Garland sits in the part of North Texas that insurance adjusters and roofers alike call hail alley. Between severe spring storms, brutal summer heat, and the shifting clay soil under most Dallas County foundations, a Garland home's exterior takes a beating that a home in a milder climate never sees. This checklist walks through what to look at, why it matters here specifically, and what to do with what you find.
North Texas sits inside one of the most active hail corridors in the country. Garland, along with the rest of Dallas County, typically sees at least one or two significant hail events in a given year, usually clustered in the March-through-June severe weather season. Hailstones here regularly reach golf-ball size and larger, and they arrive alongside straight-line winds and downburst gusts that can exceed 60-70 mph during a strong thunderstorm cell. Those winds do their own damage independent of the hail — lifting shingle tabs, peeling siding off at the corners, and driving debris into windows and fascia.
Summer adds a second, slower kind of stress. Garland routinely sees stretches of 100-degree-plus days, and the surface temperature of a south- or west-facing roof or wall can run 40-50 degrees hotter than the air temperature. That daily swing between scorching afternoons and cooler nights puts materials through constant expansion and contraction — what's usually called thermal cycling. Over years, thermal cycling is what dries out and cracks caulk, loosens fastener heads, and makes shingles brittle enough that hail does more damage than it would to a newer, more flexible roof.
Then there's the ground itself. Most of Dallas County, Garland included, sits on expansive clay soils that are part of the Blackland Prairie belt. These soils swell when they're wet and shrink significantly when they dry out, and Texas's swing between heavy spring rain and late-summer drought means that swelling and shrinking happens every single year. That movement doesn't just crack foundations — it telegraphs up through the frame and shows up as sticking doors, stair-step cracks in brick veneer, and gaps around trim that have nothing to do with storm damage at all. A useful exterior inspection has to be able to tell foundation-related movement apart from storm damage, because the fixes are completely different.
One more regional detail worth knowing: homeowners in Garland are sometimes surprised to learn that the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) doesn't cover them. TWIA is a coastal program limited to the Gulf Coast tier counties — Dallas County isn't eligible. Wind and hail coverage here comes through your regular homeowners policy, and most of those policies carry a separate wind/hail deductible that's calculated as a percentage of your dwelling coverage rather than a flat dollar figure, often somewhere in the 1-3% range depending on the carrier and the policy. That can add up to a few thousand dollars out of pocket, which is one more reason it pays to catch problems early rather than let minor damage turn into a claim-worthy repair. We put this checklist together as a company that works on Garland roofs, siding, and windows year-round; we've written it as a genuinely useful walk-through, whether or not you ever call Alpine Exteriors about what you find.
Start by documenting what you find. Take clear photos and, if you can, a few with something in the frame for scale — a coin next to a hail dent, for example. Note the date, especially if the damage lines up with a recent storm, since insurance claims in Texas generally have to be filed within a defined window after the date of loss, and having dated photos makes that timeline easy to prove.
Not everything on this list needs immediate action. A single hairline foundation crack, some faded caulk, or minor granule loss on an older roof is often something to monitor rather than fix right away. Widening cracks, active leaks, missing shingles, or anything letting water into the structure should move to the top of the list, since minor exterior problems in this climate tend to compound quickly — a small gap in caulk this summer can be a rotted piece of trim by next spring if it's ignored.
If you find storm damage and think you may have a claim, it's worth getting a written inspection report before you call your insurer, so you're working from documentation rather than a verbal description. Get more than one repair estimate when the scope is significant; roofing and siding costs vary a fair amount across North Texas contractors, and a second opinion is a normal, reasonable step, not a sign of distrust in the first one. In the meantime, a tarp over an active roof leak or plastic sheeting over a cracked window can prevent a manageable problem from becoming a much larger interior repair.
Some items on this checklist are fine for a homeowner to evaluate from the ground with binoculars or from a stable ladder at eave height. Others genuinely call for someone who does this for a living. Call a professional when you see any of the following:
Alpine Exteriors handles roofing, siding, and window inspections and repairs across North Texas, including Garland and the rest of Dallas County, and a written inspection report is a normal part of that process whether or not repair work follows.
Twice a year is a reasonable baseline — once in spring before severe weather season ramps up, and once in fall after the worst of the summer heat has passed. On top of that, it's worth doing a quick walk-around after any storm that produced hail or wind gusts strong enough to snap small branches, even if you didn't hear or see obvious damage at the time.
Most standard Texas homeowners policies do cover hail and wind damage, but coverage details, deductibles, and depreciation schedules vary significantly by carrier and by the age of the roof or siding at the time of the claim. As noted above, this isn't handled through the coastal TWIA program — Dallas County properties use standard homeowners coverage with its own wind/hail deductible. It's worth reading your specific policy or calling your agent rather than assuming coverage, since older roofs in particular sometimes have reduced payout schedules.
Ordinary wear tends to be even across the whole roof — gradual granule loss, uniform fading, tabs curling at roughly the same rate. Hail damage tends to be more random: clustered dents or bruises, damage concentrated on one slope that faced the storm, and impact marks that look distinctly circular rather than a general worn appearance. If you're not confident telling the two apart from the ground, that's a reasonable point to bring in a professional rather than guess.
Not necessarily. Soil pulling away from the foundation during a hot, dry stretch is common across Dallas County's clay soils and doesn't automatically mean the foundation itself is failing. It does mean the soil moisture around your foundation is swinging more than it ideally should, and keeping that soil consistently watered during dry spells is one of the simpler, lower-cost things a homeowner can do to reduce future movement. If the gap is accompanied by new cracks, sticking doors, or sloped floors, that combination is worth having looked at by a foundation specialist.
A thorough walk-around a couple of times a year, plus a check after any serious storm, catches most problems while they're still small and inexpensive to fix. If this checklist turned up something you're not sure about — a roof you can't fully see from the ground, siding damage after a hailstorm, or windows that no longer seal the way they should — Alpine Exteriors offers exterior inspections for homeowners across Garland and the wider North Texas area, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, Frisco, Arlington, Irving, McKinney, and Denton. Reach out for a straightforward, no-pressure look at your roof, siding, and windows, and a clear explanation of what, if anything, needs attention.