A practical walkthrough of the checks, photos, and small fixes that pay off when the first hailstorm hits.
Calgary’s hail season runs from late May through early September, and the worst storms cluster in the second and third weeks of June. By the time the warning sirens hit your phone, the roof you have is the roof you’re keeping for the rest of the storm. Everything that determines how the house performs — shingle condition, attic moisture, gutter capacity, flashing tightness, the photographs your insurance adjuster will want — has to be in place weeks earlier.
This is the audit a Calgary homeowner should run every spring, ideally over a single Saturday in mid-May. It costs nothing but time. It identifies the small problems that turn into five-figure claims when ignored, and it sets up the documentation that gets a fair insurance settlement when the storm does land.
Why timing the audit for May matters
Snow has melted off the roof, but trees haven’t fully leafed out and obscured sightlines. Daytime temperatures are warm enough to walk a roof safely without ice on the north slopes. Roofing contractors aren’t yet swamped with storm-response calls, so quotes for any repairs come back in days rather than weeks.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada tracks hail as the costliest summer peril in Alberta, and Calgary sits squarely inside the hail corridor that runs from Airdrie south through Okotoks. The June 2020 storm produced $1.2 billion in insured damage in a single afternoon. The 2024 storm exceeded $2.8 billion. Most of that damage was preventable in part — not from stopping the hail, but from a roof and exterior that started the storm in good shape with proper documentation.
The exterior walk-around
Start at the front of the house and walk a complete loop, looking up at the roof from each elevation. You’re checking for obvious problems visible from the ground: lifted shingles at the ridges, missing tabs along the rakes, dark patches where granules have washed off, and any flashing that’s pulled away from chimneys or wall intersections.
Photograph each elevation from the same spot you’d use for an insurance claim — about 20 feet back, framing the full roof in the shot. These before-photos are the single most useful document you can produce after a storm. An adjuster who can compare the May 12 photo to the June 14 photo settles claims faster and rarely disputes hail damage that’s clearly new.
Note anything overhanging the roof. Aspen and poplar branches that touch the shingles will scrape granules off during wind, and any branch that breaks in a hailstorm becomes a puncture wound on the underlayment. May is the right month for selective pruning — a tree service charges a fraction of what a roofer charges to patch a punctured deck after the fact.
What to check on the roof itself
If you’re comfortable on a ladder and the pitch is moderate, climb to the eave and inspect the lower courses without walking the roof. If the pitch is steep, a 12/12 cut-up, or anything above one storey, skip this step and book a roofer for a paid inspection — the fall risk isn’t worth the savings.
From the ladder, look for these specific conditions:
- Granule loss showing the black asphalt mat beneath, especially on south and west exposures.
- Curled or cupped shingle tabs along the bottom edge, indicating end-of-life asphalt.
- Exposed nail heads that have backed out, particularly along the ridges.
- Cracked or torn pipe-stack boots — the rubber gaskets that seal around plumbing vents.
- Caulking at flashings that has split, separated, or pulled away from the substrate.
- Any soft spot underfoot if you do step onto the roof — this signals deck rot.
Older roofs in their final third of life will show several of these conditions at once. A roof that’s already shedding granules in May won’t survive a moderate hailstorm in good enough shape to avoid replacement. Booking a pre-storm replacement is usually cheaper than the post-storm version, even after insurance pays out, because you avoid the deductible, the interior damage from interim leaks, and the four-month wait for a contractor during peak storm response.
The attic check
The attic tells you whether last winter’s snow load created problems you haven’t seen yet. On a clear day with no recent rain, climb up with a flashlight and check for three things.
Daylight visible through the roof deck means a popped nail or lifted shingle has created a pinhole. Mark it with painter’s tape on the rafter and have a roofer address it before any rainfall.
Dark staining on the underside of the deck or on rafters indicates past or present moisture. Run your hand across it — if the wood is dry now, the leak may have sealed itself during freeze cycles, but a roofer should still confirm the source. Damp or soft wood is a same-week service call.
Compressed or wet insulation, particularly near eaves, signals ice damming from the previous winter. Calgary’s Chinook cycles drive ice dams in homes with insufficient attic ventilation, and the moisture damage shows up in May after the dams melt. Address ventilation issues before another winter cycle stacks on top.
Gutters, downspouts, and the perimeter
Clean every gutter end-to-end before mid-May. A clogged gutter during a hailstorm becomes a dam that holds water against the fascia and soaks the soffit. Pine needles, shingle granules from last summer’s wear, and seed pods from spring trees fill gutters fast in Calgary’s climate.
Run a garden hose into the upstream end of each run and watch where the water goes. Downspouts should discharge at least four feet from the foundation. Extensions are cheap, and an unextended downspout dumping into a window well during a thunderstorm causes basement flooding the insurance adjuster will tie back to gutter neglect.
While you’re at it, walk the perimeter at ground level and check that grade slopes away from the foundation. A few wheelbarrows of soil added in May is the cheapest waterproofing money you’ll ever spend.
Documentation and policy review
Pull your home insurance policy and read two specific clauses: the deductible for hail or wind, and any restrictions on replacement cost versus actual cash value. Many Alberta policies have shifted to actual cash value on roofs over 15 years old, which means the insurer pays only the depreciated value of the existing roof — often a fraction of the replacement cost. Knowing this in May lets you renegotiate, switch carriers, or budget for the out-of-pocket gap before the storm forces the conversation.
If your roof is over 20 years old, ask your broker whether the carrier still offers full replacement cost or whether they’ve moved you to actual cash value at renewal without telling you. This single conversation has saved Calgary homeowners tens of thousands of dollars after major storm events.
File your exterior photos, your policy declaration page, and a written inventory of any recent roofing work (date, contractor, warranty) in a single folder — cloud storage works fine. If a Calgary roofing contractor did work for you in the last five years, their invoice should be in that folder.
What a paid pre-season inspection adds
A roofer’s pre-season inspection runs $150 to $300 in Calgary and delivers two things you can’t produce yourself: a trained eye for early-stage problems and a written report with photographs that documents condition on a specific date.
The written report is gold during a claim. An adjuster looking at a May 18 inspection report that calls the roof ‘in good condition with no pre-existing hail damage’ has no grounds to deny coverage on hail that lands three weeks later. Without the report, the adjuster’s own walk-around is the only baseline, and adjusters trained by the insurer have an interest in finding wear they can attribute to age.
The Saturday that saves a season
The full audit takes four to six hours including the gutter clean and the photo session. Compared to the average Calgary hail claim — which now exceeds $20,000 when interior damage is included — that Saturday in May has the highest return on time of anything a homeowner can do all year.
The roof you walk in May is the roof that meets the June storm. Spending an afternoon getting it ready, documenting it properly, and fixing the small things keeps the big things from happening. Every Calgary spring delivers at least one storm worth being prepared for.
About the author — this article was contributed by Angel’s Roofing, a Calgary residential roofing and exterior services contractor. The company runs pre-season hail-readiness inspections across Calgary neighbourhoods through May and early June, and offers same-week emergency response when storms land.