Most adjusters won’t tell you what they’re really looking at. They’ll smile, climb a ladder, take some photos, and write a number that decides the next 30 days of your life. So here’s the inside view.
I’ve sat through more than a hundred adjuster inspections in Loudoun and Fairfax over the last decade. The good ones are thorough. The bad ones are looking for reasons to short the claim. Either way, what you do in the 48 hours before they arrive often matters more than what happens during the inspection itself.
The first thing an adjuster wants to confirm is whether the damage came from this storm or whether it predates the policy. If they can argue “wear and tear,” they can deny most of the scope.
What that looks like in practice. They’ll photograph any granule loss in the gutters. They’ll look at the south-facing slope, which weathers fastest in NoVA, and try to claim the bald spots are from sun, not from a hailstorm two weeks ago. They’ll squint at the edges of shingle tabs to see if they’re curled.
Your job is to have evidence ready that the roof was in good shape before the event. A 2024 home inspection report. A clean roof tune-up invoice from last fall. Even a Google Street View image from 18 months ago can be powerful if it shows shingles lying flat and uniform.
A typical Loudoun County adjuster will shoot 30 to 60 photos during a roof inspection. Roughly:
That last category is the one homeowners forget. Soft metal damage is independent corroborating evidence. If your AC condenser has fresh dimples on the fin coil, that’s a hail strike record the adjuster can’t argue with. Don’t let anyone tell you to clean it up before they arrive.
Don’t climb the roof yourself. Stay on the ground.
From the ground, get wide shots of each side of the house. Photograph any shingles or debris in the yard with a tape measure or quarter for scale. Walk every gutter and shoot inside it. Hail granule accumulation is one of the most damning pieces of evidence in a hail claim.
Inside the attic, look for fresh water staining on the underside of the deck. Bring a bright flashlight. Daylight showing through where it shouldn’t is gold. Photograph it with the date stamp on.
Get up close on the AC condenser, the grill cover, the metal mailbox, the gutter aprons. Anything soft and metal. Hail leaves a fingerprint on those surfaces.
Last thing. Pull weather data for the storm date. NOAA’s Storm Events Database is free, and a printout showing 1.25 inch hail recorded in your zip code on the day in question is worth more than ten roof photos.
When the adjuster marks off a 10x10 area on your roof with chalk, they’re counting hail bruises. The threshold most carriers use is 8 to 10 hits per square. Below that, they’ll often deny the slope. Above that, the slope is paid.
The catch is that they only test one or two squares per slope. If they pick a square in a sheltered area behind a chimney or dormer, your hits-per-square will be lower than the rest of the roof. Politely ask them to test a second square in a more exposed area. You’re allowed to do that. Most homeowners don’t know they’re allowed to do that.
Loudoun and Fairfax both have specific wind and hail patterns that adjusters from out of state don’t always understand. Northwest-facing slopes in Sterling and Ashburn take the brunt of summer thunderstorm hail because of how systems track up the Bull Run mountains. Southeast slopes in Vienna and McLean get hammered by ice in February freeze-thaw events.
If your adjuster grew up in Phoenix and just got reassigned here last spring, they may not know any of this. Don’t be afraid to point it out. Local context can shift the conversation from “wear” to “weather.”
This is the single biggest thing homeowners get wrong. They let the insurance adjuster come out alone. Don’t.
A licensed Virginia roofing contractor or a public adjuster should be on the roof at the same time as the insurance adjuster. They take their own photos. They mark their own test squares. They negotiate scope items in real time. Disputes resolved at the inspection are 10x easier than disputes raised three weeks later by phone.
You can read more about how the full claims process works in our storm damage restoration guide.
Get a written copy of the adjuster’s scope of loss within 7 days. Read every line. If shingles are listed but underlayment isn’t, push back. If they paid for the front slope but not the back, ask why. The first scope is the opening offer, not the final number.
If something feels off, get a second opinion fast. Virginia gives you the right to dispute and request a reinspection at any point before you sign a release.
Storm damage claims in NoVA in 2026 are running about 15 percent denial rates on first submission. That’s a high number, and a lot of those denials get reversed when the homeowner has a contractor in their corner.
If a storm just rolled through Loudoun, Fairfax, or Prince William, contact us before you call the insurance company. We’ll do a free pre-inspection so you know exactly what’s there before the adjuster shows up.