A team of roofing industry experts from across the country was in North Texas this week to study hail damage.
Members of the Roofing Industry Committee on Weather Issues (RICOWI) visited 180 properties. The group of 35 experts finished its work Friday, focusing on damage from the April 11 storm.
Engineer David Roodvoets, from Michigan, said the group was impressed with the North Texas damage, especially in hardest-hit Wylie.
"It was very hard hail, it was extremely hard," Roodvoets said.
Baseball-size or larger stones penetrated the wood decking on many roofs in Wylie. No shingles can withstand hail of that size. But the experts are studying what improvements could be made so roofs safely withstand smaller hail stones in future events.
The engineer said the group's previous studies found many overlay installations of new shingles directly on top of old, but this survey was different.
"I don't think we found any, which is a surprise," Roodvoets said.
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The group determined that overlays, to save money on scraping the first layer off, soften the new layer's resistance to hail. The preferred method is new shingles directly on a hard surface.
This time the group found roofing material fasteners that could be improved. The damage findings may also be used to verify radar hail monitoring methods.
"We are basically trying to scientifically approach this with real roof experts," Roodvoets said. "They're there to get the scientific approach to what happens to these roofs. 'How big is the hail? How much damage did that hail do and where does it hit?'"
The experts were also looking for results on how stronger Class 4 shingles withstood the North Texas hail, but they found too few Class 4 installations in the damage survey this week for a valid sample.
Roodvoets said RICOWI recommends the thicker Class 4 shingles to withstand most hail events.
Many customers are reluctant to spend the extra $1,000 it may cost for Class 4 shingles on a typical home, according to Dan Moore, with Moore Dynamic Roofing. Two hails storms this year have left numerous property owners with two separate insurance claims and two deductibles removed from insurance settlements.
"It's hard to sell right now," Moore said.
But Moore said customers are rewarded for spending the extra money with savings later.
"You get a 20- to 25-percent discount with your insurance company. It costs a little more out of pocket, but the bottom line, it's worth it. It pays for itself in about a year, year-and-a-half," Moore said.
Moore has been busy with many damage repairs in Wylie where the experts spent time on their survey this week.
RICOWI will compile complete results of the survey for release at a later date.
