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sidewalk chaulk. 1, inexpensive, does the job , can purchase at ever Walmart and washes off with the first rain. I have had some examiners state how good my photos were as they could all the rainbow colors.

I tried the sidewalk chalk from Wal-mart. Seemed to be too soft, would wear out and needed a new piece on every roof.

JWG

I wish I'd had these last 2 tips a few years ago when working a hail storm in a small town in Indian reservation country.  Had several claims for roof damage to the school district and the public housing authority, weather was pretty warm & the bugs bad.  Felt like there were some bad vibes going on as time went by.  Figured it out when I got back into the pickup & looked at my face in the rearview mirror.  Could have been Husker's Last Stand.

I'm not sure which one is funnier...scrounging free scraps of drywall or having to pay to powerwash chalk off of a roof for a no-pay claim.  On the latter, if there were enough marks to make it an issue to the homeowner, it sounds like Linda was working a claim for that carrier famous for their 12 hit minimum requirement.    

This is a new one, I've never heard of railroad chalk. Found the link. Gonna have to try it. Thanks John

JWG

In 2001, I bought the super gigunda size sidewalk chalk from Walmart with all the colors in creation (and a few God never thought of) and still have some of it left.  Now that I'm a staffer my wife can use it to create temporary artwork on the patio. 

But, I have to ask myself, are we really spending a whole forum thread talking about chalk?

I'm sorry, I created a monster. But at least it has to do with adjusting.

JWG

Way to go, Larry...next thing you know some bean counter will read your post & we'll need to send a roof sample to ITEL!   So much for same day 1st & finals.  

A funny sidenote to this subject.  A friend of mine had a new examiner and she said she could not "see" the chalk circles around the hail bruises on the roof.  This was a plain old tan 3-tab with white sidewalk chalk and everyone but the examiner could see the chalk circles and the hail hits.  He tried different colors and sent at least 5 different example with no success.  She let the cat out of the bag when she said she used to work at State Farm and was used to multi-colored marked off squares and thought they were "pretty".  My friend had all of this he could take and took a can of bright orange parking lot spray paint and marked the roof again.  The roof was visible from the space station, the examiner paid the claim and never sent in a reply and never sent my friend another assignment, for which he was greatful!

OK the chaulk of choice for old adjusters is Walmart rectangle multi-color sidewalk .In order of importance 1. Cheapest 2. Walmart in ever town over 10,000 3. square box(easy to store 4. easy to spray 6 sides with hair spray 5. Easy to see in digital photos 6. Two 35MM film can will act as a holder for the chaulk 7. Can get the film cans in the photo department at Walmart (one stop). 8 Lots of file examiners like the rainbow colors and may make a nice comment on your photos. 9. Pre school kids will love the stumps. 10 Save the stumps until you have a bag full and toss them to the loud mouth dog from the ridge and really let all the neighbors know what a grand carrier the house you are on has.

I need some help on the next 10 reasons.

Can't wait to try the hair spray technique. I used a roll of duct tape to make a holder for the chalk and a cap. I make it loose enough as I wrap it around the chalk so that I can keep using it as the chalk wears out. The cap fits firmly on the holder, though, to keep the dust from getting everywhere.

Here's how: wrap the chalk with the sticky side up first, then wrap another layer on top of it to cover the adhesive. You may want to put cardboard or a peice of plastic in between the two layers to give it that lasting touch of quality.

While leaving the the holder in place on the chalk, make the cap the same way.  This will enable a snug-fitting cap.