What Does Storm Damage Siding Repair Include?
Did the last storm leave a strip of siding hanging off your wall? Wind, hail and flying branches can tear siding loose, crack it or punch holes through it.
That’s where storm damage siding repair in Grand Rapids starts. As a local siding contractor in Grand Rapids, we fix the damaged siding and check the wrap underneath, so the wall is closed up again before more weather comes through.
Here’s what you get with every repair:
- Repair or replacement of the damaged siding
- A check of the house wrap behind it
- A written estimate
- Photos of the damage that you can share with your insurer
We don’t file claims for you, but we’ll explain what we found.
West Michigan gets its share of rough weather. Think spring and summer thunderstorms with straight-line winds, the occasional hailstorm, and heavy wet snow that brings down limbs. Any of them can leave a wall open.
The May 15, 2025 storms are a good example. WWMT reported tornado risks and damaging winds across western Michigan that night, and wind gusts ran between 60 and 80 mph at points in the evening, according to the National Weather Service.
What Kinds of Storm Damage Do You Fix?
The most common storm damage we see on Grand Rapids houses:
- Wind-lifted panels and full siding blow-off, where gusts unzip vinyl courses and peel them off the wall
- Hail impact damage, from cracked vinyl and chipped fiber cement to dented aluminum trim
- Punctures from debris like branches, lawn furniture and flying shingles
- Bent corner posts, torn soffit and loose fascia along with the siding
Hail damage is often worst on one side of the house, facing the storm. Small cracks can be hard to spot from the ground, so we check up close.
Size matters less than you’d think. A siding hail guide from Smith Rock Roofing says hailstones as small as 0.75 inch, about the size of a penny, can cause real damage to vinyl.
Wind has its own twist. Suburban Construction points out that a storm often just exposes a weak spot, like improper nailing, restricted panel movement or damaged locks. If the same panel keeps coming off, we’ll look for the reason instead of just putting it back.
Why Does It Matter What’s Behind the Siding?
When siding comes off in a storm, the house wrap behind it is often torn too. And once wrap is open, the next rain soaks the sheathing. That water intrusion behind siding is what turns a simple repair into rotted wood.
Wrap isn’t built to sit bare. Wikipedia’s housewrap entry notes that it can only stay exposed for a few months, because sun and weather break it down.
So we don’t just snap new panels over the hole. Here’s what we do behind the damage:
- Look behind the damaged area before anything new goes on
- Do house wrap patching or replace the torn sections (a siding repair guide from Martin & Sons notes that damaged wrap should be patched with weather barrier seam tape before new siding is installed)
- Check the sheathing for water
- Install new siding with the closest color and profile we can find
Matching existing siding is easier with common colors and harder with older, faded ones. We’ll tell you up front how close it will look.
What About Insurance?
Sudden storm damage is often covered by homeowners insurance, but it depends on your policy and deductible. We’re siding contractors, not claims handlers. Here’s what we do and don’t do:
- What we do: take damage documentation photos and write up a clear estimate of the repair, often called the scope of loss, that you can share with your insurance adjuster.
- What we don’t do: file claims, negotiate with your insurer, or offer emergency tarping or board-up.
Check your deductible before you call anyone. Customers First Insurance Group explains that many Michigan policies carry a separate wind and hail deductible, often a percentage such as 1%. On a home insured for $300,000, that works out to $3,000, which could be more than the repair itself.
Matching is the other thing to ask about. According to Peak Home Exteriors, Michigan law doesn’t require insurers to match siding, so what you get depends on your policy language and your adjuster.
Our guide does insurance cover storm-damaged siding explains what to ask your insurer, including how they handle matching.
Storm Damage and the Rest of Your Siding
Sometimes a storm reveals that the siding was already near the end, brittle and faded. If that’s the case, we’ll tell you, and a siding replacement may make more sense than patching.
For most storm damage, though, a targeted siding repair closes the wall and leaves the good siding alone. If the roofline took a hit, our soffit and fascia service covers that too.
Need storm damage siding repair in Grand Rapids? Get in touch, and we’ll set up a time to look at the damage and get the wall closed up again.
