- Oh man, you’re not kidding. One week I’m crawling around with the moisture meter, next week the adjuster just kinda shrugs and says, “Eh, looks wet enough.”
- Had one guy ask me to “prove” granule loss by collecting shingle crumbs in a sandwich bag. Another just squinted at the gutter and called it good.
- Torn tabs vs. missing shingles? It’s like adjusters have a secret bingo card. If you get “thermal cracking” and “hail bruising” in the same inspection, you win... a headache.
- The wildest was one who wanted me to hold a ruler up to a blister. Like, what’s the threshold—quarter inch and up is covered, but dime-sized is just “character”?
Honestly, I’ve started keeping a folder of random roof pics on my phone in case they want “evidence.” Works about as well as you’d think. Half the time they’re like, “Can you get one from the northwest corner at 2pm?” Sure, let me just call NASA for satellite imagery.
Biggest lesson: never assume two adjusters will see the same thing the same way. Or care about the same stuff. Or even agree that your roof is, in fact, a roof.
Congrats on finally getting that policy through, though. That’s a saga. I’ve seen folks jump through more hoops for a shingle than for a mortgage.
Is it really that inconsistent everywhere, though? I get that adjusters all have their quirks, but I’ve actually had a couple who were super thorough and even explained what they were looking for. Maybe it depends on the company or even the region? I’m in the Midwest and ours seemed way more focused on hail than anything else. Sometimes I wonder if it’s just luck of the draw or if there’s something we can do to make things more predictable... like, would having a roofer’s report help, or does that just add another opinion to the mix?
I’ve wondered the same thing about adjusters—sometimes it feels like a total coin toss. I’m in Ohio and yeah, hail is the big thing here too. When I had my roof looked at, I actually got a roofer’s report first, thinking it’d help. The adjuster barely glanced at it, though, and did his own thing anyway. Maybe it depends on their mood or company policy? If nothing else, having the report made me feel a little more prepared, but I wouldn’t count on it making things more predictable.
That’s wild—my adjuster did the exact same thing. I had a whole folder of photos, receipts, and a roofer’s write-up ready to go, thinking I’d look super organized. He barely glanced at any of it, just poked around the roof for five minutes and left. Felt like he was speed-running the inspection or something.
I get that they’ve got their own checklist, but it’s kind of frustrating when you put in all that prep work. Maybe it’s just luck of the draw with who you get? Or maybe they’re all trained to ignore anything that isn’t from their own company. Either way, I’m starting to think those reports are more for my peace of mind than anything else.
Curious—did your adjuster actually get up on the roof, or just do the “binoculars from the driveway” routine? Mine wouldn’t even climb the ladder... which made me wonder how thorough these inspections really are.
Binoculars from the driveway? That’s a new one for me. The last adjuster I dealt with actually did climb up, but honestly, it was like he was auditioning for a speed-climbing competition. Up, down, barely a glance at the valleys or flashing, and then he was back in his truck before I could even offer him water. Meanwhile, I had my own stack of photos and a detailed write-up from my boss (who’s been roofing longer than I’ve been alive), but the guy just shrugged and said he “had to see it himself.”
I get why they want to do their own thing—probably some liability or company policy stuff—but it does make you wonder how much they’re really catching in five minutes. On the flip side, I’ve seen some folks try to hand over binders full of every shingle receipt since 1998, and that can be overkill too. Maybe there’s a sweet spot between being prepared and not expecting them to treat your paperwork like gospel.
Honestly, sometimes I think these adjusters are just overloaded. My neighbor’s adjuster spent almost an hour on her roof after a hailstorm—checked every vent, took tons of photos, even measured out the damaged spots. Total opposite experience. Makes me think it’s less about training and more about who you get on any given day... or maybe how much coffee they’ve had.
Either way, I wouldn’t toss your reports just yet. Even if the adjuster doesn’t care, having that info helped my neighbor when she appealed her claim later. Insurance companies seem to love “additional documentation” when it suits them.
But yeah, if someone can explain how you can spot hail damage from 40 feet away with binoculars, I’d love to hear it...