Hail damage roof repair in Eau Claire follows a calendar. NOAA’s Storm Events Database logged 56 reports of hail an inch or larger in Eau Claire County from 2000 through 2025, on 30 separate storm days, every one of them between April and October. The biggest was May 15, 2025, when the National Weather Service recorded hail up to four inches across between Eau Claire and Altoona.
Hail damage often shows up months after the storm. A bruised shingle can look fine from the driveway all summer and start leaking after a winter of freeze and thaw has worked on the crack in its mat. Telling hail from wind and documenting it for the adjuster is covered in the hail versus wind damage guide; this page is about the repair itself.
What hail damage roof repair covers
A hail repair is more than shingles. The parts that get checked, and replaced when they are cracked or no longer seal:
- Shingles with bruises, cracks, or bare spots where the granules were knocked off, replaced one at a time, by the slope, or across the roof, as the next section explains.
- Ridge caps, which sit fully exposed along the top of the roof.
- Roof vents, vent caps, and ridge vent, replaced when a dent or crack opens the housing or bends the flange that sheds water.
- Pipe boots and flashing, checked for splits. A dent in step flashing or drip edge is usually cosmetic; a split or a dent that opens a lap is not.
- Metal roof panels, repaired where a stone punctured the steel or opened a seam. Dents alone are a coverage question, since many policies exclude cosmetic hail damage on metal roofing.
Gutters, downspouts, and siding dented in the same storm are usually separate parts of the adjuster’s scope, and those dents are the best evidence the roof was hit.
Repair the shingles, the slope, or the whole roof
Three things decide how far a hail repair has to go.
Whether the old shingles can be lifted. Replacing one shingle means lifting the row above it to reach the nails, and an old, brittle shingle cracks when it is bent. There is no standard brittleness test: Haag Engineering, which studies hail damage, says no ASTM, ANSI, or other industry-accepted method exists, so the practical test is whether a shingle can be lifted to reach its nails without cracking. Nearmap’s RepairLogic, an insurance-claims reference, says a roof that fails it is typically fixed by replacing the whole slope, and recommends testing at three to five spots at 55 to 85 degrees. If an adjuster ran that test on a cold morning, ask for a retest on a warmer day.
Whether new shingles still fit. According to IKO, most older 3-tab shingles were the smaller imperial size, 12 by 36 inches and showing 5 inches per row, while metric shingles measure 13 1/4 by 39 3/8 and show 5 5/8. Because the exposures differ, a metric shingle does not line up with imperial rows, and on a roof that old the new shingles rarely match the faded color either. Either problem pushes the repair out to the whole slope.
How many slopes took hits. One slope replaced and the rest repaired is a normal outcome. Several damaged slopes on an aging roof is a roof replacement, which takes the same building permit as any re-roof, and it is the moment to price Class 4 impact-rated shingles.
Whether undamaged shingles get replaced so the roof matches comes down to your policy wording, since Wisconsin has no rule requiring it.
When to repair hail damage
Before the next winter. A spring or summer hail repair goes on in shingle weather and seals on its own; the same repair put off to December needs cold-weather hand sealing, and a roof left bruised through a winter gives freeze and thaw a season to work on every cracked mat. The claim has its own clock, too: a Wisconsin homeowner has 12 months from the storm date to sue on the policy, and the denied or underpaid claim guide covers that and the rest of the claim rules.
Hiring for hail repair in Eau Claire
Door-to-door crews follow every big hail day, and the City of Eau Claire regulates them. Under the city’s direct sellers ordinance, Chapter 5.34, anyone selling services door to door has to register with the city first, the registration lasts seven days, and the seller has to wear a numbered license where you can see it. Established businesses you called to your house, and ones you have done business with before, are exempt. Inside city limits, an out-of-town crew knocking without that badge is breaking city code before the first shingle comes off.
State law adds one bright line. Under Wis. Stat. 100.65, no contractor may promise to pay or rebate any part of your deductible, in person or in an ad, so an offer to “cover your deductible” tells you everything about the company making it. The storm damage page explains the inspection and how the claim process works.