If you are asking this question, something already happened. Hail came through, or wind took shingles off, and now you are trying to work out whether you are looking at a very large bill or none at all.
Here is the straight answer, and it is not the one most roofing websites give you. That question has exactly one correct address, and it is your own insurance company. Not us. Not your neighbor. Not the person who left a flyer on your door the morning after the storm.
I am Luke. We have been putting roofs on Twin Cities houses since 2000, a lot of them after storms. This page covers why a roofing contractor is the wrong person to ask, who the right person is, what the State of Minnesota tells homeowners to do after a loss, what damage actually looks like on a roof, and what a new roof costs when you are the one paying. All of that is useful. None of it is a guess about your policy.
Why your roofer cannot answer this
It is not modesty. It is state law.
Minnesota Statute 325E.66 says a residential contractor may not interpret policy provisions, may not advise an insured about coverage or about duties under a policy, and may not adjust a claim on the insured's behalf, unless that contractor is also licensed as a public adjuster. We are not. We are a roofing company.
So when a roofer stands in your driveway the day after a storm and tells you the roof is going to be paid for, one of two things is true. Either they are guessing at a document they have never read, or they are doing a job the state says a roofer is not allowed to do. Neither one helps you, and both can cost you later.
What we can do is the entire construction side, and that turns out to be most of what you actually need from us.
Who does answer it, and in what order
The Minnesota Department of Commerce regulates insurance in this state and publishes plain guidance for homeowners after a property loss. Its instructions are short, and they start in one place.
Commerce says the first step is to call your insurance agent and report the loss. If you do not have an agent, call your insurance company directly. Everything else comes after that call.
Once you have reported it, Commerce tells homeowners to do this:
- Make sure the area is safe and secure before anything else, and do not put yourself at risk.
- Take pictures or video before you start to clean up, and document all of the damage.
- Make temporary, inexpensive repairs to prevent further damage. Commerce gives boarding up a broken window and putting a tarp over a damaged roof as its own two examples, and it says to keep the receipts for materials you buy so you can be reimbursed.
- Keep your policy and your claim number handy, and keep a log of who you spoke to, when, and what was said.
- Wait for the company's adjuster. Commerce is blunt about this one: do not call anyone to repair or replace your loss without first getting instructions from your insurance company's adjuster.
Read that last line twice, because it is the opposite of what a door knocker will tell you at eight in the morning. You can read all of it in the state's own words at mn.gov/commerce.
The questions that actually decide it
We are not going to tell you how your situation turns out. We can tell you which questions decide it, so that when you call your agent you already know what to ask.
Ask these, and write the answers down:
- Which perils does my policy name, and what is in the exclusions section? Commerce points homeowners at the exclusions specifically, and notes that policies are very specific about the perils they list.
- Is a roof loss settled at replacement cost or at actual cash value on my policy, and is there a separate schedule for the roof?
- What is my deductible on this kind of loss, and is it a flat dollar figure or a percentage of the dwelling amount?
- Is there a separate wind or hail deductible on my policy?
- What do you need from me, and what happens next on your side?
Commerce also suggests asking the company's adjuster for a business card, for what you are required to do next, for instructions on getting repair estimates, and for a time estimate on how long the process should take. Get those answers in writing wherever you can.
What we can tell you: the roof itself
This is where a roofing contractor is genuinely the right person to ask. Damage is a building question, and we look at roofs every day.
What hail actually does to a shingle
Hail damage on an asphalt shingle is often a bruise rather than a hole. A stone lands, the granules scatter at the point of impact, and the fiberglass mat underneath fractures. Larger or wind-driven stones can tear or puncture a shingle outright, which is easier to see and no less serious. From the driveway it looks like nothing at all. Up close it is a soft dark circle that gives slightly under a thumb, with a broken mat beneath it. Left alone, that spot sheds granules and the asphalt underneath bakes in the sun. It may leak quickly, much later, or never, depending on how bad the fracture is and what the weather does next.
The clearest evidence is usually not on the shingles. It is on the soft metals. Aluminum gutters, downspouts, vent caps and the furnace flue take a dent and keep it, so soft metal tells you the size of the stones and the direction they came in from. We photograph all of it, roof and metals both.
What wind actually does
Wind damage is mechanical. The seal strip between shingle courses lets go, the shingle lifts, and it either creases across the middle or tears off entirely. A creased shingle looks fine from the ground and is finished as a waterproof surface, because the mat is broken along the fold line.
Age matters here, and it has nothing to do with insurance. New laminated shingles with an intact seal strip are rated to 110 or 130 mph. A fifteen-year-old Twin Cities roof has been through enough freeze and thaw cycles that the asphalt has stiffened, and stiff shingles crease instead of flexing. That is a materials fact, and it is true whether anyone files anything or not.
Repair or replace, as a building question
Whether a roof can be repaired is a completely separate question from who pays for it, and it has real answers.
A roof can usually be repaired when the damage sits in one area, the shingle line is still manufactured, the color has not drifted too far from what is up there now, and the surrounding shingles are still flexible enough to lift without cracking. That last condition is what rules out most repairs on old roofs. On a brittle roof you break three shingles getting at the nails for every one you meant to replace.
A roof usually needs replacing when the damage is spread across several slopes, when the shingle is discontinued so nothing will match, or when the mat is fractured widely enough that patching one area only moves the next leak somewhere else.
We will tell you which of those two your roof is, in writing, with photographs, and we will stand behind it. That is a contractor's judgment about a building, which is exactly what we are qualified and permitted to give you.
What a new roof costs when you are paying for it
Plenty of Twin Cities roofs get replaced with no insurance involved at all, and the number is worth knowing either way. It is also the only clear way to size up the decision in front of you.
In 2026, installed asphalt roofing in the Twin Cities runs roughly $450 to $1,000 per square, or about $5 to $8 per square foot for the laminated architectural shingle that belongs on nearly every house here. Class 4 impact-resistant shingles run $7 to $10 per square foot.
By house type, the ranges we quote most often look like this:
- One-story rambler: $9,000 to $14,000.
- Split-level or split-entry: $11,000 to $17,000.
- One-and-a-half-story bungalow: $13,000 to $22,000.
- Two-story: $15,000 to $26,000.
- Large custom or multi-gable: $25,000 to $40,000 and up.
Our Twin Cities roof replacement cost guide breaks down what moves a house from one end of its range to the other. If the number itself is the problem, how to pay for a new roof in Minnesota covers the options, including financing through Acorn: up to $100,000, fixed rates, more than thirty lenders, and terms out to twenty years, subject to credit approval.
What we do, and what we will not do
Being plain about this protects you more than any promise would.
What we do. Inspect the roof and photograph the damage we can observe. Give you an itemized estimate to repair or replace it. Be there when your adjuster visits, if you want us there. Answer construction questions about the roof, the deck, the ventilation and the flashing. Build the work you hire us to perform.
What we will not do. Interpret your policy or tell you what it covers. Predict or promise what your insurer will decide. Advise you on filing, on timing, or on any duty you have under your policy. Pay, rebate or absorb any part of your deductible, which Minnesota Statute 325E.66 makes illegal for every residential contractor in this state.
If someone knocks on your door after a storm and offers to take care of your deductible for you, that is not a discount. It is a law being broken, and it tells you something about the rest of the work.
Roofs R Us holds Minnesota license BC740619 and has been BBB A+ accredited since 2008. Ask us for a free roof inspection and we will bring you photographs and an itemized number, whoever ends up paying for it.
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