If a hailstorm hit your home recently, you've probably had two or three contractors knock on your door. Some promised to "handle the insurance," "waive your deductible," or "get you a free new roof." Those promises are a red flag — and in some cases insurance fraud under Illinois law.
Leaders Roofing isn't a storm-chaser company. We've been family-owned in Mount Prospect since 1996, and we work on a smaller volume of higher-quality projects. If your roof took hail damage and you're considering whether to do a like-for-like insurance replacement or invest in an upgrade — Class IV impact-resistant shingles that hold up to the next storm, designer architectural replicating cedar or slate, cedar shake restoration if you're on the North Shore, synthetic slate with a 50-year warranty — we want to be in that conversation.
If you're in the "right fit" column, keep reading. If you're in the "not right fit" column, we recommend you find a contractor who matches your needs — we're not the best use of your time, and that's a feature, not a bug, of how we operate.
Insurance will pay for like-for-like. If you want better than what was there, you pay the difference out of pocket. Here are the four directions that difference typically goes:
Here's the list of things storm-chaser roofers do that we don't:
Pricing varies by roof square footage, pitch, complexity, decking condition, and material specification. These are realistic ranges for Chicagoland properties.
Single-family home, typical square footage, Class IV impact-resistant shingles, proper flashing, full ice-and-water shield. Insurance discount typically offsets the upgrade premium over 5-8 years.
CertainTeed Grand Manor, GAF Camelot II, or equivalent designer line. Class IV versions available. Visual character approaching cedar shake or slate at architectural shingle pricing.
Hand-split or tapersawn Western Red Cedar with soldered copper flashing. Premium mill sourcing. Architectural review handling for Historic Preservation Commission jurisdictions where applicable.
DaVinci, Brava, or EcoStar synthetic slate. 50-year warranty. Class IV hail-resistant. Convincing aesthetic match to natural slate at meaningfully lower cost.
Welsh Penrhyn, Vermont Sea Green, Pennsylvania Hard Vein, or Buckingham Virginia natural slate. Full soldered copper flashing. The generational specification — 100+ year service life on a properly installed slate roof.
We can do this scope but we're not optimized for it. Higher-volume contractors are typically a better fit for pure insurance like-for-like work. We'll tell you that honestly if that's what you actually want.
All estimates are written line-item with material specifications, flashing scope, and warranty terms. Call (708) 847-5418 for a free assessment on your specific home.
Our hail-damage replacement work concentrates in the same geography as our premium-materials practice — North Shore Cook and Lake County, Northwest Suburbs, and the DuPage corridor from Naperville north. Some of the cities we work in most often:
Insurance pays for like-for-like replacement of what was damaged — typically standard architectural shingles equivalent to what was on your roof when it was hit. If your roof was original 1990s 3-tab and the storm damaged it, insurance pays for new 3-tab (or roughly equivalent architectural). If you want Class IV impact-resistant shingles, designer architectural, cedar shake restoration, or synthetic slate — anything that's an upgrade over what was there — you're paying the difference out of pocket either way. Some homeowners decide the upgrade is worth the difference. Others use insurance for like-for-like. We're set up for the upgrade conversation; if you want pure like-for-like insurance work, we're not the most efficient contractor for you and we'll say so.
We document scope and damage thoroughly for adjusters when our customers have a covered loss — that's normal contractor work. We do NOT file claims on the homeowner's behalf, do not sign assignment-of-benefits agreements, do not promise specific insurance outcomes, and absolutely do not waive deductibles (which is illegal under Illinois insurance fraud statutes). If your hail damage situation needs an adjuster visit, we can document what we see for the adjuster — but you stay the decision-maker, you file the claim, and you pay your deductible.
Class IV is the highest UL impact-resistance rating for asphalt shingles. The shingle is reinforced with polymer modifiers (Atlas StormMaster, GAF Armor Shield II, Owens Corning Duration Storm, CertainTeed Landmark Pro Impact-Resistant) that absorb hail impact without the granule fracture and substrate bruising that standard architectural shingles experience. Functionally: a Class IV roof that takes the same hail event as a standard architectural roof shows materially less damage and lasts meaningfully longer. Most Illinois homeowner insurance carriers offer a Class IV impact-resistance discount (typically 5-25% off the annual premium) that often offsets the upgrade cost over 5-8 years. If you're replacing a roof after a hail event, this is the moment to specify Class IV — both because the next storm is coming and because the discount pays for the upgrade over time.
Standard Class IV architectural shingle replacement on a typical Chicagoland home runs $25,000-$50,000 (a $5,000-$15,000 upgrade over insurance like-for-like depending on roof size and material grade). Designer architectural shingle (GAF Camelot II, CertainTeed Grand Manor) replicating cedar or slate aesthetic runs $40,000-$80,000. Cedar shake restoration runs $80,000-$150,000. Synthetic slate (DaVinci, Brava, EcoStar) runs $80,000-$150,000. Natural slate runs $130,000-$300,000+. Each tier includes proper copper or aluminum flashing (we'll recommend copper on premium specs), full ice-and-water shield, and manufacturer-extended warranty. Pricing depends on roof square footage, complexity, and material specification.
Five 60-second checks. (1) Illinois roofing license: ask for the number and verify it on the IDFPR website (idfpr.illinois.gov) before you sign anything. No valid Illinois license, no conversation. (2) Local address: a P.O. box or an out-of-state corporate address is a red flag. Legitimate Chicagoland contractors have local offices. (3) References within 5 miles: ask for 3-5 references with addresses in your specific town or neighborhood. Storm-chasers can't produce these. (4) Insurance-handling promises: anyone who promises to 'handle the insurance,' 'get you a free roof,' or 'waive your deductible' is offering insurance fraud — walk away. (5) Time pressure: if they need you to sign within 24-48 hours of the storm, they're working a chase. Legitimate contractors don't need urgency.
We aim to schedule hail damage assessments within 5-10 business days during the active May-September storm season. We document what we see with photos, write up a recommended scope, and give you the honest read — including whether what we see is meaningful enough to warrant a replacement or whether the roof has another few years of life. We do not pressure same-day signatures. If your home has an active leak from storm damage, we respond within 24-48 hours for emergency tarping while we schedule the full assessment.
Two reasons. First, the families who hire us are the families who looked us up — they found us through a referral, a Google search for a premium-materials specialist, or a past project on their block. We don't need to door-knock to fill our calendar. Second, door-knocking after storms is the storm-chaser playbook. Showing up that way associates us with operators who use high-pressure tactics, waive deductibles, and disappear before the warranty work is needed. We've built 30 years of business by NOT being one of those companies. We're not going to start now.
Written assessment, photo documentation, honest read on whether your roof actually needs replacement. No pressure, no door-knocking, no deductible waiving.