After a hailstorm in southern Alberta: what blasting can and cannot fix

Southern Alberta gets its share of summer hail, and after a bad storm the phone calls follow. Some of what hail damages is exactly what blasting is for. Some of it is not, and it is worth knowing which is which before you call anyone.

What hail does to coatings

• Steel equipment and trailers — chipped and cracked paint, which lets moisture straight to bare steel.
• Decks — pitted, bruised boards and broken finish on the horizontal surfaces.
• Log walls and siding — finish knocked off the weather side, leaving the wood open.

Where blasting helps

When a coating has been broken across a whole surface, spot-touching every chip rarely lasts. Stripping the surface back and recoating it as one system does. On steel, chipped paint is a rust start in every chip — the reasoning is in why coatings fail. On wood, a stripped and re-stained surface gives an even finish instead of a patchwork.

Hail does not usually ruin the steel. It ruins the coating, and the coating is what was protecting the steel.

Where blasting is the wrong answer

• Dented vehicle panels. That is body shop or paintless dent repair work.
• Split or broken boards. Those need replacing, not stripping.
• Composite decking. It should not be blasted at all — here is why.

Around Medicine Hat, Redcliff and out through Cypress County and Forty Mile County, a hailstorm often hits a whole yard at once: the trailer, the deck and the house. If several things on one property need stripping, doing them in one visit saves a second setup.

Insurance

If the work is part of a claim, talk to your adjuster before booking anything. Photos of the damage are usually enough for us to quote the stripping side of the work.