous denial letter is not enough to restart that clock; a denial has to be explicit.
The practical advice is simple: file promptly. Do not let a storm date age.
How to spot a storm chaser
After every major Michigan storm, out-of-state crews follow the hail map into the neighborhood. Some are legitimate. Many are not, and Michigan's Department of Insurance and Financial Services issues warnings about them for a reason.
DIFS red flags
- They showed up at your door uninvited after a storm
- They ask for payment in advance, in cash, or through a peer-to-peer payment app
- They pressure you to sign a repair contract before your insurer has approved anything
- They refuse to provide their licensure information
- Someone claiming to be an adjuster asks you for a payment — real adjusters are paid by the insurance company and never ask homeowners for money
- The company has no local address, no local phone number, and no history in Livingston County
On contractors offering to "cover" your deductible
You will hear this offer. Here is our straight answer: Michigan does not have a roofing-specific statute prohibiting it the way Texas, Minnesota, and several other states do. But if a contractor bills your insurer $20,000 while you actually pay $18,000 because they absorbed your $2,000 deductible, the invoice submitted to the carrier states a cost that is not the real cost. Michigan's insurance code defines presenting false information to an insurer in support of a claim as a fraudulent insurance act, and that exposure runs to the homeowner as well as to the contractor. We will not do it, and we would encourage you to think hard about a company that offers to.
How to verify any Michigan roofer in about two minutes
- Michigan requires a Residential Builder license or a Maintenance & Alteration Contractor license with Roofing listed among its trades
- Look the company up through LARA's licensee verification lookup
- Confirm the license is active, in the company's actual business name, and that 'Roofing' appears on it
- Ask for a certificate of insurance sent directly from their agent, not a photocopy
- Ask how long they have had a physical address in the county
Based in Howell, on these roofs since 2010
We are not a crew that arrived with the hail map. On Top Roofing has operated out of 5896 Sterling Dr in Howell since 2010, and we were on Livingston County roofs after the August 2023 squall line, the March 2025 windstorm, and the February 2026 hail. Our inspectors are HAAG certified, we are an Owens Corning Platinum Preferred contractor, we are BBB accredited with an A+ rating, and you can find us here next year and the year after.
- Howell
- Brighton
- Hartland
- Fowlerville
- Pinckney
- Hamburg Township
- Genoa Township
- Oceola Township
- Marion Township
- Green Oak Township
- Whitmore Lake
- Gregory
- Chilson
- Parshallville
- Oak Grove
- Fleming
- South Lyon
- Milford
- New Hudson
- Fenton
- Linden
- Grand Blanc
- Dexter
- Chelsea
- Ann Arbor
- Williamston
- Webberville
- Durand
- Byron
- Perry
Frequently asked questions
Important disclaimer
This page describes Michigan insurance and building code provisions in general terms as of 2026, to help homeowners understand the process. It is not legal advice and it is not a substitute for reading your own policy. Coverage, deductibles, endorsements, and exclusions vary by carrier and by policy. Statutory and regulatory requirements change. For questions about your specific coverage, contact your insurance agent or the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services; for legal questions, consult an attorney.
Free estimate
Get a free HAAG-certified storm damage inspection
We document what we find with dated photographs and slope-by-slope test squares, tell you honestly whether you have a claim, and handle the insurance process from there. No pressure, no obligation.
Call (810) 588-3933