Some tips for anyone who suffered damage from the hail storm in North Metro

Some previous advice to avoid storm chasers is spot on. Many are fly by night and from out of the area and if they do a poor job you wil be unable to contact them after the fact to get possibly poor quality repairs done as they will now be in OK or Texas, etc.

We have been contacted by a number of salepeople and roofing crews from Texas and Oklahoma already today who want to work this storm under our name which we always decline but it shows how many out of staers will be flooding into the area within the next day or 2. If the comapny is not truly local do not use them and if the saleman has a funny accent but says he is local ask to see what state his DL is from.

If you have dents in your vehicle your roof is most likely damaged to the point that your insurance will pay for a new one.

Find a good reputable local general contractor who will look out for your interests

Make sure your contractor has lots of good reviews on Angies, home advisor, google reviews, yelp etc. before you sign with them. If they do not give you a 3 day right to cancel form with the contract they are in violation of MN statutes and the contract is not valid

I am a field supervisor for a highly reputable local general contractor and we do not storm chase. about a week after the hail our phone will start ringing when people become fed up with the storm chasers bugging them to death.

It looks like we will be doing storm restoration for the rest of this year and a bunch next year from this one storm

If you need any more info or just want to make sure that your ins company is treating you fairly feel free to shoot me a PM.

If you get tired of storm chasers ringing your bell and bothering you let me know and I will come by and drop a sign in your yard and they will avoid you like the plague.

I am a roofing contractor serving Northern Illinois for the last 35 years. We too had a hail storm a few weeks ago. The storm chasers were there the next day. Its amazing how many homeowners sign up with these out of state people. We start getting calls as soon as they see the White van with no name on the side full of South of the border men and women with Texas plates on. Most people that call us want a FREE roof since the stormers credit their deductible and use the cheapest materials they can get away with. At the local building supply store I’ve heard these stormers say they will be “picking the low hanging fruit” before leaving town. A cousin of mine who works as a gutter installer for some of the chasers told me 4 years ago that I should get into the storm chasing game; that there’s alot of money to be made. I said cool; how do I get started. He said first I need to go to an area where I don’t live. I asked why; he said cause people are going to hate you and will need to leave town in a hurry. He said they just change their cell phone # and all is good. Sorry for the rant I could go on. Buyer be aware.

chubby wrote:

Some previous advice to avoid storm chasers is spot on. Many are fly by night and from out of the area and if they do a poor job you wil be unable to contact them after the fact to get possibly poor quality repairs done as they will now be in OK or Texas, etc.

We have been contacted by a number of salepeople and roofing crews from Texas and Oklahoma already today who want to work this storm under our name which we always decline but it shows how many out of staers will be flooding into the area within the next day or 2. If the comapny is not truly local do not use them and if the saleman has a funny accent but says he is local ask to see what state his DL is from.

If you have dents in your vehicle your roof is most likely damaged to the point that your insurance will pay for a new one.

Find a good reputable local general contractor who will look out for your interests

Make sure your contractor has lots of good reviews on Angies, home advisor, google reviews, yelp etc. before you sign with them. If they do not give you a 3 day right to cancel form with the contract they are in violation of MN statutes and the contract is not valid

I am a field supervisor for a highly reputable local general contractor and we do not storm chase. about a week after the hail our phone will start ringing when people become fed up with the storm chasers bugging them to death.

It looks like we will be doing storm restoration for the rest of this year and a bunch next year from this one storm

If you need any more info or just want to make sure that your ins company is treating you fairly feel free to shoot me a PM.

If you get tired of storm chasers ringing your bell and bothering you let me know and I will come by and drop a sign in your yard and they will avoid you like the plague.

chubby wrote:

Some previous advice to avoid storm chasers is spot on. Many are fly by night and from out of the area and if they do a poor job you wil be unable to contact them after the fact to get possibly poor quality repairs done as they will now be in OK or Texas, etc.

We have been contacted by a number of salepeople and roofing crews from Texas and Oklahoma already today who want to work this storm under our name which we always decline but it shows how many out of staers will be flooding into the area within the next day or 2. If the comapny is not truly local do not use them and if the saleman has a funny accent but says he is local ask to see what state his DL is from.

If you have dents in your vehicle your roof is most likely damaged to the point that your insurance will pay for a new one.

Find a good reputable local general contractor who will look out for your interests

Make sure your contractor has lots of good reviews on Angies, home advisor, google reviews, yelp etc. before you sign with them. If they do not give you a 3 day right to cancel form with the contract they are in violation of MN statutes and the contract is not valid

I am a field supervisor for a highly reputable local general contractor and we do not storm chase. about a week after the hail our phone will start ringing when people become fed up with the storm chasers bugging them to death.

It looks like we will be doing storm restoration for the rest of this year and a bunch next year from this one storm

If you need any more info or just want to make sure that your ins company is treating you fairly feel free to shoot me a PM.

If you get tired of storm chasers ringing your bell and bothering you let me know and I will come by and drop a sign in your yard and they will avoid you like the plague.

The above is very, very sound advice…I would also add that a homeowner make sure to get an updated insurance certificate from any and all contractors working on their property…A workplace injury could fall back on the homeowner potentially if using an uninsured fly by night…

Also any construction guy with a hammer and no work will be at your door.
While storm chasers maybe a problem they are far from the only problem in the trades.
Homeowners don’t be lazy. Don’t grab the first guy who shows up. Do your research, it’s your home and you should take good care of it.

Looks like another round might be coming in today.

Check you roof vents. Im hearing some of the plastic ones have been busted open by the hail to the point of letting more water in. Make sure these get covered up before the next rain hits and attics are checked for water damage.

So who are the local contractors here on IDO that do exterior work? I know Stickboy is still around. Schuur Handy Construction.

I had a hail damaged roof several years ago. Got an estimate from 2 local contractors that I trust. Both told me it would be 6 months before they could do it because of jobs already committed to and all the hail damage work that was also showing up. The insurance adjuster was very fair with his damage quote. I picked a contractor and told him to put me on his schedule. My problem was someone from the insurance company kept calling and wanted me to hire the fly by night outfit so they could clear the claim. Took a couple of rants but they finally just waited for my local guy to get to it and get it done.
Remember it is your house and make sure you get it fixed to YOUR satisfaction. Don’t let an adjuster or your insurance company push you out of your comfort zone.

I wanted to give people good information rather than plug my company as we will get plenty of business just from our reputation and reviews. We are A+ BBB, top 1% on Angies list, #102 on the Remodeling Magazines list of the 550 best contractors in the nation.

One thing to remember is that if a contractor offers to pay or offset your deductable he is asking you to commit insurance fraud if he disappears guess who is on the hook?

An insurance claim should cost you your deductable no more and no less. In reality getting the very highest quality of work done will cost you the same as having the poorest quality work done by Chuck in a truck rather than a legit company.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions

As Chubby says It will cost you your deductible. However all materials are not the same. Check the materials and warranty. You should be getting a 50 year factory warranty on any roof being installed at no extra cost. No 3 tab shingles only laminate.
Also make sure the accessories are name brand preferably the same as the shingles. Make sure permits are obtained and inspections are performed.

Don’t hire a roofer, Hire a General Contractor. A roofer will only want the roofing part, leaving other damaged items unrepaired and in paid for.
You may have much more damage than the roof, windows, garage door, siding, decks, fences, swimming pools, swing sets etc.
Insurance must restore your place to the condition it was in prior to the loss.

One more thing –
Don’t be “That” homeowner.
Insurance funds are to repair for your loss. Not to put in your pocket.
“You cannot profit from a loss” that’s fraud.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

One more thing –
Don’t be “That” homeowner.
Insurance funds are to repair for your loss. Not to put in your pocket.
“You cannot profit from a loss” that’s fraud.

Not to hijack the thread but I do body work and we will probably see a few vehicles with hail damage but you would be surprised by how many “that” guy we get that wants us to cover their deductible. It is not anyone’s responsibility but yours to cover your deductible and if you can’t afford it why would you have it so high? Or maybe reassess your insurance and find a way to lower it to something more affordable.

Is doing some of the work yourself and using the money saved to put towards your deductible OK?

Double post

Stanley wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
One more thing –
Don’t be “That” homeowner.
Insurance funds are to repair for your loss. Not to put in your pocket.
“You cannot profit from a loss” that’s fraud.

Not to hijack the thread but I do body work and we will probably see a few vehicles with hail damage but you would be surprised by how many “that” guy we get that wants us to cover their deductible. It is not anyone’s responsibility but yours to cover your deductible and if you can’t afford it why would you have it so high? Or maybe reassess your insurance and find a way to lower it to something more affordable.

It’s not that people can’t afford the deductible. It’s SOME shops advertise they will pay the deductible to get the business. It’s just a shell game where they pad the bill to cover the deductible or they aren’t making as much as the other shops. Therefore I see nothing wrong with asking. Your shop can say no and chance losing the business to another shop.

Dutchboy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Stanley wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
One more thing –
Don’t be “That” homeowner.
Insurance funds are to repair for your loss. Not to put in your pocket.
“You cannot profit from a loss” that’s fraud.

Not to hijack the thread but I do body work and we will probably see a few vehicles with hail damage but you would be surprised by how many “that” guy we get that wants us to cover their deductible. It is not anyone’s responsibility but yours to cover your deductible and if you can’t afford it why would you have it so high? Or maybe reassess your insurance and find a way to lower it to something more affordable.

It’s not that people can’t afford the deductible. It’s SOME shops advertise they will pay the deductible to get the business. It’s just a shell game where they pad the bill to cover the deductible or they aren’t making as much as the other shops. Therefore I see nothing wrong with asking. Your shop can say no and chance losing the business to another shop.

You can’t pad a bill to cover the deductible when dealing with insurance companies. If they think your estimate is not right they won’t pay unless you can prove what you are doing and why. To cover a deductible either you are not fixing/replacing something or the shop eats the deductible and looses more money. If that’s what a shop needs to do to stay busy then that’s fine but we stay more than busy based off our reputation and quality of work. I just don’t see why people have 1000-2000 dollar deductibles they complain they can’t pay for them is all. And yes we have seen $2000 deductibles.

The storm chaser that just called me, I asked him where their located. He told me Downtown Minnesota, I asked for his address so I could research his company and he said because of privacy laws he could not. Funny stuff right there.

” Privacy law”…thats a good one. Must be the same law that allowed him to access your phone number.

My brother and I have a general contracting company, we have done storm damage in the past, but we are normally busy enough to not have time for it.

chubby wrote:

I wanted to give people good information rather than plug my company as we will get plenty of business just from our reputation and reviews. We are A+ BBB, top 1% on Angies list, #102 on the Remodeling Magazines list of the 550 best contractors in the nation.

One thing to remember is that if a contractor offers to pay or offset your deductable he is asking you to commit insurance fraud if he disappears guess who is on the hook?

An insurance claim should cost you your deductable no more and no less. In reality getting the very highest quality of work done will cost you the same as having the poorest quality work done by Chuck in a truck rather than a legit company.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions

Chubby may not want to plug his company so I will do it for him… If anyone is dealing with a storm damage you need to drop Chubby (aka Brian) a PM.

I went through the exact scenario above a few years ago where my neighborhood was hit and I had initially did start working with one of the storm chasers who came to the house and it was easy to just have them do a quick inspection since they were right there at the house.

I even let them meet with my insurance adjuster and the result was that I was going to get a partial replacement of some siding damage. It didn’t seem like they had done a good job at all working together with the insurance adjuster so I posted here on IDO asking if anyone was in the industry and Brian responded. I asked him to come give me a second opinion and he stopped out. Long story short after meeting with Brian and having my insurance adjuster back out the initial inspection had missed that over 50% of my windows also had damage and was unaware that because the color of siding that I had was no longer available for color matching that it required a full house replacement.

There is absolutely a huge difference in the level of service you will get between many of the guys walking door to door and the more established contractors such as Brian’s company. If I ever have storm damage again Brian is the first person I would get ahold of.

Will

Thanks Will,

As you said it can make a huge difference in the quality of repairs. I went to battle for Will with his insurance company to make sure that he was treated fairly and in compliance with the law.

Insurance companies do not take advatage of my customers, we are insurance restoration specialists not storm chasers!

We are a local company in Bloomington with hundreds and hundreds of great reviews online and we put a lifetime warranty on all the work that we do.

We are here year round and are only truly successful if you recomend us to your freinds and neighbors.

We do not hard sell because we do not need to.

PM me if you need any help.

bigcrappie wrote:

Is doing some of the work yourself and using the money saved to put towards your deductible OK?

Short answer – Not really.
When it comes to submitting a final invoice for work completed to recoup the depreciation you will have the issues. A homeowner can submit a final invoice, however, when working on your own home the Insurance company does not pay out the claim amount as they would to a contractor. So you come out behind.

Insurance is set up so an insured person should not have to get bids, just a qualified contractor. Then pay the deductible.