A Tornado Took the Whole Exterior of a Hilliard House

Why a Tornado Claim Is Different

Hail claims tend to be about whether damage exists at all. Tornado claims usually are not. The damage is obvious and nobody argues about causation. What goes wrong instead is scope and sequencing: several trades are involved, the adjuster is working dozens of files in the same neighborhood at once, and small omissions in the first estimate turn into weeks of delay later.

That is why we work with the adjuster from the first visit rather than submitting a number and waiting. When the documentation for every elevation is in the file from day one, the supplement conversation later is a formality instead of a fight.

The Reference Photo Trick

The part of this job worth repeating had nothing to do with roofing. The homeowner was facing a full exterior rebuild, which means choosing colors and materials for a house they had never actually seen finished any other way. That is genuinely hard to picture from sample boards in a driveway.

We recommended a phone app that let them mock the house up, and the image it produced is what drove the material choices. It is a small thing that removes most of the anxiety from the biggest decision in the project. If you are rebuilding an exterior from scratch, do that before you pick anything.

Coordinating the Trades

A full exterior rebuild is not one job. It is a roof, siding, and whatever else the storm took, in an order that has to make sense. Getting the sequencing wrong means a finished wall gets opened again, or new siding gets installed under an edge detail that is about to change. We contracted the other services this house needed and ran them against the roof schedule rather than letting each trade book itself.

What This Means If You Are In It Now

If a tornado or a straight line wind event has hit your street, document everything before the cleanup starts, because the debris in the yard is evidence. Expect the first estimate to be incomplete and treat that as normal rather than as bad faith. And decide the finished look early, because material lead times, not labor, are usually what set your finish date.

In Their Own Words

Posted publicly on Google by Justin Crider, quoted here as written and trimmed only for length.

What an awesome group. we were hit by the tornado in Hilliard, and Blake made a no pressure offer to work with our insurance and get a stellar looking house. From day 1 he worked with our adjuster to get us the best possible outcome. He gave us a phone app recommendation that yielded the photo we used to inspire our choices. He worked tirelessly to get the materials we wanted, contracted for other services we needed, and he promised us the exact look we wanted. And then the best part….him and his crew delivered. Satisfaction guaranteed. And we are more than satisfied. We went from a tired and drab looking house, to the best looking house on the block.

Where to Go From Here

If this is close to your situation, our roof hail damage page covers how we handle the work itself. If it is not quite yours, the closest one we have written up is two years of patch repairs on a leaking porch roof.