Preparing the Outside of Your Home for Summer Storms
Severe rainstorms love the summer months! High winds and rain are more common across the U.S as summer comes into full force. Preparing the outside of your home for severe weather can protect your property and those around you.
Minnesota is no stranger to crazy weather, especially summer thunderstorms! If your home has recently been damaged by a storm, you’ll want to act quickly! Contact us today and we’ll send out one of our experts ASAP.
How to Protect Your Home From Storms
Regardless of where you live, summer storms always seem to come out of nowhere. We all know that the weather channel isn’t always accurate, and that’s why it’s best to always be ready for when that next storm hits! Prepare your home for summer storms with the following tips.
Prepare Your Landscape
Depending on how severe the storm is, heavier items can get picked up in the wind and thrown around. To avoid this, we suggest securing things that are heavier and could cause potential damage such as patio furniture and barbeque grills. You’ll also want to keep your lawn free of any tree branches and debris.
As well as securing your heavier lawn items, you may also need to perform some maintenance on trees to protect your home. Larger trees typically mean larger branches and these branches can detach during storms. This step can help save your home this summer from preventable damage.
Prepare Your Gutter
A gutter’s one job is to divert water away from your home, protecting its foundation and preventing basement flooding. During a harsh storm, it isn’t uncommon for gutters to fly off. Before a storm, you’ll want to make sure your gutters are secured and cleared out. If your gutters are full the excess water could cause them to fall off. By taking this step, you may be saving yourself from flood damage!
Protect Windows and Structures
Taking measures to protect the exterior of your home and other structures nearby is an important step in preparation for severe weather. Protecting windows is the most pressing concern when planning for server storms.. For this, we suggest adding security glass or film to your windows. Not only will this help storm damage, but it adds extra security to your home!
After securing your windows, you should inspect your roof. Check your shingles for damages and replace or secure any loose shingles. Also, check ventilation hardware and any telecommunications equipment like satellite dishes and antennas for secure attachment. It often takes tornado force winds to do serious damage to these items on the roof, but less extreme winds can still rip off shingles, blow debris around, and cause larger items around the yard to become airborne projectiles that can break windows and damage exterior structures.
Understand Your Insurance
Arguably the most important step in preparing your home for summer storms is to know your insurance coverage. While these extra precautions can save you from damage, accidents still happen and nothing is guaranteed. It doesn’t hurt to call your insurance and make sure you’ve covered in case of any storm damage.
If your home has been damaged by a storm, before cleaning up any debris be sure to document everything. Insurance can be tricky and to be sure there are no faults, you’ll want to take pictures of all the damage before submitting your claim.
Need Help? Call Rapid Restoration!
Not only will Rapid Restoration help fix any damage done, but we’ll also help you file your insurance claim! If your home has been damaged by a storm, it’s important to take the right steps and act fast!
The first step after experiencing damage is to call us! No matter the time, our team is available to help you! Once our expert team is there, we’ll assess the situation and start working to restore your property as soon as possible!
