Outdoor Maintenance to Prevent Storm Damage

12/9/2020 (Permalink)

When preparing for an upcoming storm, protecting your home is your priority and something to take seriously. Outdoor maintenance goes a long way to assist in minimizing damage resulting from a severe storm. 

While storm damage restoration experts can help with storm and water cleanup after the fact, prevention will save time and money.The following outdoor tasks can help protect against wind damage and water intrusion to your home.

Secure or Store Loose Items

Severe storms often come with high winds. To prevent damage from wind blown items all loose such as  outdoor furniture, trampolines and building materials should be stored or secured.

Tree Maintenance

If you have trees around your home, make an assessment and trim back any branches that could fall on the house, and remove any trees where the root system is weakened.

When planting trees, make sure you are planting for when the tree is mature to ensure the root system won’t encroach into the foundation, but has space to anchor the tree securely. Heavy rain and winds can cause a tree with a compromised root structure to fall over.

Roof and Gutter, Storm Drain Maintenance

Making sure your roof, gutters and downspouts are clear of leaves and other debris will help to keep them functioning properly and reduce the likelihood of water overflowing into the roof cavity under the eaves.

Check your roof and replace or secure any broken, loose or missing shingles. This will help to prevent water saturation and additional roof damage. If you are replacing your roof, consider shingles rated for the highest wind speeds in your area.  

If you have drains on your property make sure those are not obstructed by potted plants, other items or debris  as it will prevent water from properly draining away during heavy rain storms or floods.

Storms are unpredictable, and there is no way to guarantee you will never experience damage to your home resulting from the water or winds of a severe storm. Should you need assistance dealing with storm restoration, SERVPRO of Lakeway / Westlake has trained professionals to respond quickly to any size loss.