Every spring in Colorado, we get a version of the same frantic call. A storm just rolled through. Hail the size of golf balls — or in some of Denver’s more dramatic moments, small citrus fruit — just spent 20 minutes beating the neighborhood like a drum. And somewhere between the weather alert on your phone and googling “is my roof ruined,” you land on this question:
Does hail damage void my roof warranty?
The short answer is no. The longer answer is the one that actually saves you money — so keep reading, we promise it’s worth it.
Surprise: You Have Two Warranties. Most People Don’t Know That.
When we replace a roof, you walk away with two separate protections. Almost nobody reads either one. We understand — warranty documents are written by people who attended law school specifically to make sure you don’t understand them. But here’s what you actually need to know:
- A manufacturer’s material warranty — covers the shingles themselves if they fail early
- A contractor’s workmanship warranty — covers how the roof was installed
Two documents. Two different companies. Two completely different things. Hail touches both — just not the way most people think.
The Manufacturer Warranty: What It Says vs. What You Think It Says
Shingle manufacturers — Atlas, TAMKO, Owens Corning — warranty their products against material defects. Abnormal cracking, premature granule loss, manufacturing failures. The kind of thing that happens because the shingle was a bad shingle — not because Colorado decided to throw frozen precipitation at your house at 70 miles per hour.
Hail is classified as “an act of nature.” It is explicitly excluded from essentially every manufacturer warranty on the market. So no — hail doesn’t void your manufacturer warranty. But it also absolutely will not be covered by it.
“But my shingles are still under warranty!” — Said by approximately 10,000 Colorado homeowners who were about to have a very disappointing phone call with their shingle manufacturer’s customer service line.
Your manufacturer warranty is there if your shingles fail on their own. Your homeowners insurance is there when a storm fails them for you. These are not the same bucket of money. Mixing them up is an expensive mistake that we watch people make every single spring.
The Workmanship Warranty: Here’s the Honest Version
Your workmanship warranty covers how the roof was built — flashing, nail patterns, underlayment, penetration seals. Blue Peaks backs every installation we do with one.
But here’s where we’ll be straight with you, because apparently not every contractor will be: acts of God void workmanship warranties. We cannot warranty a tornado. We cannot warranty a tree falling through your ridge at 2am on a Tuesday. If an extreme weather event physically destroys an installation, that’s not a workmanship failure — that’s nature doing what nature does, and no roofing contractor on earth covers that. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to make a sale.
What a workmanship warranty does protect is everything that fails because of how the roof was built — not because of what the sky threw at it. And here’s where it gets interesting: sometimes a storm reveals a workmanship problem that was already quietly sitting there. Improperly sealed flashing, for example. Water finds it during a hard rain and suddenly you’ve got a leak. The storm didn’t create the bad flashing — it just gave it a reason to finally introduce itself. That’s still a workmanship issue. Your contractor is still on the hook for it.
We’ve found that on other companies’ roofs more than once. It’s uncomfortable for everyone involved — except us.
The Real Financial Risk Nobody’s Talking About: Your Deductible
This is the conversation that actually matters. And almost nobody is having it until it’s too late — usually while standing in a driveway staring at a check that’s a lot smaller than expected.
Most Colorado homeowners insurance policies now carry a separate wind and hail deductible. It’s not your standard $1,000 or $2,500 deductible. It’s percentage-based — typically 1 to 2 percent of your dwelling coverage. On a $600,000 home, that’s $6,000 to $12,000 out of your own pocket before your insurance writes dollar one.
The move? Upgrade to a Class IV impact-rated shingle on your next replacement. Many Colorado carriers drop your premium by 20 to 30 percent for Class IV materials. Atlas and TAMKO both make them. We install them constantly. The discount usually pays for the upgrade in a few years — and then just keeps paying you back every single renewal.
What To Do After a Hailstorm — In the Right Order
- Get a professional inspection before you call your insurance company. Know what’s on your roof before an adjuster tells you what they think they see. Our inspections are free and we document everything with photos. Go in prepared, not reactive.
- File your claim promptly. Colorado policies typically give you 1–2 years from the storm date. Hail damage that sat uninspected for 18 months has a funny way of becoming “wear and tear” in the eyes of an insurance company. Don’t let the clock run out on you.
- Have your contractor present when the adjuster comes out. You have the right to this. Use it. Adjusters are professionals, but they’ve got five more roofs after yours and they move fast. We’re there to make sure nothing gets left off the list.
- Review the scope before you sign anything. Missing line items are common. Missing line items are money. We go through every one before our clients sign a thing.
Bottom Line
Hail doesn’t void your warranty. But a roof that took a beating, went uninspected for a season, and now has moisture quietly working through compromised shingles is going to be a much harder claim to make when you finally get around to it.
We’ve been doing this since 2019. Our team members are licensed insurance adjusters. We know exactly what the insurance company is looking for — because we trained to look for the same things.
If there’s been a storm in your area in the last two years and nobody’s been on that roof, call us. The inspection is free. The conversation is honest. And we’ll tell you straight whether there’s a claim worth making.
Free inspection. No pressure. We know what adjusters look for — because we are adjusters.
Blue Peaks Roofing · Littleton, CO · bluepeaksroofing.com · Mon–Sat 8AM–5PM
