BILLINGS — Roof shingles and thunderstorms go together about as well as oil and water.

After Sunday's hail storm in the Billings area, Mequel Baril, owner of MJB Traders Inc., put out a call to homeowners offering assessments of any roof and home damage.

"There was quite a bit of hail damage, but it seemed to be a lot of soft metal like gutters, vents, furnace caps and so the soft metals are showing dings, but not a lot of dents," Baril said.

Baril says the hail storm was not as damaging as some had initially feared and had different impacts on roofs than the storms with much larger hail storms.

"It was almost like a sandblasting, for lack of a better term, so it just blasted shingles for quite a while because the storm lasted quite a while."

Across town, Mitch Donahue of Donahue Roofing was fielding similar calls.

"What we're finding is about 50% of them have damage, and 50% don't," Donahue said.

Donahue and Baril recommend getting your home inspected before you call your insurance company and if there isn't significant damage—hold off on a claim.

"Give us a call, call your roofer and we'll come and look at it. It will probably save a lot of people a headache," Donahue said.