Roofing Claims Fell 11.9% Through August — One Texas Crew Still Reported 100-Plus

Roofing claims dropped 11.9% through August, and a New Orleans contractor said his season was unusually quiet. Meanwhile one Dallas-Fort Worth crew reported more than 100 claims in a single month. Same year. Same industry. Two completely different calendars.

Dallas, 2026: Same Industry, Same Year, Two Very Different Seasons

These interviews came from the 2026 Win the Storm event in Dallas, where contractors described how tough it is to find work in calm stretches and what they did to keep revenue moving.

The backdrop is a real slowdown. The report cites Verisk data showing an 11.9% drop in roofing claims through August, compared with the same stretch of 2025.

In New Orleans, Hugo Flores of Vora Exteriors didn't dress it up. "If you ask me specifically about this year, it was too quiet," he said. He said his market got some heavy rain and not much else. He also said many contractors rely on storm damage to bring them homeowner work, which makes a slow season sting more.

Now the other end of the same year. Joaquín Garza and Christopher Perez work with X Roofing and Solar in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Perez put the company's total that month at more than 100 claims, with about 60 of them in the first week. He said many homes there may have slipped by, or never got a second contact, after a storm.

"There's still a lot of business out there," Perez said.

Same industry. Same twelve months. Two completely different calendars. And the gap between them is the whole story.

The Quiet Season Was Not Everywhere

In North Carolina, Alex Rodriguez of Elite Restoration called the season slow too. Still, he said his first year selling roofing went well, and he credited discipline. "It's just staying consistent and disciplined," he said.

In Boston, David Simbayna Loja owns Stormcare Roofing. He said this season did not look like the ones from a couple of years back. He said storm chasers and scammers make it harder for homeowners to trust anyone in the trade. Stormcare does insurance restoration and retail jobs, plus financing and promotions, and Loja said the company keeps growing either way.

Devin Ishmael's company, Miller Storm Roofing and Reconstruction, had a strong season. Storms hit DFW and other parts of Texas, so his company sent crews out across the state to help homeowners.

So the country didn't go quiet. It split. Which is exactly why the next part matters.

The Backstory: A Slowdown That Hit Unevenly

Here's the shape of it, straight from the interviews. In the quiet markets, contractors added services and worked harder on customer relationships. In the storm-hit markets, they chased down leads and served homeowners over a wider area. Both groups put the customer at the center of the job.

In Del Rio, Texas, Aaron Sanchez of Sanchez Services is the clearest example of the first group. Before a bigger storm showed up, his crew took on gutters, fascia, siding and soffit jobs. His advice to other contractors: take on nearby work that is close to what they already do. He said those jobs can also build goodwill with customers, so when storm season comes around, the customer calls him.

The company later had a busier stretch. An early storm dropped smaller hail. Then a bigger April storm caused real damage, and the crew spent the rest of the year on insurance claims.

Then there's the DFW crew. Garza said his team sharpens its follow-up by calling back homeowners who may have slipped through the cracks after earlier storms. Perez's version: not every home gets knocked, some that do may have gone unanswered, and plenty never got a second visit. The company kept working its home market while other crews left for Florida after a big storm.

Garza's take: the work is out there, and it comes down to whether a contractor bothers to go looking.

My read: this is not a weather story. It's a follow-up story with weather in the background.

What This Means for an Owner Who Sells (My Read)

This part is my opinion, built on what those contractors described.

Picture a home services company — HVAC, roofing, remodeling — in a market that had a mild season. Your phone is quieter than last year. It's tempting to react by cutting the ad budget. I think that's backwards. My read: a quieter market does not mean there is no work left; it means you have to go looking for it. Perez said many homes there may have slipped by, or never got a second contact, after a storm. If your market had a storm in the last few years, those homes may exist there too. Your old lead list is a live list. My guess is that call was never returned.

Now picture a home services company that doesn't chase storms — HVAC, plumbing, remodeling. You don't sell storm repair, so an 11.9% drop in roofing claims sounds like somebody else's problem. It isn't. My read: when storm work dries up, some restoration and roofing crews may look for other revenue and may advertise harder. That can put pressure on your cost per lead. My advice: hold your ground by working the leads you already paid for, not with a bigger budget. That is the move.

Both scenarios land in the same place: the money is in the list you already own, and in the follow-up that often gets skipped.

How to Use This Week

1. Pull your dead leads. Open your CRM or your spreadsheet and filter every lead from the last 24 months with no closed sale and no note saying not to call. Export it. This is quick, and it may be the highest-return time you spend this week.

1. Sort the no-answer pile from the never-followed-up pile. Perez's point was that even homes that got a knock may have gone unanswered, and plenty never got a second visit. Same is true of your leads. Those are your warmest names — they raised their hand once.

1. Write one short script and use it. Keep it tight. No pitch. One question at the end. If you sell home services, open with your name and your company, say you are calling about the storm that hit their area, and admit that nobody ever got back to them. Then say you are not asking for a sale today — you just want to look at the job and tell them what you see. Close with a choice: tomorrow at 4, or later in the week. If you sell something else, swap the storm line for the last time they asked you a question and never got a straight answer, then close with the same two-option question.

1. Block 90 minutes and make the calls yourself. Not a blast text. Calls. If you're the owner, the first 20 are yours. You'll hear the real objection in your own ear, and that's worth more than any report.

1. Log every outcome in one place. No answer. Call back Tuesday. Not now, maybe next spring. A lead with a note is worth more than one without a note. This is exactly what Garza described — better follow-up on people who never got help.

1. Add one related service for the slow stretch. Sanchez's move was gutters, fascia, siding and soffit — close to the work his crew already did. For a home services company, that might be gutter cleaning or dryer vent work. For a company that sells something else, pick the job your customer asks about right after the one you already do. Same crew, same truck, same customer.

1. Walk your own funnel like a customer. Fill out your own form. Call your own number. Time how long it takes to get a reply. You may find at least one hole. If you can't tell where the leak is, that's the thing to fix first.

Mistakes to Avoid

• Cutting ad spend the week the phone goes quiet. My read: a quiet stretch is the wrong time to stop spending, because you still have leads you already paid for that nobody has called. Steady budget, more follow-up — that is my opinion.
• Blaming the weather. Flores described his market as quiet — it was a quiet season. But Perez's crew was in Texas in the same year, logging 100-plus claims in a single month. Weather is a market condition, not a verdict.
• Competing on price. Flores's advice to other contractors: get better at the work instead of racing each other to the bottom on price. My read: competing on price can attract customers who only care about price.
• Treating a no-answer as a no. It isn't. It's an unfinished conversation, and it's the cheapest one you'll ever have.