Roofing in Eau Claire, Altoona and Chippewa Falls
Lenz Construction has an office at 2112 Eastridge Center, Eau Claire, WI 54701. We replace roofs, siding, windows and gutters across the Chippewa Valley, and most of what we do here starts with a storm.
May 15, 2025 is still working its way through this market
The Chippewa Valley took one of the worst hail events in its recent record that afternoon. The National Weather Service logged 4.00-inch hail — grapefruit — near Altoona, with a cluster of reports behind it: 3.75 inches, 3.50 inches, and repeated reports at 2.75 and 2.50 inches across Altoona. Seymour recorded 2.25 inches. Lake Hallie and Eau Claire proper logged 2.00-inch stones.
For scale: 1.00-inch hail is the size that typically bruises an asphalt roof. Most of the Altoona swath was hit with stones two to four times that diameter. Local insurance agencies reported being flooded with claims within 24 hours, and car dealerships along the corridor were writing off inventory.
A second, smaller event followed on July 4, 2025, dropping 1.00-inch hail on Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire — enough on its own to damage an aging roof.
Why this still matters a year later
Hail damage does not leak on a schedule. A bruised shingle loses its granule layer, the mat underneath starts breaking down, and the failure shows up one, two, sometimes three winters later — usually as an ice dam or a ceiling stain, long after anyone connects it to the storm.
Two things to know if you are reading this in 2026 and never filed:
- Wisconsin policies generally carry a time limit on filing a claim from a given date of loss. It varies by carrier and policy form. If your roof was under the May 15 or July 4 swath and you never had it looked at, the date on the calendar is working against you.
- A denial from a drive-by inspection is not the end of it. Test squares, a chalked grid and photographs of actual impact bruising are how a hail claim is properly documented, and that is not what happens from the street.
Wisconsin licensing: what to check before you sign
Wisconsin does not issue a standalone roofing license, which surprises a lot of homeowners and gets exploited by out-of-state crews after a storm.
What Wisconsin actually requires: a contractor improving a one- or two-family dwelling must be registered as a Dwelling Contractor with the Department of Safety and Professional Services, and at least one principal of that business must hold a Dwelling Contractor Qualifier (DCQ) credential. The DCQ is a personal license — it requires passing an exam on the Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code, and it renews every two years with continuing education. Without it, the business cannot pull a permit on your house.
Commercial roofing sits outside the DCQ requirement and runs under the Commercial Building Code instead.
Before you sign anything, ask for the company's DSPS credential and look it up. A storm-chase crew working out of a rented truck will have neither, and the tell is usually that they want to pull the permit in your name.
Your right to cancel, and what it actually says
Wis. Stat. § 100.65 is written for exactly this situation, and most homeowners — and a fair number of contractors — get the cancellation window wrong.
Before you sign, a residential contractor has to hand you two things in bold type: a statement asking whether the work relates to an insurance claim, which you sign and they keep a copy of, and a detachable Notice of Cancellation.
The cancellation right is not three days from signing. It runs until the third business day after you receive written notice from your insurer that the claim has been denied, in whole or in part. So if you sign a contract and the carrier then denies the claim, you are not locked in. Cancel in writing, by hand delivery or first-class mail, and the contractor has ten days to return your deposit.
The same statute bars any contractor from paying or rebating part of your deductible, and limits what one may do on your claim at all.
What a roofer may and may not do on your claim
Under § 100.65(8), a contractor may not represent or negotiate with your insurer on your behalf unless you expressly consent — and even then, only to discuss the damage, provide an estimate, or discuss repair options. Anything past that is public adjusting, which requires a separate Wisconsin license.
This is enforced. In October 2025 the Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner issued a final decision against a contractor running repair work and "claim assistance" together through an assignment of benefits, imposing $6,000 in forfeitures for acting as an unlicensed public adjuster. The Commissioner's office now advises homeowners not to sign agreements assigning their insurance benefits to a contractor.
So the honest version of what we do: we inspect, we document the damage with photographs and test squares, we write a line-item estimate, and we meet your adjuster on the roof and walk it with them. You stay the one talking to your carrier about money. Any roofer promising to "handle the whole claim for you" in Wisconsin is describing something they are not licensed to do.
What we do in the Chippewa Valley
- Roof replacement — asphalt, metal, cedar and synthetic
- Hail and wind damage inspection, documented for the carrier
- Siding, windows and seamless gutters, which take hail damage alongside the roof and are frequently missed on the first estimate
- Commercial and multi-family roofing
We are a CertainTeed ShingleMaster PREMIER certified contractor, the highest credential CertainTeed issues. Fewer than a handful of contractors in Wisconsin and Minnesota hold it.
What it costs here
Eau Claire labor generally runs somewhat below Twin Cities and Madison rates, so replacement costs in the Chippewa Valley tend to sit at the lower end of the regional band. The full breakdown — by home size, by material, and what changes when it is an insurance claim rather than a retail job — is in our roof replacement cost guide.
If it is storm damage, the number that matters is your deductible, not the roof price. See storm restoration for how that process runs.
Communities we serve from this office
Eau Claire · Altoona · Lake Hallie · Chippewa Falls · Seymour · Menomonie · Bloomer · Osseo · Augusta · Fall Creek · Elk Mound · Eleva · Mondovi · Durand
Talk to the Eau Claire office
2112 Eastridge Center, Eau Claire, WI 54701 (715) 210-8088 Monday–Friday, 7am–6pm
Inspections are free and take about thirty minutes. If there is no damage, we will tell you that — a roof that does not need replacing is not a job worth having.