A hailstorm leaves marks on more than the roof. Gutters, window screens and air conditioner fins all carry evidence, and so does the driveway. Concrete and asphalt take a hailstone in a way that can be photographed, dated against a storm, and compared with what the neighbors have. That makes the driveway a useful witness. It is a weak witness for the shingles, though, and a homeowner who treats pitting in the drive as proof of roof damage will be disappointed when the roof is read.
What a hail pit looks like on concrete
On concrete, a hail hit usually shows as a round, shallow pit with a rough or sandy floor. The edges are often clean rather than cracked, and the spots are scattered across the surface instead of lined up in tire tracks or along an edge. On an older, dusty slab the pits can be hard to separate from the texture of the finish. Look at the surface at a low angle, with the sun behind you or early in the morning, because the shadows inside each pit make the count easier to trust.
Asphalt drives show hail differently. The marks are fainter and tend to appear as small dents or scuffs in the surface aggregate, and they fade quickly if the drive was sealed after the storm. If the drive was sealed a few weeks ago, the sealant may have filled some of the marks, which is one more reason to photograph before anyone seals it.
What else makes marks that look like hail
Several common things look like storm damage at a glance. Freeze and thaw cycles enlarge small surface pits and flake the top of a slab, and a St. Louis winter does this every year whether or not a storm came through. Oil drips, a dropped tool, a gravel edge, a dog digging, and sprinkler spray on one side of a walk can all leave spotting. Salt used on the drive in winter can etch concrete in patterns that resemble pitting. A pit that sits in the middle of a tire track or beside a downspout discharge is probably not hail.
The simplest test is spacing and direction. Hail falls with the wind, so the marks often cluster on the side of the house that faced the storm. They also show up on flat surfaces like car hoods, the top of a mailbox, and the lid of an air conditioner condenser in the same yard. If the driveway, the condenser and the gutters all show marks on the same side of the house, that is a pattern worth recording. If only the drive has marks and nothing else in the yard does, it is worth asking why.
What the driveway cannot tell you about the roof
A pit on the concrete does not tell you whether a shingle was bruised, whether the mat under the granules cracked, or whether the impact was hard enough to break the seal strip. Shingles are a different material and need a different test. Hail dents on a driveway show that stones large enough to mark a surface reached the property. The roof question is answered by looking at the shingles themselves, the soft metal on the vents and flashing, and the way the marks sit on each slope. A roofer or inspector reads the roof on its own terms, and driveway photos help only as dated context.
Keep that difference in your file. A dated photo of pitted concrete belongs with the roof photos and the gutter photos, labeled by side of the house. It should not be the only evidence you present about the roof, and it should never be described as roof damage by itself.
How to photograph the drive before anyone touches it
Start the set on the same day you look at the roof, before any sealing, pressure washing or repair. Take a wide shot of the whole drive from the garage door and another from the street. Then take close shots with a coin or a tape measure in the frame for scale, once straight on and once at a low angle so the pits show as shadows. Note the date, the side of the house, and where in the drive each cluster sits. The grid on a phone camera helps keep the shots level.
Do not clean the drive to make the marks show better. Pressure washing can open small pits, widen them, or remove the very texture that shows the hail. If the drive has already been cleaned, say so in your notes and photograph it as it is now.
What it costs
Driveway work is a separate bill from the roof. A pitted surface that only looks rough may need sealing or resurfacing, while a slab that has flaked through may need replacing. Those are different jobs, and the price for each depends on the size of the drive, the thickness of the concrete, and how much of the surface is affected. Ask each contractor to state which of those applies and why, rather than accepting one number for the whole drive.
Keep the driveway estimate separate from the roof scope. If a contractor puts the drive and the roof on one page, ask for the two lines to be split so each can be compared. That also lets the roof scope go to your insurer on its own, with a dated index. Your insurer decides what the policy covers. Missouri law (RSMo 407.725) bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating your insurance claim, so a roofer cannot present the driveway pictures to your insurer for you.
What to ask
- Which marks on the drive did you photograph, and which ones did you rule out as freeze damage, oil or salt?
- Did you check the same side of the house on the roof, the gutters and the air conditioner, and do the marks line up?
- Will the drive be cleaned, sealed or resurfaced before the roof work, and in what order?
- Does your estimate list the driveway as a separate line from the roof scope?
- Will you give me the original photos, not screenshots, with the date and the side of the house in each file name?
Keys Roofing documents the roof surfaces, takes measurements, and puts a written scope with photos and measurements in your hands. Our crew attends as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer. Concrete and asphalt repair is a question for a flatwork contractor, and we will say so when a question belongs to someone else. Questions about the roof can go to the Keys office at (314) 220-2333.