Alberta's hail season runs June through August and Edmonton sits squarely in the corridor. What you do in the first forty-eight hours largely determines whether a claim goes smoothly or turns into a six-month argument.
First, while it is still happening
Stay inside and away from windows. Move vehicles under cover if you can do it safely — and only if you can. Do not go outside to check the roof. Hail injures people every summer in this province.
Within the first hour
Note the date and time
Write it down. This becomes your date of loss and the whole claim attaches to it.
Photograph the hail itself
On the ground, next to a coin or a ruler for scale, before it melts. This is evidence you cannot recreate and it takes fifteen seconds.
Deal with water entering the house
Move contents, put down buckets, and if a ceiling is sagging with trapped water, drain it deliberately in one spot. Photograph before you do anything.
Within 24 hours
Do the ground-level damage survey
Gutters, downspouts, vents, flashing, AC fins, garage door, siding, window screens, deck rails, fence caps, and your car. Photograph every dent. See what hail damage actually looks like.
Book an independent roof inspection
Book it before you file, so you know what you have. In the days after a citywide storm the queue fills fast — get in it early.
Tarp if water is getting in
Photograph first, then cover. Keep the receipt; mitigation is normally reimbursed. What you can safely do yourself here — and the five DIY fixes that wreck a hail claim — is in DIY roof repair in Alberta.
Within 48 hours
Call your insurer
With the date of loss, the peril, the documentation, and a factual description. The full script — what to say, what not to say, and the first-72-hours checklist — is in how a roof insurance claim works in Alberta.
Start your claim log
One document, every call, every name, every date.
The five mistakes that cost people money
- Signing with the first door-knocker. Crews from out of province arrive within days of a significant Alberta hail event. Some are fine. Some are gone before the warranty matters. Verify before you sign — here is how.
- Repairing before the adjuster sees it. Emergency mitigation is fine and expected. Permanent repairs destroy the evidence your claim rests on.
- Throwing away the damaged materials. Keep a damaged shingle, a dented vent cover. Physical evidence settles arguments.
- Assuming the roof is fine because it looks fine. It is supposed to look fine. That is the entire problem with hail.
- Waiting for spring. The longer the gap, the easier it is to attribute the damage to a different event or to age.
And one thing that is not a mistake
Taking a day to think before signing anything. There is no version of this where the right contractor is the one who needs your signature this afternoon. A roof that survived the storm will survive another week.
The three pages to read next
How a roof insurance claim works in Alberta has the hour-by-hour checklist in full. If water is coming in tonight, emergency roof tarping is the immediate answer. And the free roof inspection is what turns a phone call into a documented claim, including the test squares an adjuster prices from.