You walked the yard after the August storm, and there they are. Little dents marching across the aluminum on the west wall. Maybe a split panel by the garage where a chunk of ice caught it square. Two questions hit you at once, and they’re the right ones: is this actually a problem, and is insurance going to pay to fix it?
Short version: probably yes on both, and the second one is where most homeowners get shorted.
We’ve been working these exact claims across McHenry County for about 20 years. The dents are the easy part. Getting a carrier to pay for the whole house instead of one patched-up wall is the part that takes some fight.
Need expert advice on your project?
21 years in McHenry County · Free estimates · No pressure
Hail and high wind routinely dent, crack, and loosen aluminum siding, and Illinois homeowners insurance generally covers storm damage to siding once you’re past your wind/hail deductible. Coverage usually isn’t the battle. Getting the insurer to replace the entire house instead of a single mismatched wall is — and that comes down to documentation and someone who pushes for the full claim.
What hail does to aluminum siding (and the damage you won’t see from the driveway)
Storm damage on aluminum shows up as dents and dings, cracked or split panels, panels knocked loose from the wall, and chalky faded spots where the finish took a direct hit. Hail damage lands randomly and all at once, usually heaviest on the side that faced the wind. That randomness is how you tell it apart from the slow chalking of normal age.
Aluminum siding used to be a very popular product back in the 60s, 70s, and even into the 80s. Good product, solid. But when it gets hit by small pieces of ice falling from the sky, it gets dented and it gets damaged.
Here’s what the typical “I’ll just look from the ground” check misses: the finish. A hailstone doesn’t have to punch a hole to do real harm. It can fracture the baked-on coating so the bare metal underneath starts to oxidize and streak a year later. Check it in low, angled light. Early evening works best: the long shadows throw shallow dents into relief, the ones you would walk right past at noon.
5 Manufacturer Certifications
Ready to get it done right the first time?
Andersen Elite Certified · James Hardie Select · LP SmartSide Certified · GutterShutter Exclusive Dealer
You see this most on the older housing stock. The mid-1950s ranches in Cary’s Brigadoon, the Cape Cods over in Crystal Lake’s Country Club Estates and Edgebrook, the original sections of Lake in the Hills. A lot of those homes still wear their original aluminum, and original aluminum is exactly what hail loves.
Does homeowners insurance cover hail damage to siding in Illinois?
Yes, in most cases. Hail and wind are named covered perils on a standard Illinois homeowners policy, so damage to aluminum, vinyl, or any other siding is generally covered once your deductible is met. The catch is the deductible itself.
Most McHenry County policies carry a separate wind/hail deductible, and it’s often written as a percentage of your home’s insured value rather than a flat dollar amount. Industry-wide, those run 1% to 5% of the insured value, per Insurance.com. On a $400,000 home, a 2% wind/hail deductible is $8,000 out of pocket before the policy pays a cent. A lot of homeowners don’t learn that number until they file. Pull your declarations page and check it before you do anything else.
“It’s just cosmetic” — the line that shorts McHenry County siding claims
The single most common way a siding claim gets knocked down: the adjuster calls the damage cosmetic. Some carriers have even added exclusions for hail damage that changes how a surface looks without changing how it works. That’s the wall you’ll run into, so it’s worth knowing the honest counter.
Some insurance companies will say it’s not necessarily functional damage, it’s more aesthetic. But that’s part of the value of your home. If you try to sell your house with aluminum siding and there’s dents all over it, the buyer is going to say, well, we want money off, or we want you to fix this before we buy it. So it does lower the value of the home.
That’s the argument that holds up. Dented, streaking siding is a documented hit to resale, and a thorough damage report frames it as exactly that, with photos and panel counts, not a shrug about looks.
The matching game: how carriers try to pay for one wall instead of the house
This is where the real money is won or lost, and it’s the part nobody warns you about.
A lot of insurance companies will play the game of matching, not matching. They’ll try to say, oh, we’ll replace this one side and not the whole house. You have to know how to play the game, and know how to use techniques to get them to buy the entire house. It’s come from years of experience that we’ve learned how to do this. Now, we can’t guarantee it, because they will fight you. But we will go to bat for our homeowners and do our best to get everything covered.
No Illinois law forces a carrier to match undamaged siding, so this comes down to your policy language and how hard the claim is pushed. Some policies carry matching coverage that helps when a close match can’t be found. And with discontinued aluminum, the practical inability to match often makes the argument on its own, which is the next section.
Why aluminum is disappearing, and why that helps your claim
Aluminum siding has been quietly leaving McHenry County for 20 years, one storm at a time.
When we first started this in the early 2000s, there were literally thousands and thousands of houses. Whole subdivisions, a thousand houses with aluminum siding. And now they’ve slowly been replaced, due to storm damage.
Why that matters for your claim: most of those old aluminum colors and profiles are discontinued. When a carrier says “we’ll just replace the damaged side,” ask them to match a 1970s panel. They usually can’t. When the damaged material genuinely can’t be matched to what’s left, the argument for replacing the full house, not a patchwork, gets a lot stronger. Discontinued aluminum is one of the few times the odds tilt toward the homeowner.
Watch out for the roofers who only look up
If a company knocks on your door after a storm and only wants to talk about your roof, that’s a tell.
One thing you ought to watch out for is roofing companies that do insurance claims. A lot of times they’ll totally ignore the siding. They’ll look at only the roof, because they only want to do the roof. Whereas we take a holistic approach. We look at every single thing on the house.
Hail doesn’t politely stop at the roofline. When we inspect after a storm, we document the whole exterior and the property with it: siding, trim, fascia, soffit, gutters, windows, the roof, the chimney caps, plus A/C condenser fins, fences, decks, and personal property. Every one of those can carry hail damage that belongs in the same claim. A roof-only crew leaves that money on the table, because the siding was never their job to begin with.
How IHC Public Adjusters fights for a full, fair claim
When the damage is real and the carrier is lowballing the scope, you don’t have to argue it alone. Our sister company, IHC Public Adjusters, is a separately licensed Illinois public adjusting firm that represents the homeowner, not the insurance company, in the claim. They build the documentation, handle the calls and the field meetings, and press for the full, correct scope of loss. (Financial relationship disclosed per 215 ILCS 5/1575.)
That’s the difference between a contractor who hands you an estimate and hopes, and a licensed advocate whose entire job is getting your claim paid in full. You still owe your deductible, and no one honest can promise an outcome. But you go into it with someone in your corner who does this every week.
What it costs to replace storm-damaged aluminum siding in McHenry County
Once the claim is settled, the upgrade is the good part. You don’t put 1970s aluminum back on a house.
Siding is not a cheap thing to replace. So if your old aluminum siding, which is old technology, gets damaged, we can come in, help you possibly make a claim, get it bought, and then replace it with more modern materials. Usually it’s a premium vinyl. Or for a small upgrade, you can go with a James Hardie or an LP.
Here’s where current McHenry County pricing lands, fully installed (removal, disposal, material, labor, and standard trim):
| Replacement material | Installed cost (per sq ft of wall area) | Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Premium vinyl | $6 – $8 | Entry, the common aluminum swap |
| Insulated vinyl | $10 – $12 | Mid, adds an R-value bump |
| LP SmartSide engineered wood | $14 – $18 | Premium upgrade |
| James Hardie fiber cement | $14 – $18 | Premium upgrade |
Most full-house siding projects in Hardie or LP SmartSide land between $25,000 and $35,000. When a storm-damage claim covers the bulk of that, stepping up from entry vinyl to an insulated or fiber-cement product is often a small out-of-pocket difference for a big jump in durability.
Note: square-foot pricing is per wall area, not your home’s floor square footage. A 2,000 sq ft home typically has 1,500 to 2,200 sq ft of wall area depending on stories and footprint. Every price varies with your specific home, so treat these as planning ranges, not a quote.
Repair or replace? An installer’s honest take
With vinyl, a clean repair of one storm-damaged section can make sense. With old aluminum, it rarely does. You can’t match the color, the profile is usually discontinued, and you’d be bolting a patch onto a product that’s already at the end of its run. If a storm has given you a covered claim on aluminum, the move is almost always to replace the full envelope and be done with it for the next 30 or 40 years. That’s not a sales pitch, it’s just the math on a material that stopped being made the way it used to be.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if hail damaged my aluminum siding?
Look for dents, cracked or split panels, panels pulled loose, and chalky faded spots, concentrated on the side that faced the storm. Check in low, angled light to catch shallow dents. Hail damage appears suddenly and randomly after a storm, which is how you tell it apart from gradual age.
Does homeowners insurance cover hail damage to siding in Illinois?
Generally yes. Hail and wind are covered perils on a standard Illinois policy, so siding damage is covered once you meet your deductible. Many policies carry a separate wind/hail deductible set at 1% to 5% of the home’s insured value, so check your declarations page before filing.
What do I do if my insurance only pays for one or two sides of my siding?
Don’t sign off on a partial scope yet. Ask the carrier in writing whether your policy includes matching coverage, and request a line-of-sight review of how a patched section would look against the rest of the house. No Illinois law forces them to match undamaged siding, so this is won on policy language and documentation, not a guarantee. With discontinued aluminum, an exact match usually isn’t possible, which strengthens the case for replacing the whole house instead of one wall. If they won’t budge, a licensed public adjuster can document it and press the claim for you. Our sister firm, IHC Public Adjusters, does exactly that.
How much does it cost to replace aluminum siding in McHenry County?
Installed pricing runs about $6 to $8 per square foot of wall area for premium vinyl, $10 to $12 for insulated vinyl, and $14 to $18 for James Hardie or LP SmartSide. Most full-house Hardie or LP projects land between $25,000 and $35,000, depending on your home.
Should I use a public adjuster for a siding claim?
A licensed public adjuster works for you, not the insurer, and documents and negotiates the claim on your behalf. For a contested siding claim, especially one a carrier is calling cosmetic, that advocacy can be the difference. IHC’s sister firm, IHC Public Adjusters, is a separately licensed Illinois public adjusting firm.
Should I call a roofer or a siding contractor after a storm?
Call someone who inspects the whole exterior, not just the roof. A lot of storm-claim roofers look only at the roof, because that’s the job they want, and they leave damaged siding, gutters, fascia, and trim out of the claim. A full inspection catches everything the hail actually hit, which usually means a larger and fairer settlement.
Do I have to use the contractor my insurance company recommends?
No. You choose who repairs your home. A carrier may point you to a preferred vendor, but you’re free to hire any licensed contractor you trust. Picking your own, especially one who inspects the whole exterior, often means a more complete claim than a volume crew working off the insurer’s list.
Will filing a hail damage claim raise my insurance rates?
It can, though weather claims are usually treated differently than at-fault claims, and a single storm claim in an area that just got hit is common. It depends on your carrier, your claim history, and where you live. When the damage is real, the repair almost always outweighs the worry. Ask your agent how a weather claim would affect your specific policy.
How long do I have to file a storm damage claim in Illinois?
File promptly. Most Illinois homeowners policies require timely notice of a loss, and many limit how long you have to bring a claim or lawsuit, often around a year from the date of damage. Beyond the policy clock, waiting lets the damage worsen and gives the carrier room to argue it wasn’t storm-related. If you think a storm hit your siding, get it documented soon.
What was the August 2025 storm in McHenry County?
On August 16, 2025, a straight-line wind storm moved through around 4 p.m., with a 63 mph gust measured near Algonquin. Cary, Fox River Grove, and Algonquin were hit hardest, and roughly 74,000 ComEd customers lost power across the area (Shaw Local).
Get a real set of eyes on it
If a storm has dented or cracked the siding on your home, get it documented before the next one stacks on top of it. We inspect the whole exterior, tell you straight whether you have a claim worth filing, and if you do, our team and IHC Public Adjusters help you carry it through to a fair settlement, then put modern siding back on.
Get Your Free McHenry County Storm-Damage Siding Inspection. Call or Text (815) 356-9020.
Family-owned in Crystal Lake since 2005. Serving Cary, Crystal Lake, Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, Fox River Grove, and all of McHenry County.
