A Hailstone Photo With a Ruler Is Not Proof of a Roof Hit

A hailstone is easy to photograph and easy to misread. When a storm rolls through St. Louis and a few stones land on the driveway, the first instinct is to pick one up, set it on a ruler, and take a picture. That picture is worth keeping. It shows that hail of some size fell at your address on a given afternoon. It does not show that the stone struck your roof, dented your gutter, or cracked a shingle. Those are two separate facts, and an insurer will want to see the first one tied to the second.

What the stone photo proves and what it does not

The photo answers one question: what was on the ground at your house. Hail size is a useful piece of the storm record, and it helps place a storm in time. But a stone on your driveway landed in the open, and the roof sits at an angle with its own wind pattern, gutters, vents and flashing. A large stone can miss the house entirely. A small stone can strike a soft metal flashing square on. Keep the photo for what it is, a record of the storm at the address, and do not let it stand in for the roof walk.

Missouri has no roofing license, and nothing in state law sets a rule for how a stone should be photographed. The rules that matter sit in your policy wording and in what your insurer asks for. If the policy asks for a dated record of the storm, the stone photo helps. If it asks for physical damage on the roof, the stone photo is one exhibit among several.

How to take the photo so it can be used

Take the picture the same day, before the stone melts. Hailstones in a St. Louis summer can be gone within minutes on warm pavement, so this is not something to plan for the next morning. Place the stone on a flat, light surface next to a ruler or a coin with a known diameter. Shoot from directly above, then once from the side so the stone's thickness is visible. Keep the phone's original file. Do not crop out the ruler or the surface, and do not edit the brightness, because an insurer may compare the picture to the storm record and an edited image invites questions.

Write the details down as you go. A plain note in your phone works: the date, the time you found the stone, the street address, the surface it lay on, and where in the yard you found it. If the stone came from the driveway, say so. If you found several sizes, photograph two or three representative ones rather than only the largest, since the largest is not a fair picture of the whole fall.

Match the stone to the storm, not to a rumor

Insurers and roofers usually check the storm date against an outside record before they accept a roof claim. A stone photo with a timestamp on the same afternoon as a reported storm is a strong start. A stone photo with no date, found a week later on a wet lawn, is much weaker, because hail on the ground can be carried, washed or collected from earlier storms. Do not write a guess into the note. If you did not see it fall, say you found it on the driveway on a given day.

Local reports matter here too. The National Weather Service issues storm reports and warnings for St. Louis County, St. Charles County and the city. A reported storm on your date is useful. A reported storm on a different date is not a reason to throw out your photo, but it is a reason to note the discrepancy in your own file before someone else points it out.

Keep the stone photo with the roof photos

Store the stone picture in the same folder as the roof, gutter and siding photos from the same storm. Use the same date and address in the file name. Send the originals, not screenshots, as you would for any roof photo. The point of the file is that someone reading it later can see the storm record, the stone, and the damage in one order, without having to ask you how each picture was taken.

Keep the stone itself only if it is practical. A stone in a sealed bag in the freezer is not evidence anyone will ask for, but it can settle a question about size if a dispute comes up. Most homeowners do not need to do this. If you do, label the bag with the date, the address and the place it was found.

What a roofer does with your stone photo

Keys Roofing documents damage on your roof, and that includes checking the storm record against what is physically on the roof. A stone photo from you is useful to that work, because it gives the walk a starting date and a size to compare against. The roofer writes a scope with photos and measurements and puts that in your hands. Keys attends as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer.

Missouri law forbids a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating your insurance claim, and that prohibition is in RSMo 407.725. A roofer can show you what was found and explain the scope. A roofer cannot take the claim from you, and cannot speak for you to the insurer about what the stone photo proves. Keep the photo file yourself and send it to the insurer in your own name.

If you want a Keys walk on your roof after a storm, call (314) 220-2333 and ask for the scope and photo set. Bring your stone photo and your note with the date. The walk will look at the roof on its own terms, and the stone photo will be one thing the crew knows about while it works.

Common mistakes with stone photos

• Photographing the stone after it has been picked up and handled, with dirt and fingerprints on it.
• Leaving out the ruler or coin, which makes the size impossible to check.
• Writing a size you estimated by eye as if it were measured.
• Mixing stones from two storms in one photo and labeling it as a single event.
• Sending only the largest stone and no note about the others.
• Treating the stone photo as proof that the roof is damaged.

Each of these is easy to fix on the day you take the photo, and hard to fix a month later. A photo that is labeled, dated and taken with a known scale is much easier for anyone reading the file to trust.

Before you send anything

Read your policy and check what it asks for in a storm claim before you send the stone photo to the insurer. The policy is the rule, not a roofer's habit or a rumor in the neighborhood. If the form asks for a specific type of record, match your file to it. If it asks for proof of physical damage on the roof, make sure the roof photos are in the same file with the same date.

The stone photo is a small piece of a larger record. Taken well, it shows the storm reached your address, and it gives your roof walk a dated starting point. Taken poorly, it becomes a picture of a rock on a driveway that nobody can tie to your house.