Plano sits in one of the most reliably hail-struck pockets of North Texas. There have been more than 220 hail reports within ten miles of Plano since 2004. The largest on record in that radius was 4.5 inches, grapefruit size. April is the worst month by a wide margin, with May close behind, and the pattern has not let up: ping-pong-ball hail piled four to six inches deep in Wylie in March 2025, another round through Sachse and central Collin County that May, and 1.75-inch hail measured just down the road in Richardson in April 2026.
If a storm has just come through your neighborhood, the next three days determine how well this goes. Not because your roof will fail in three days, but because the evidence, the paperwork, and the contractor pool all change fast.
Hours 0–12: document before you do anything else
Do this before you call your insurer, and before you talk to a contractor.
Write down the date and time of the storm. This single detail matters more than people expect. Your claim will be tied to a date of loss, and your carrier will check it against weather data for your ZIP. If you are not sure, check the National Weather Service record or a local report for that day.
Photograph the ground, not just the roof. Storm claims are won on corroborating evidence. Hail on the deck. Dents in the A/C condenser fins. Bruised leaves and stripped branches. Dings in the mailbox, garage door, window screens, and the top of your fence rails. Shredded patio furniture. If soft metals around your house are dented, an adjuster has a much harder time calling your roof damage “wear and tear.”
Photograph the gutters and downspouts. Granule accumulation in the gutter trough and a pile of black grit at the bottom of the downspout are strong signals the shingle mat took a beating.
Do not climb on the roof. A wet or hail-battered roof is genuinely dangerous, and walking a soft, freshly bruised shingle surface can create damage that muddies the claim. If you want to look yourself, do it from a ladder at the eave, or use binoculars from the yard. Our guide on how to tell if your roof has hail damage in North Texas covers what is visible from the ground.
Hours 0–24: stop the water
If water is actively coming inside, temporary mitigation is your job and your policy expects it. Most Texas homeowners policies require the insured to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, and failing to do so gives the carrier an argument that some of the loss is on you.
That means: catch water in buckets, move furniture and rugs, pull wet insulation away from drywall, and get a tarp over the breach if it can be done safely. Photograph everything before you move it, and keep every receipt: tarps, fans, a hotel night if the house is unlivable. Emergency mitigation is generally reimbursable.
What it does not mean is starting permanent repairs. Do not let anyone replace the roof before the adjuster has seen it, unless the house is genuinely uninhabitable and you have documented the condition thoroughly. You cannot un-remove evidence.
Hours 24–72: the contractor decision, and the trap
Within a day of a significant hail event in Plano, out-of-state crews will be working the neighborhoods. Some are legitimate. Many are not, and the way they operate is consistent enough to spot.
Warning signs, plainly:
- They knocked on your door before you called anyone.
- They tell you the inspection is free “and we’ll waive your deductible.” Under Texas Insurance Code § 707.002 (House Bill 2102, effective September 1, 2019), a person insured under a property insurance policy must pay the deductible on a first-party claim, and it is an offense for a contractor to pay, waive, absorb, or rebate all or part of it, punishable by a fine and possible jail time. A contractor who offers is proposing something illegal, on a claim filed in your name.
- They want you to sign a “contingency agreement” or “authorization to inspect” on the spot. Read it. Some of these are binding contracts that hand them the job at whatever the insurance pays, with a cancellation penalty.
- They pressure you to sign before the adjuster comes out.
- They cannot produce a local address, a certificate of general liability insurance, or workers’ comp coverage.
- The bid is a single number with no scope. A real roofing proposal names the shingle product, the underlayment, the ventilation plan, the flashing and boot replacement, the decking allowance, and who pulls the permit.
Texas does not license roofing contractors at the state level, which means “licensed” on a truck door is not a verifiable credential the way it is in other states. What you can verify: how long the business has existed, a physical local address, current liability and workers’ comp certificates sent directly from the insurer, manufacturer certifications, BBB standing, and reviews that are specific and long-running rather than a cluster of five-star posts from one month. We wrote a fuller version of this checklist in how to choose a roofing contractor in DFW after a storm.
The local-versus-visiting distinction is not sentimentality. It is about who is reachable in year three when a boot fails. A workmanship warranty from a crew that left the state in June is a piece of paper.
Filing the claim: what to say and what not to
Call your carrier and report a date of loss. Keep it factual: the date, what happened, what you have observed, and what mitigation you have done. Get a claim number and the adjuster’s name.
On timing, the number that will actually be used against you is not the one people quote. Texas law sets an outside limitation period for pursuing a property damage claim, measured in years. But your policy contains its own notice requirement, and that is the deadline that gets claims denied. Most Texas homeowners policies require notice “promptly” or within a defined short window after the loss, and carriers do enforce it. Do not rely on a number you read online, including this one: pull your declarations page and policy conditions, or call your agent and ask what your policy requires. Then report promptly regardless. The Texas Department of Insurance is the neutral source if you want to check anything your carrier tells you.
Two things not to do. Do not speculate about the age of your roof or previous damage. If you do not know, say you do not know. And do not accept the first estimate as a fixed reality. An initial adjuster estimate is a starting position; missing line items (ridge vent, drip edge, ice-and-water at valleys, code-required upgrades, second-story access) are common and correctable with documentation.
Understanding your own paperwork is most of the leverage here. How to read a roof insurance estimate in Texas walks through RCV, ACV, depreciation, and supplements. Our roof insurance claims page covers how we work alongside a claim.
RCV vs. ACV: the number that decides your out-of-pocket
One distinction is worth internalizing before the adjuster arrives.
- Replacement Cost Value (RCV) policies pay what it costs to replace the roof today. You typically receive an initial check for the depreciated amount, then the withheld depreciation once the work is completed and invoiced. Your out-of-pocket is your deductible.
- Actual Cash Value (ACV) policies pay the depreciated value and stop. On a 15-year-old roof, that can be a fraction of the replacement cost, and the gap is yours.
Many Texas carriers have also moved to separate, percentage-based wind-and-hail deductibles, 1% or 2% of the dwelling coverage rather than a flat $1,000. On a $500,000 Plano home, a 2% wind/hail deductible is $10,000. Check which you have before you file, because on a marginal claim it changes the arithmetic entirely.
Repair or replace after a storm?
Not every storm claim ends in a new roof, and you should be suspicious of anyone who says otherwise before they have been up there. Wind damage is often localized to one or two slopes and genuinely repairable. Hail is different. It damages the whole exposed plane at once, which is why hail claims more often result in full replacement of affected slopes.
The honest answer depends on the extent, the age of the roof, and whether matching shingles are still available. Our repair-versus-replace framework lays out how we make that call, and the Plano roof replacement guide covers costs, the city’s 25% permit threshold, and timeline if replacement is where you land.
One forward-looking note: if you are replacing after hail in Plano, this is the moment to consider a Class 4 impact-resistant product. Texas Property Code § 202.011 keeps your HOA from banning wind- and hail-resistant shingles outright, provided the product you choose resembles what is already authorized in the subdivision and is of equal or better quality, and most carriers discount the wind-and-hail portion of your premium for it. We compare the options in the best roofing materials for Plano homes.
Texas Roofing Project is in Richardson, ten minutes from most of Plano. We do free storm inspections, we document what we find whether or not it becomes a claim, and we will tell you when you do not need a new roof. Call 214-600-7661 or request an inspection.
