RV Hail Damage Roof Repair in Yorba Linda

Because the membrane is not what breaks. EPDM and TPO are elastic. A hail stone hitting a membrane over a plywood deck stretches the membrane locally and transmits the energy into the wood underneath. The wood fibers crush and fracture, the membrane relaxes back to nearly flat, and from above the roof looks unremarkable.

What has actually happened is that the decking has a field of localized fractures, each one a place where the plywood has lost section and where the membrane is now unsupported and pre stretched. Over the following seasons those crushed areas absorb moisture more readily, the membrane over them fatigues faster, and the roof develops leaks in a pattern that matches the hail field.

The tell at midday is nothing. The tell in low angle light, early morning or late afternoon, is a field of shallow dimples that reads clearly because raking light exaggerates surface deviation. The other tell is foot pressure: a bruised area feels different underfoot than sound decking, softer and slightly hollow. We map both.

• Low angle raking light inspection rather than midday assessment
• Foot pressure mapping across the entire roof surface
• Probing at suspect areas to confirm decking condition
• Interior ceiling inspection for corresponding framing bay marks
• Photographic documentation with a scale reference at each impact
• Test opening where the extent of decking damage decides the claim

Almost always the plastics before the membrane. Air conditioner shrouds, roof vent lids, skylight domes, fan covers, refrigerator vent covers, solar panel glass and satellite domes are all UV aged plastic, and they crack under hail that leaves the membrane visually intact.

That matters for two reasons. Practically, a cracked vent lid or a split air conditioner shroud is an open water path and it needs replacing regardless of how the membrane fared. For the claim, cracked plastics are visible, undeniable evidence that hail struck the vehicle with enough energy to break components, which supports the decking assessment that is harder to photograph.

Sidewalls and caps also take hail on the windward side, and on a fiberglass coach that presents as gelcoat fracture and sometimes as localized delamination. We inspect the full vehicle, not just the roof, because a hail event that damaged the roof did not stop at the roof line.

Hail is a comprehensive coverage loss on most policies and it does not usually carry the same deductible as collision. The obstacle is not coverage, it is documentation, because an adjuster who inspects an RV roof at noon on a clear day will very reasonably report that the membrane is intact.

We produce the evidence. Raking light photographs with a scale, a foot pressure map showing the bruise field, probe results at representative locations, an itemized list of cracked plastics and shrouds, and where appropriate a small test opening that shows the decking condition directly. That package goes to the carrier as part of the estimate.

Where the decking is extensively bruised, the correct repair is membrane and decking replacement rather than patching, and the claim needs to be written that way from the start. Membrane replacement runs $3,500 to $18,000 and up at 20 to 80 hours. Getting that scope right at the first estimate saves a supplement fight later.