Covered versus excluded, in plain terms
Generally excluded: fading, chalking, oxidation, and general deterioration. These are wear and tear, and wear and tear is excluded on essentially every homeowners policy. If your fifty-year-old siding simply looks tired, that is not a claim, and any contractor who tells you otherwise is steering you toward insurance fraud.
The matching question, which is where aluminum gets specific
Suppose hail dented eleven panels across two elevations. The insurer's obligation is to make you whole. If those eleven panels cannot be matched to the surrounding fifty-year-old siding in profile and color, replacing exactly eleven panels leaves you with a visibly patched house — which is not the condition you were in before the storm.
Many policies and several state regulatory frameworks contemplate this, and the resulting scope can be materially larger than a panel count. But it is not automatic. It has to be argued, with evidence: photographs of the damage, documentation of the panel profile and exposure, a demonstrated attempt to source matching material, and a side-by-side showing the color drift.
This is the single biggest difference between a contractor who understands aluminum claims and one who does not, and it is frequently worth many thousands of dollars.
What to do, in order
- Get it documented before you call the insurer. Not because you are hiding anything, but because you want to know what you have. Our inspection and photo report are free and yours to keep whether or not you ever file, and whether or not you hire us.
- Check your filing deadline. Policies impose time limits on reporting storm damage. Deadlines are one of the most common reasons legitimate claims get denied.
- Have the contractor meet the adjuster on site. Adjusters work fast and cover a lot of properties. Someone should be there who knows what aluminum hail damage looks like and can point at it.
- Do not sign anything that assigns your claim away. If a contractor's first move after a storm is to put an assignment of benefits in front of you, slow down.
Get it looked at, free
We inspect across Maryland — Montgomery, Prince George's, Howard, Anne Arundel, Frederick, Carroll and Baltimore counties. Free inspection, photo report within 24 hours, and the report is yours to keep whether or not you hire us.