What the February Freeze Did to Texas Roofs — and What to Look For

Winter Storm Uri hit Texas in February 2021 like nothing most homeowners had seen. For almost a week, the entire state sat below freezing. Texas roofing systems were never designed for those conditions, let alone that long.

The burst pipes got the headlines. The roof damage is just starting to show up.

What happens to a roof during a prolonged freeze

Most Texas homes are built for heat, UV, and hail — not sustained below-freezing with freeze-thaw cycles on repeat. During Uri, several damage mechanisms ran in parallel.

Ice damming. Snow and ice piled up on roofs. Texas attics aren't insulated the way northern homes are, so heat escaped through the decking and melted the bottom layer of snow. The meltwater ran to the eaves and refroze into an ice dam. The backed-up water had nowhere to go except under the shingles.

Brittle shingles. Standard asphalt shingles go brittle below 40 degrees. At the temperatures Texas saw during Uri, shingles cracked under foot traffic and in some cases just fractured from thermal contraction. Not always visible from the ground.

Lifted shingles. Freeze-thaw makes shingles and the decking underneath expand and contract at different rates. Seal strips break. The shingle's now vulnerable to wind uplift in the spring storms that are already showing up.

Saturated decking. Any small existing leak became a big one when ice forced water under flashings, around pipe boots, and into valleys. That water sat in the decking for days.

What to look at

If your home went through Uri without a roof inspection, schedule one before storm season gets going.

Things to look for:

• Interior water stains on ceilings and walls. Even small ones. That water got through the decking somewhere.
• Lifted or cracked shingles along ridges and valleys — those took the most stress.
• Damaged pipe boots — the rubber collars around plumbing vents are usually the first casualty of freeze-thaw cycling.
• Separated gutters — ice-filled gutters are heavy. A lot of them pulled off fascia boards across DFW during the storm.
• Attic insulation — if you had any ice damming, your insulation may be saturated and losing R-value.

Will insurance cover freeze damage?

Generally yes, if the damage is from the storm and not deferred maintenance. What carriers look at is whether existing deterioration made the roof more vulnerable. If your roof was in good shape going into Uri, freeze damage is usually covered.

Document everything now. The further you get from the event, the harder it is to prove causation.

Not sure whether what you're seeing is storm damage or pre-existing wear? A free inspection will tell you. No claim needed to find out what's there.