Pro Tips For Protecting a Central Florida Home During Storm Season
Damaging high-speed winds can occur at any time, but your home is most at risk during the spring/summer months — when severe storms and tornadoes are most likely to develop.
While you can’t control the weather, you can take essential steps to protect your home against wind damage.
1. Inspect Your Roof
The roof is your first line of defense in a storm. It protects you from the wind, rain, hail, and debris. It’s not an easy job, and it can take a toll. That’s why performing routine maintenance on your roof is important, specifically looking for missing or damaged shingles.
We recommend having your roof inspected once a year to keep the roof in top shape. Remember, even a single weak point could lead to total failure. So if you have a damaged roof — even if it seems minor — you should get it repaired immediately. Otherwise, you’re risking even more significant damage in the future.
2. Schedule a Wind Mitigation Inspection
Wind mitigation inspections focus on a home’s ability to withstand wind damage. The inspector will spend most of their time looking at various areas of your roof. They’ll also look at openings such as the windows, doors, and garage doors to assess how well they’ll hold up during a windstorm.
In addition to assessing the status of your home’s wind/storm protection, wind mitigation inspections educate homeowners and encourage them to take the potential for wind damage seriously. To further encourage you to take wind mitigation into your own hands, Florida offers “wind mitigation credits” for homes equipped with certain safety features. These credits are essentially a discount on your homeowner’s insurance.
3. Reinforce the Doors and Windows
Hurricane-proof shutters, impact-resistant glass, and sturdy, reinforced doors aren’t cheap, but the cost is well worth it. If you have a garage door, pay special attention. Garage doors are often a home’s weakest opening, and winds can shear the door right off its frame, compromising your home’s structural integrity and the occupants inside.
Your inspection report will state whether or not your door is properly rated to withstand hurricane winds. If not, addressing that and other “red flag” issues will get your home back into storm season shape.
4. Keep Your Gutters Clear
The wind isn’t the only threat posed by severe storms. They also bring torrential rain with them. Without gutters, standing water accumulates around the roof and/or the foundation, causing many issues.
Having gutters and downspouts isn’t necessarily enough; they also need to be clean and debris-free. This is why cleaning gutters and downspouts is one of the most critical home maintenance tasks on the list. It’s an easy DIY task you can perform twice yearly – late fall and spring. Otherwise, many gutter-cleaning businesses in the area can do that for you.
5. Clean Your Yard
The property surrounding your home could be full of trash and debris that can be picked up and tossed by the wind. An errant stone or dead tree branch may not seem like much, but during a severe storm, they can be thrown around at speeds approaching 100 mph or more. Even seemingly minor debris can do significant damage if it flies fast enough and through a window.
Schedule Your Wind Mitigation Inspection With SIP
Once you’ve contacted Super Inspection Pros, we’ll send a licensed home inspector to your home within three business days. After completing the inspection, we’ll provide a detailed, accurate inspection report in 24 hours or less so you know exactly what – if anything – needs to be addressed to get your home ready for storm season.
