What storms in this valley actually do
Three things, in descending order of how much damage they cause. Wind arriving with a nor'easter loads the perimeter of a roof rather than its middle, which is why uplift begins at a rake edge, an eave or a ridge and then runs along the course it has got under. Ice loading is slower and more destructive: snow that melts over a warm attic and refreezes at the cold overhang builds a ridge that holds standing water against a surface built only to shed it. Hail is the third and, in this region, the least frequent.
Sustained snow is a category of its own. In January 2011 Bradley recorded fifty-four inches over the month, twenty-four of them on a single day, and the pack never cleared between systems; nearly four hundred roofs across Connecticut and the neighbouring states partly or completely failed. What did the damage was accumulation across weeks rather than any one storm, and shallow-pitch roofs shed the least of it.
Where the assembly gives way
Wind and ice attack the same part of the roof from opposite directions. Uplift works on the fastening and the sealant strip along the edges; ice works on the eave membrane and whatever the water finds once it is past the courses. Both concentrate at the perimeter, which is why an inspection that walks the field but never looks closely at the rakes, the ridge and the first three feet above the gutter can miss the whole event.
What to do in the days afterwards
- Photograph everything visible from ground level, from several angles, before anything is touched
- Note the date of the storm and keep any local weather record you can find for it
- Look inside the attic with a light for daylight through the deck and for fresh staining
- Keep a piece of any shingle that has come off the roof
- Do not climb onto a wet or iced roof to look, and do not let anyone else do it either
- Be wary of crews arriving door to door immediately after a storm event
That last point deserves saying plainly. Storm chasing is a real pattern in this trade, and the protection Connecticut gives homeowners is concrete: anyone contracting residential work here must hold a Home Improvement Contractor registration from the Department of Consumer Protection, the contract must carry that registration number, and it must include the three-day right of cancellation. A crew that cannot produce a registration number is not one to sign with under pressure.
Damage and age are one question
The honest assessment after a storm considers both what happened and what was there beforehand. A roof six years old with one damaged slope is a repair. A roof of twenty-four years with lifted courses along two rakes has been told something about its remaining service life, and repairing into brittle, weathered material next to new material tends to produce a second call within a few seasons. Getting the condition written down properly is what lets you tell those two situations apart.
Storm damage roof work by town
- HartfordZIP 06103, 06105, 06106, 06112, 06114, 06120
- West HartfordZIP 06107, 06110, 06117, 06119
- New BritainZIP 06051, 06052, 06053
- East HartfordZIP 06108, 06118
- ManchesterZIP 06040, 06042
- BristolZIP 06010
- GlastonburyZIP 06033, 06073
- NewingtonZIP 06111
- WethersfieldZIP 06109
- WindsorZIP 06095, 06006
Frequently Asked Questions
- How soon after a storm should the roof be looked at?
- Within days, and before the next system arrives. Courses that have been lifted but have not yet come off are the ones worth finding, because they are already passing water while still looking intact from the ground. Photograph what is visible from ground level, write down the date of the storm, and keep that record whatever happens next.
- What does wind damage actually look like?
- It starts at edges rather than in the middle. Look along the rakes, the ridge and the eave for tabs that have been creased backward, courses that sit slightly proud of the ones beside them, and gaps where the sealant strip has let go. A single missing shingle in the field is often less telling than a run of lifted ones along an edge, because that run indicates the fastening has been overcome.
- Is hail a real problem in Hartford County?
- It happens, but it is not the driver here that it is in the plains states. Records show a modest count of hail reports within ten miles of Hartford over the past two decades, the largest around an inch and three quarters. Hail bruising shows as random-pattern dark spots where granules have been knocked loose, alongside dents in aluminium gutters, vent caps and flashing. Wind and ice do far more work on these roofs.
- The damage is on one slope. Why is anyone talking about the whole roof?
- Because the age of the covering decides what is reasonable, not the location of the damage. On a young roof, one damaged slope is a repair. On a covering already in its twenties, matching new material into a weathered, brittle field rarely holds, the colour will not match, and the rest of the roof continues aging on its own schedule. The storm brings forward a decision that was already due.
- Do you handle the insurance claim?
- No. Roof Replacement Hartford is not a roofing company, not a public adjuster and not an insurance intermediary, and nothing here is a statement about what any policy covers. What contractors reached through this site can do is inspect the roof and put its condition in writing. Whether and how you file is between you and your carrier, and the terms of your own policy govern the outcome.