Repair King has inspected some of Owatonna's best-known roofs: the Owatonna Country Club clubhouse overlooking the golf course, and the Super 8 on Frontage Road West along I-35. Owatonna saw 1-inch hail on April 13, 2026 and a 70 mph gust at the airport on July 28, 2025. The city requires a permit and two inspections on every shingle re-roof, plus photos of the deck, underlayment and nailing, and our dated photo reports are built for exactly that.
Wind and hail damage across a big, complicated shingle roof. Our photos from the clubhouse show shingles lifted and creased along whole courses, bruised shingles marked for hail, spatter and dents on the metal box vents, and chalk-marked dents on the large turbine vents. It's the kind of damage that's invisible from the first tee.
The Owatonna Country Club was organized on May 15, 1919, and Federated Insurance's C.I. Buxton was its first president. The original nine holes grew to 18 after architect Joel Goldstrand designed the back nine in 1973. The old clubhouse was torn down and replaced with a 23,000-square-foot building that opened in September 2002, and the course has been rebuilt twice since, in 2004 and in a 2008 project that opened three brand-new holes in 2010.
A clubhouse roof like that is a big hip-and-valley shingle roof with long runs of ridge vent, rows of box vents and large turbine vents, all fully exposed to wind across open fairways and ponds. We walked every slope, lifted tabs to check the seal strips, marked each hail hit and photographed every vent. For a board or club manager, that photo file is the starting point for deciding on repairs.
Commercial roofs first. Both of these are right here in Owatonna.
We inspected this two-story motel off I-35 on September 13, 2022: the roof slopes, plumbing vents and turbine vents, the vinyl siding on every side, the windows and screens, and the rock-filled drip edges along the walls. By November 2022, bundles of new shingles were staged on site.
Across the clubhouse roof, our photos show courses of shingles lifted and creased by wind, with markers slid under the tabs to show how far they lift. We documented it slope by slope along with the hail hits and dented vents.
Owatonna is a growing regional city with a broad mix of ages: about 1,980 homes from before 1940 near downtown, a 1970s building boom of more than 2,000 homes, and another 2,100-plus built since 2000. Roofs here range from old board-decked houses to newer subdivisions, plus commercial strips along I-35 and US-14.
| Local factor | What we see in Owatonna | Why it matters for repairs |
|---|---|---|
| Housing age | 1,980 homes built before 1940; 2,057 in the 1970s; 1,611 from 2000-2009 and 558 from 2010-2013, out of 11,212 (Census ACS 2017-2021) | 1970s homes are on their second or third roof; 2000s homes are reaching the end of their first |
| No overlays | Owatonna's roofing guidelines require all old roof coverings to be removed before a new roof goes on | Every re-roof is a tear-off, so we check decking and plan for sheathing replacement |
| Commercial corridors | Hotels, restaurants and shops along I-35 and US-14 | Big roofs with many vents and turbines; each one gets photographed |
| Housing mix | 71% single-family detached, 1,080 units in buildings of 20+, about 73% owner-occupied | Apartment and townhome owners need a written condition report |
| Historic core | The 1891 Steele County Courthouse and the 1908 National Farmers' Bank sit in the Owatonna Commercial Historic District | Brick and stone buildings with complex flashing need careful repair |
| Open ground | Golf courses, parks and farm fields on the city's edges | Wind across open ground lifts and creases shingles, like we found at the country club |
Details from our photo files. We don't list claim results or dollar amounts.
NOAA storm reports show 1-inch hail a mile north of Owatonna on April 13, 2026, and 1-inch hail in town on April 28, 2025. The largest hail near our Owatonna job site since 2015 was 1.25 inches on June 13, 2022, and 1-inch hail also fell on April 12, 2022. Wind is just as big a factor: the Owatonna airport measured a 70 mph gust on July 28, 2025, and a 61 mph gust was reported on May 11, 2022.
| Date | Type | What was reported | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 13, 2026 | Hail | 1" hail reported | Shingles, roof vents, gutters, siding, window screens |
| Jul 28, 2025 | Wind | 70 mph wind gust measured | Missing or creased shingles, ridge caps, flashing, siding |
| Apr 28, 2025 | Hail | 1" hail reported | Shingles, roof vents, gutters, siding, window screens |
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports within 3 miles of Owatonna properties Repair King has worked on, through September 2026. Reports are from trained spotters and the public; hail can hit a street without a report.
Our free Roof & Storm Report looks up hail and wind history for your exact address, not just the city.
Photos taken by Repair King at Owatonna properties.
Yes. Owatonna requires a building permit for every roofing project except commercial membrane roofs, issued when you apply. The city does two inspections, an underlayment/deck inspection and a final, and it wants photos of the sheathing, underlayment, ice barrier and nailing pattern plus a shingle wrapper at the final.
Owatonna's roofing guidelines also say all old roof coverings must be removed before new ones are installed, so there are no layovers here. If a re-roof happens over a weekend, the city requires a pre-inspection with the applicator before work starts. Inspections are scheduled by calling the Building Department at least a day ahead; the city doesn't do same-day inspections. Repair King applies for the residential roofing permit online under our Minnesota license, BC695228.
Commercial shingle roofs use Owatonna's commercial roofing permit, and fees follow the city's valuation-based schedule. Our photo reports cover the deck, underlayment, ice barrier and nailing on every job, which is exactly what the Owatonna inspector asks to see.
Owatonna is the Steele County seat, home to Federated Insurance and to Louis Sullivan's National Farmers' Bank of 1908, the first of the eight small-town Midwest banks he designed. The 1891 Romanesque Revival Steele County Courthouse is part of the Owatonna Commercial Historic District.
Banker Carl Bennett raised about $125,000 for Sullivan's bank, one of the architect's celebrated jewel boxes. Downtown, the courthouse by T. Dudley Allen is built of Austin red brick trimmed with Lake Superior brownstone. South of downtown, the Pillsbury Academy campus is its own historic district, and the houses around it date from the 1860s through the 1930s. Repair King's Owatonna work has run from the country club clubhouse to a motel on I-35, and we bring the same inspection to homes in every part of town.
Start with an inspection, not a decision. A damaged shingle does not automatically mean a roof needs to be replaced. What matters is what the inspection actually finds on the roof, siding, gutters and windows.
Repair King is a licensed Minnesota contractor (BC695228). We are not a public adjuster and do not negotiate insurance claims. Questions about your policy belong with your insurance company.
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NOAA storm reports show 1-inch hail a mile north of Owatonna on April 13, 2026, and 1-inch hail on April 28, 2025. The largest since 2015 near our job site was 1.25 inches on June 13, 2022. Run a free Roof & Storm Report for your exact address.
No. Owatonna's roofing guidelines require all old roof coverings to be removed before new roofing goes on. Every re-roof here is a tear-off, and we plan for any deck repairs.
Two: an underlayment/deck inspection and a final. The contractor also provides photos of the sheathing, underlayment, ice barrier and nailing pattern, plus a shingle wrapper, at the final. Weekend jobs need a pre-inspection.
Owatonna's roofing guidelines exempt commercial membrane roofs from the building permit; shingled commercial roofs use the commercial roofing permit. We confirm with the city for your building.
Yes. We inspected the Owatonna Country Club clubhouse roof and the Super 8 on Frontage Road West, where we documented the roof, vents, siding and windows in September 2022.
That's a question for your insurer. We document both kinds of damage, like the wind-lifted shingles we photographed at the country club, and give you the dated report.
The National Weather Service office in Chanhassen (Twin Cities) covers Owatonna and Steele County.
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