We point our phones at sunsets, latte art and every minute of a toddler’s birthday party. The most valuable thing most of us own, the house, barely shows up in the camera roll. That gap gets painfully obvious after a storm, when an insurance adjuster asks what the roof looked like before the hail and you’ve got nothing.
The photo and video apps already on your phone can build a solid home record. Here’s how to use them, with the focus on the roof, since that’s where storm damage usually starts. Roofers such as CRS Roofing & Construction in Amarillo will tell you that good photos make every claim easier.
Shoot a baseline
Pick a clear afternoon and walk around the house with your phone. You’re making “before” pictures you’ll be glad to have later. Shoot each side of the house from across the yard so the whole roofline fits in the frame. Then zoom in on vents, chimneys, skylights and the roof edges; modern phones handle 2x to 5x zoom well in daylight. Get the gutters and downspouts, because dents and piles of granules show up there after hail. Get the soft metal too. The AC unit, the mailbox, the light fixtures, since those take hail dents clearly and help show how bad a storm was. Then go inside and photograph the ceilings in every room, especially upstairs, and the attic if you can get into it.
Don’t climb onto the roof for photos. Ladders and pitched surfaces are dangerous. Ground shots are plenty.
Let the metadata do some work
Your photos already carry a date, a time and usually a location. Leave location tags on for these, since they tie each image to your address. Don’t edit the originals, because filters and crops can raise questions later; if you want to mark something up, duplicate it first. And back everything up to the cloud. If the same storm takes out your phone or the power stays off for days, the cloud copy is still there.
Organize it like a content creator would
Influencers keep their content in neat albums, and you should too, so make one called “Home Record,” add sub-albums by year or season (“Spring baseline,” “After June storm”), and use the caption field for context like “North slope, before storm” or “Living room ceiling, new stain.” When an adjuster or contractor asks, you can send a shared album link in seconds. A scanning app helps here as well. Scan receipts for past roof repairs, warranties and inspection reports into the same folder.
Video tells it better
A slow, steady walkaround video gives context that still photos miss. Talk while you film: say the date, which side of the house you’re on, and anything you notice. After a storm, shoot a second walkaround so the change is obvious. Keep it short.
When the storm actually hits
In hail-prone places like the Texas Panhandle, storms roll through from spring into fall with gusty wind behind them. Once one passes, wait until it’s actually safe to go out. Then photograph a few hailstones next to a coin or a ruler for scale if you can do it quickly, retake your baseline shots from the same spots, and record any leaks inside right away, dripping water and the buckets catching it included.
Then call a professional. Lots of roofing companies now fly drones to get high-resolution photos of the entire roof, which is safer and far more detailed than anything you can shoot from the lawn. Local roofers, including some in Amarillo, offer free inspections with drone photos and a written report and help homeowners with hail and wind claims. Drop those images into your album and you have a complete before-and-after record.
Apps to keep on the home screen
No favorites named here, just the categories:
- A weather app with severe storm alerts, so you can move the cars and close the blinds before the hail starts.
- Cloud photo storage with automatic backup.
- A document scanner for receipts and policies.
- The app for any leak sensors you’ve put in the attic or under the sinks.
Thirty minutes
That’s about how long a baseline takes, plus a few minutes after each storm to keep it current. It’s a small habit that makes insurance conversations faster, gives contractors clear context and helps you spot slow changes, like a stain that’s grown an inch since spring or a gutter that’s started to sag, before they turn into a leak you have to deal with at midnight with a bucket. Your phone’s already in your pocket, so point it at the house once in a while.
