Window Well Covers Take Hail, and They Are Often Left Off the List

Window well covers sit on the same walls as your siding and take the same weather. When hail crosses a St. Louis lot, the roof gets the attention because it is the largest surface and the one that leaks, but the metal grate or plastic dome over a basement window well is often in the line of fire too. A steel cover dents on the face the storm hits. A polycarbonate or acrylic dome cracks or clouds instead. Many homeowners walk the roof after a storm, go back inside, and never look down at the wells beside the foundation.

Storm and hail

The side of the house that faces the storm takes the heaviest strikes. Hail often arrives with wind behind it, and the wind pushes the stones across the windward wall at an angle. A cover on the windward side can show a cluster of dents while the cover on the far side looks clean. Walk the whole perimeter before deciding that a well is fine.

When you look at a window well, check these things:

• Dents on the top surface of a steel grate or cover, especially where the dent pattern repeats across the metal.
• Cracks, crazing, or a whitish cloudy patch on a plastic dome, which can mean the impact has weakened the material even if no hole is visible.
• Bent or lifted hold-down clips and tabs, which are the parts that keep the cover from blowing off in the next front.
• Grate bars pushed out of line so the opening is narrower than it was.
• Shingle granules or small pieces of roofing in the bottom of the well, which can mean the roof above took hits too.
• Water standing in the bottom of the well after rain, which can mean a dented cover is shedding water into the well instead of away from it.

Some of these are cosmetic and some are not. A dent in the middle of a grate that still lies flat and locks in place can wait. A cracked dome, a bent grate that narrows an opening, or a cover that will not stay seated is a repair. If the window is an egress opening for a bedroom in the basement, the well and its opening must stay clear, so a hail-bent grate that blocks part of that path is a fix, not a note to file away.

Water is the reason to deal with the wells before winter. Water that gets into a dented cover in October can freeze in January. Ice in a well can split a plastic dome, push a bent clip further out of line, or lift the cover slightly so that the next wind takes it. St. Louis goes through repeated freeze and thaw cycles from December through March, and a well that holds a pool of meltwater against the foundation wall has more room to do damage than one that drains.

Photograph them the same way you photograph the roof

Take a wide shot of each well from a few feet back so the wall, the cover, and the grade around it all appear in the frame. Then take a close shot of each dent, crack, or bent part with a tape measure or a coin beside it for scale. Shoot the metal in low-angle light, early morning or late afternoon, with the sun raking across the surface, because dents show in shadow lines that flat noon light washes out. Name the wall and the well in the file so the photo can be matched to its position on the house later.

Keep these photos in the same folder as your roof photos and your gutter photos, with the phone's date and time still attached. A homeowner who has one folder for the whole storm is in a better position to hand a clear set of images to anyone who needs them. Ask your roofer whether the walk-around includes the window wells on the storm side. Even if they do not replace covers, the written scope should list what they looked at, and that list tells you what has been checked and what has not.

What your policy says about these covers is a question for you and your insurer. A roofing contractor is not the person who decides that, and Missouri law bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim or from saying anything about paying, waiving, or covering a deductible. What a contractor can do is document the damage, put a written scope with photos and measurements in your hands, and attend as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer. Your photo folder is the thing you keep either way.

What it costs

Window well covers come in several sizes and materials. Steel grates and domes, polycarbonate domes, and the hold-down hardware that anchors them all price differently, and the well's width and depth change the size of the cover you need. A quote that says "window wells, replace" without dimensions does not let you compare two offers, and it does not tell you whether the cover on the next well over will match the one you are paying for.

Ask for each cover as its own line. The line should state the size in inches, the material, and whether the hold-down hardware is included or reused. If the old cover is being removed, ask whether removal and disposal are on the same line or a separate one. If the well drain at the bottom needs clearing or a new gravel layer, that work should appear as its own item so you can see what it adds. A cover that is a slightly different profile from the old one can leave a gap at the edge, so ask whether the replacement matches the old profile or is a close substitute.

Keep the window well lines separate from the roof lines in any proposal. The roof is measured in squares and priced by its own rules, and a window well is a small, single item. Mixing them into one total makes it hard to see which part you are approving, and it makes it harder to compare two bids that handle the wells differently.

What to ask

1. Does your storm walk-around include the window wells on the side that took the hail, and will each well appear by wall and position in the written scope?
2. Do you replace window well covers yourselves, or do you refer that work to someone else? If you refer it, who is that and how is the work priced?
3. What is the size and material of each replacement cover, and does the price show each one on its own line?
4. Will the drain at the bottom of each well be checked, and is there a gravel layer or drain line that needs clearing before the cover goes back on?
5. If any well serves an egress window, will the replacement keep the required clear opening, and who measures it?
6. Who sets each cover back down, checks that it sits flat, and confirms the hold-down clips are tight before leaving the site?

If you want a second look at the walls and wells before the first freeze, call the Keys office at (314) 220-2333 and ask that the walk include them. Bring the photo folder. The office will want to see which wells you have already noted, and that makes the walk shorter for everyone.