A summer storm just rolled through Green Hills. Here's exactly what to do next

First, stay safe and look. Don't climb

The instinct on a big property is to grab a ladder and go look. Don't. After a summer storm, downed lines, loose limbs and slick slate or cedar make a roof genuinely dangerous. Stay on the ground. If a limb is on the house or a wire is down, call it in and keep everyone clear.

From the ground, walk the full perimeter (on a large estate lot that's a real walk) and look up at every roof plane you can see. The complex rooflines common in Forest Hills, Oak Hill and Belle Meade mean damage can sit on a slope you never see from the front door.

Document everything while it's fresh

Before anyone touches anything, photograph it. This is the single most valuable thing you can do in the first hour:

• Photos of any limbs or debris on the roof, in the yard, and in the gutters
• Wide shots of each side of the house showing the roofline
• Close shots of dinged gutters, dented vents, marks on the AC unit and any shingle pieces on the ground
• Any interior water stains, however small, with the date

Time-stamped photos tie the damage to this storm. That matters a great deal later if you decide to file with your insurer.

Know the signs of hidden damage

The damage that costs estate owners the most is rarely the dramatic kind. It's the quiet kind:

• Wind-broken seals. A 60-mph gust lifts shingles, breaks the adhesive strip, and sets them back down looking normal. They're no longer watertight.
• Bruised or fractured slate and cracked shingles from limb strikes, easy to miss on a roof inspection and expensive to ignore on a premium roof.
• Lifted or displaced flashing at chimneys, dormers, and valleys, the usual origin of a leak that shows up weeks later.
• Granule loss in the gutters, a sign hail or driven debris stripped the protective surface off your shingles.

Don't sign with the first door-knocker

After every Tennessee storm, out-of-state storm-chasing crews flood the nicer neighborhoods first. Big homes, visible value, motivated owners. They knock, apply pressure, ask you to sign on the spot, do fast and shoddy work, and are gone before the problems surface. The Better Business Bureau and the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance both warn about exactly this after major storms.

Protect yourself: never sign anything under pressure, work only with a licensed and insured local contractor who'll still be here next year, and get a documented inspection with photos before you authorize any work.

Mind the insurance clock, but get documented first

Most Tennessee homeowner policies give you roughly one year from the date of the storm to file a wind or hail claim. That sounds generous, but storm damage hides. Owners routinely find out months later, when a ceiling stains, that the window has nearly closed.

A quick note on insurance: we help you understand and navigate the claims process and we hand you a photo-documented report of what we find. We don't negotiate or adjust the claim for you. That part stays in your hands, with our documentation backing you up. The right first move is simple and free: get a documented, photo-by-photo inspection so you know what the storm actually did before you decide anything.

Get a documented look, free

If a summer storm just came over your home in Green Hills, Forest Hills, Oak Hill, Belle Meade, Brentwood or Franklin, the calm and correct next step is a free, no-pressure inspection. We'll walk the roof, photograph every finding, and hand you a clear report. Whether that report says “here's the problem” or “you're in good shape.”