Hail damaged AC unit?

[Matt Meiser]

We had a hail storm come through last night and have a lot of cosmetic damage on two sides of our house. My guess is they'll have to completely tear off one side and replace all trim and siding. They MIGHT salvage enough from that side to repair all the broken pieces on the other. Between those two sides it's probably 75% of the surface area that is sided. The roof looks intact but definitely needs to be checked out. I have a reputable builder coming tomorrow to look at the house. There are plenty of others trolling the neighborhood tonight.

Our AC unit coils really took a beating. One side I'd estimate 80% of the fin area is smashed flat. Another side maybe 30%. Will they try to fix that or is it going to need replacement? Unit is about 11 years old. Worried about getting this addressed quickly because there is so much damaged area it will probably really affect cooling, based on my conversation with the guy who cleaned and checked it out and gave it a clean bill of health YESTERDAY!

[Brad Adams]

I'm replacing twenty three air conditioners that were damaged on a condominium roof last year. The insurance company agreed to replace them, not because the coils were dented, but because the tops were dented. Since the parts are obsolete for the seventeen year old units they agreed on replacement. They were paying me an average of $80 to comb out the coil fins. Pretty much every roof in my town has been replaced in the last year from the hail that came through.

[Matt Meiser]

Thanks Brad. I'm going to call the company that was here 36 hours ago and have them come out and look at it and give me a recommendation. My parents have been using them a few years now and have found them to be trustworthy so I'll have some advise to go on when the insurance company gives me their opinion.

We've heard of a couple people already told they need new roofs. Some in sure by the contractors I've never heard of before who were patrolling our neighborhood and others. Insurance fun will probably start today I guess. I already started a claim yesterday.

[Jim Matthews]

This happened to your new house?

Combing out AC fins only looks easy.
If the coolant loop is bent, I wouldn't leave it in place.

If you've met your deductible, it makes sense to go with a known good unit.

[Lee Schierer]

They make fin combs for A/C coils that can restore the fins to almost new condition when used by a skilled technician.

[George Bokros]

I would try to get all the siding replaced so the color will match, Even white will be a color match issue using the siding from one side to repair the other. The sun will have faded one more than the other.

The roof will likely need to be replaced. Hail damage is not noticable to the untrained eye but the adjuster will be able to see it. My son had some shingles torn off from a wind storm and the adjuster told him he had hail damage and they replaced the whole roof and it had to be a tear off since there were two roofs on the house already.

As for the AC it sounds to me like it is a replacement too. It will be a lot of work to straighten out that many fins. The integrity of the coils may also be unknown until the fins are straightened.

Sorry to hear about all this but that is what we pay insurance for.

[Matt Meiser]

Yes our new house but it's not a new new house--about 11 years old.

HVAC guy is going to try to get out and look at it today. His first thing was that they are pretty hard to fix right.

We're going to be way over our deductible.

[Dick Strauss]

I'm sorry to here that 2" diameter hail banged up your house the other day.

I wouldn't be surprised if you have received unwanted phone calls even though I know you are on the DNC list. We used to get calls when we had a home phone every time a serious storm rolled through the area. The scammers always come out right after storms as if the storm flipped over their rock so they can finally crawl out.

Did the top of the AC get dented enough to affect the fan motor and blades? The fin combs work when you have a small area to straighten but don't work well when the whole side is flat like you have. Ask for a replacement.

Take care,
Dick

[Matt Meiser]

Yes, this morning I realized, after hearing a screeching sound from the unit, that the top is bent up. Theory is it was running when hit and the sudden change, gyroscopic effect, etc damaged the motor. Still working but makes an awful sound on startup that wasn't there when they cleaned and inspected it Wednesday morning. They've given me an estimate for repair and one for replacement but don't really recommend the repair. Unfortunately the difference is around $1200 so I know what the insurance company is going to say.

We found more damage on the house, small dings on the edges of of the fixed part of the window frames on the two sides that got hit. Almost every section of gutter has dents from the outside in or inside out. And I realized when I went to change the water in the dogs' outside bowl that the dirt in the bottom is actually roof granule. At least one side of the shed needs repainted too (just done 5 weeks ago.) And on and on. Luckily its the back of the house and doesn't look terrible so as long as tomorrow's roof inspection doesn't reveal any urgent issues I've got time to get however many backup opinions it takes to convince them to do it right.

[Ole Anderson]

Our subdivision got hit last summer by golf ball sized hail. I bet 500 roofs got replaced. I can still hear the roofers working. Personally I got a roof, hot tub cover, table umbrella, one window and some deck railing replaced under my homeowners insurance plus $3500 worth of work on my wife's car. Lots of homes had hail damage to vinyl siding. Even heard of a pontoon being replaced as it dented the aluminum pontoons. Some adjusters were a little too liberal as one guy got his concrete drive replaced due to all the pock marks. Yea, the hail did it...

[Matt Meiser]

Yeah I think it made a section of my driveway sink

[Matt Meiser]

Well the adjuster came today and it sounds like we might have to fight them some on the AC. They aren't in agreement that the top of the unit is hail damaged. Where we left it is I'm getting the general contractor I'm using's favorite HVAC sub out for a second opinion. Adjuster likes the idea of using them since he can deal with a single set of payees on checks. The general I'm hiring has done about 150K of work for my parents in the last 6 years and I really like him.

There is a lot of damage to the house in the end:
- complete tear off and replacement of the roof
- complete replacement of all gutters and downspouts. There's a few pieces here and there that aren't damaged but it'll take longer to check it all than just replace it all.
- all new trim and siding on 2 faces of the house. It works out to roughly 2/3 of our siding. Most of what's left is 2 north walls that shouldn't be faded as much.
- 10 of the 15 windows on the house
- an entry door, maybe a slider (not clear on that yet, but at a minimum it needs a new screen.)
- complete tear off and replacement of the shed roof
- repaint 1 side of the shed (which had just been painted.)
- about $250 worth of stuff from the patio
- plus whatever they do with the AC

We got $20K in medical bills too this week--good lesson for my 13yo on the importance of insurance.

[Jim Becker]

Sad that you had all that damage, but yea...this is what insurance is about.

I do hope they settle on that AC unit. They can generally be replaced without changing out the "inside" exchanger, too. (or vice versa as we found out when we had hurricane damage adjusted a few years ago and the basement flooded when the sump pump failed...not Sandy...the one before that)

[Matt Meiser]

Yes, the replace option is for just the outdoor unit.

[Myk Rian]

I was watching those storms closely. Since the front was stagnant over you, that's where the bad storms were. Did you get any warning sirens?
Hope it all works out in your favor.