Wind Damage to Roofs: Lifted, Creased, and Missing Shingles

Wind damages a shingle roof by breaking the adhesive seal under each tab, then bending the tab back until it creases or tears off. Missing shingles are easy to spot. Creased tabs that settled back flat are not, and their broken seals can give way in the next storm, so an inspection should look for both. Lifted or unsealed tabs do not prove a storm on their own, though: shingles that never sealed or were nailed in the wrong place can look the same, and the section on telling storm damage from installation problems shows how to separate them.

Whether that damage becomes a repair, an insurance claim or a call to the original installer depends on the cause. A storm, a cold-weather installation that never sealed, and nails driven in the wrong place can all leave lifted shingles, and they point to different people.

How Wind Lifts Shingles: Seals, Nails, and Edges

Each course of asphalt shingles carries a strip of factory sealant, and once the sun warms it, that strip bonds to the underside of the tabs in the course above. That bond is what keeps a tab from flapping. The Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association’s cold-weather installation recommendations note that “sealing time will vary depending on the slope of the roof, its orientation, and the amount of sun/heat exposure,” and that shingles can be hand-sealed with approved cement “to provide improved protection from wind blow-off in very cold weather.”

Nails are the second line of attachment. ARMA’s nail application guidance says that “for most asphalt shingles, a minimum of four nails is required per full-size strip shingle,” placed below the sealant strip yet high enough that the next course hides them, and with enough length to reach at least 3/4 inch into the deck.

Wind has to defeat both. Suction across the roof and gusts at the edges pull upward on the tab; once the seal lets go, the tab acts like a lever, bending back over the nail line with each gust. Edges, rakes, corners and the ridge take the strongest pull, which is where damage starts. In the first hours after a windstorm, the safety and documentation steps after a storm come before any of this.

Creased and Unsealed Tabs: Damage That Hides in Plain Sight

A creased tab is a shingle that was folded back by the wind and then fell back into place. From the yard, it can look like every other shingle. Up close, the damage shows as a straight line running across the tab where it bent, near the top of the exposed area, marking the point where the asphalt and the mat folded past their limit.

What to ask the inspector to check on the roof:

• A horizontal crease line across one or more tabs, sometimes with a narrow band of missing granules along it
• Tabs that do not lie flat, or that lift with almost no resistance
• A broken bond between a tab and the sealant strip beneath it, with the sealant torn or pulled out of shape
• Several creased tabs in a row or a cluster on the side of the house that faced the wind

Why this matters even when nothing is missing: a tab that was folded back has usually lost its seal, and a tab without its seal is held by its nails alone, which, as the first section explains, is the condition wind works on. Whether the fold has also weakened the shingle enough to crack and let water reach the underlayment is a judgment the inspector makes on the roof, tab by tab, which is why the list above asks for it in writing. A roof can come through a storm with no shingles in the yard and still have a slope of tabs that can fail in the next one.

Do not go up to check this yourself, and do not lift tabs by hand. From the ground, look at each slope in low morning or evening light with binoculars; tabs that sit slightly raised throw small shadows. Then ask the inspector to list creased or unsealed tabs by slope in writing, with photos.

Edge, Rake, and Ridge Failures

The perimeter is where peeling starts, because that is where wind gets under the roof. DOE’s guidance on asphalt shingle roofs says to “Install drip edge at eaves and rakes” and allows the starter course only a small overhang past that metal: 1/4 to 3/4 inch in general, and no more than 1/4 inch for the starter and shingles on a roof built to the IBHS FORTIFIED high-wind standard. A shingle that hangs farther out gives the wind a lip to catch; one that stops short leaves the edge of the deck exposed.

The starter course is the sealed first row that holds down the bottom edge of the first full course. When it is missing, misplaced or unsealed, the first row lifts and the damage climbs from there. Ridge and hip caps are exposed on both sides and sit along one of the roof’s high-suction lines. The guide to what the starter course and ridge caps each do also explains why some substitutes fail.

Signs you can see from the ground include missing ridge caps, shingles peeled back along a rake edge, an exposed strip of starter or underlayment at the eave, and drip edge that is bent or lifted.

Storm Damage or Installation Problem?

Lifted shingles do not prove a storm. The cause decides who pays: a covered storm loss goes to your insurer, while a shingle that never sealed or was nailed in the wrong place points back to the installation. NAIC’s consumer guide to home insurance says maintenance, “such as repairing your roof when it begins to leak,” is the homeowner’s responsibility, which is why an insurer will ask what caused the damage before it decides on the claim.

Manufacturers set their own cold-weather rules, and they are part of the installation standard. Owens Corning’s Duration Series installation instructions, for example, require perimeter shingles installed below 40°F to be “hand-sealed with four 1 inch dabs of ASTM D4586-compliant asphalt cement.” Other manufacturers may use different rules, so check the instructions for the shingle on your roof.

A shingle’s wind classification also assumes it was installed to the manufacturer’s instructions. What those ratings mean, and the installation conditions attached to them, is covered in how ASTM wind classes are assigned to shingles.

When Repair Is Feasible

A wind repair works when three physical conditions hold. The damage is limited to identifiable tabs or shingles rather than whole slopes. Replacement shingles can be found that match closely enough, which gets harder when a line has been discontinued. And the surrounding shingles are still flexible enough to be lifted for nail removal without cracking, which an inspector judges on the roof; older, brittle shingles may break as the repair is made.

If those hold, a roofer replaces the damaged pieces and reseals the tabs around them. The steps, and when a repair can affect a warranty, are in replacing damaged shingles. If a close match is the problem, finding matching shingles explains why matches fail and how to look for one.

The financial condition is the deductible. If the repair estimate is below the deductible that applies to this storm, a claim pays nothing toward it. Hurricane deductibles need a closer look, because they are usually a percentage rather than a flat amount: NAIC’s hurricane deductibles page, last updated June 2025, puts that percentage of the home’s insured value anywhere from 1% to as high as 15%, applied separately from the standard deductible.

Hypothetical example: if a dwelling is insured for $300,000 and its hurricane deductible is 2%, the owner pays the first $6,000 of a hurricane loss. A tab repair priced at $1,200 would be paid out of pocket either way, while a slope replacement priced above $6,000 might justify a claim. How to find your own deductible, and turn a percentage into dollars, is in the guide to wind and hail deductible math.

Repair the Tabs or Open a Claim?

Repair without a claim when the damage is limited to a few tabs or shingles, the estimate is below your deductible, and the pattern fits a storm. Keep the photos and the invoice either way.

Open a claim when the inspector’s written list shows creased or missing tabs across one or more slopes, peeled edges or ridge, and the estimate exceeds the deductible on your declarations page. If the pattern points to installation instead, with clean unbonded sealant after a cold-weather job or nails above the sealant line, call the installer before the insurer and ask for a written response under the workmanship terms.

Your next step: photograph missing and lifted shingles from the ground, ask the inspector to list creased tabs by slope in writing, and put that estimate next to the deductible on your declarations page.

This guide is general information for U.S. homeowners, not legal, insurance, tax, or engineering advice. Codes, laws, and policy terms vary by location and change over time; confirm details with your local building department, your insurer, or a licensed professional.

Sources

• Recommendations for Installation of Asphalt Roofing Shingles in Cold Weather, Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association
• Nail Application of Asphalt Shingles, Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association
• Asphalt Shingle Roofs, U.S. Department of Energy Building America Solution Center
• A Consumer’s Guide to Home Insurance, National Association of Insurance Commissioners
• Duration Series Shingles Installation Instructions, Owens Corning
• Insurance Topics: Hurricane Deductibles, National Association of Insurance Commissioners