Aluminium gutters, downspouts, fascia wrap and soffit are the softest metal on the house. They dent at hail sizes that leave shingles arguable — which makes them both the easiest damage to verify and the easiest to forget to claim.
Gutters are thin aluminium, so they record hail faithfully — which is why adjusters use soft metal to confirm that hail of a given size actually hit your property. Check the gutter faces, the downspouts, the fascia wrap, the soffit and the AC condenser fins. If the roof is being replaced, the gutters usually come off anyway, and that is the moment to have them in the scope rather than after.
Both, and the distinction matters to a claim. A dent in the face of a gutter is cosmetic unless it is severe. What is functional is a trough deformed enough to hold standing water, a downspout crushed so it will not carry flow, hangers torn loose, or seams split.
Fascia wrap and soffit are thinner again and tear rather than dent. Soffit damage matters more than it looks: it is the intake for attic ventilation, and torn soffit lets weather into the attic.
The condenser fins on your air conditioner are the softest metal on the property. Flattened fins restrict airflow and cost efficiency, and the unit is usually covered by the same policy.
Because soft metal is the honest witness. Asphalt shingle damage can be argued about — is that a hail bruise, blistering, or somebody’s boot? A dent in an aluminium gutter is a hail strike and nothing else, and its size and density indicate what actually fell.
That works in your favour. If the roof is being called into question, the gutters and the soft metal corroborate that hail of a given size reached your address on the date claimed — which can be checked against the official storm report for your county.
We photograph soft metal as a matter of course for exactly this reason, and we publish the county storm reports so the measured hail size is one click away.
On most re-roofs the gutters come off or get worked around, because the drip edge and the ice barrier run behind and over the back of them. If they are going to be handled anyway, that is the moment to establish whether they are damaged — not after they have been reinstalled.
Ask for the gutters to be addressed explicitly in the written scope: removed and reset, or replaced, and which. A scope that is silent about them is a scope where somebody will make that decision later without you.
Watch the drip edge detail. The drip edge should direct water into the gutter, not behind it. A gutter reset slightly high or low after a re-roof is a slow fascia-rot problem that takes years to show.
That is a supplement, and it is a normal thing to file. You are not reopening the claim or starting over — you are adding documented damage to an open one.
What it needs is evidence: dated photographs with something for scale, by elevation, and a written itemisation of what is damaged and what replacement costs. The more it reads like the adjuster’s own estimate format, the faster it moves.
Do not have the gutters repaired before this is resolved. A repair made before the documentation removes the evidence it rests on.
No, and we would rather say so here than let you find out in January. The Minnesota Department of Commerce is explicit that ice dams are not caused by gutter problems — they are caused by warm air leaking into the attic.
New gutters are worth having when the old ones are damaged, undersized for the roof, or pitched wrong. They are not an ice dam remedy, and anyone selling them to you as one in a Minnesota winter is selling the wrong fix.
Minnesota Department of Commerce: “Ice dams are not caused by roofing, ventilation or gutter problems, as often believed. The real problem is a home that is leaking warm air.” Source: MN Dept. of Commerce, Minnesota Energy Tips
This page quotes Minnesota statutes and the adopted Minnesota building code and links to the official text of each so you can read it yourself. It is general information from a licensed contractor, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for reading your own policy. Statutes and codes are amended; the linked sources are authoritative, this page is not. Last reviewed 2026-10-27.
Straight answers to the questions Minnesota homeowners ask before they call anyone.
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Read the guide →Costs, materials, timelines, financing, and how we work — across roofing, siding, windows, and gutters.
Read the FAQ →We’ll walk it, photograph it, and give you a written scope that says exactly what is required and why. Retail or insurance.
We’ll walk the roof, photograph what we find, and hand you a written scope that names the code requirement behind every line. Yours to keep, whoever does the work.
We measure the work by how it holds up — and by what clients say once we're gone.