What to Do and What to Look For After a Storm Has Damaged Your Home
Your home exterior would have enough problems if it only had to endure pleasant weather. Hot, sunny days and brisk winter chills both gradually wear away a home’s roof and its siding.
Just to make things a little more interesting, Mother Nature also treats your home exterior to the occasional storm. Storm damage can range from light to extreme, but either way, it demands immediate repair by a qualified home contractor.
Following every storm, it is crucial that you follow these four steps:
- Assess your home exterior for any damage it might have received.
- Send your insurance provider a complete inventory of the storm damage.
- If it is safe, take all possible steps to prevent additional damage from occurring.
- Engage a contractor who can work directly with your insurance provider and perform all necessary exterior repairs.
Your contractor will ultimately provide a complete assessment of the storm damage and prescribe all necessary repairs your home needs to become whole again. That said, it is helpful for the homeowner to give their insurance provider the best assessment of the storm damage they are able to.
Fortunately, you do not have to be particularly handy to identify storm damage. Here are the things you should look for while you are inspecting your home’s siding and its roof.
How to Detect Storm Damage to Siding
Heavy wind, fast-flying debris, and even moderate hail can all deal significant damage to any type of home siding. Vinyl siding reveals where it is damaged by showing cracks, chips, and holes. Very large hailstones leave unambiguous signs of damage – large holes and missing lengths of vinyl siding are impossible to miss. Damage from smaller hailstones can be easier to overlook. If it is made of vinyl or aluminum, take care to really scrutinize your siding so you can detect smaller indentations. It is important to repair these as well!
Wood siding may not reveal light hail damage quite so clearly. If your home has recently been racked by strong gusts of wind, check to see if any lengths of your wood siding have been pried away from the exterior. Prod and nudge suspect areas of your wood siding to see if they give or pull away easily. Any loose wood siding demands immediate repair.
Wood siding is also susceptible to water damage in the wake of heavy rain or flooding. Without time to dry out, wood siding may rot and even breed mildew, which also necessitates replacement.
How to Detect Storm Damage to Roofing
The amount of damage hail can deal with a roof depends on the size of the stones. Even hailstones as small in diameter as a dime can damage older, already weatherworn shingles. Hailstones larger than that posed an increased risk of denting shingles, wearing away their protective granule coating, and knocking them loose altogether.
When you visually inspect your roof following a hailstorm, be on the lookout for obvious indentations and missing shingles, but also inspect your gutters and the area surrounding your home for deposits of dark-colored granules. Any of these signs indicate roof damage that had better be addressed quickly.
Violent wind can tear shingles completely free from your roof. However, lighter winds are still capable of loosening shingles and compromising their ability to repel rainfall. If it is safe for you to do so, check your roof’s shingles to see if you can easily wobble or lift them. Such loose shingles must be replaced before they worsen and threaten your home with water infiltration.
Look closely for impact damage to your roof. If a large branch is resting on your roof, there is a very good chance the area beneath it is badly damaged. Branches surrounding your home may have bounced off the roof before coming to rest there. Note that impact damage may not be apparent from ground level. Binoculars make it easier to inspect your roof from afar if you are uncomfortable climbing a ladder to take a closer look.
Finally, look for any signs of water damage within your home. If your roof or siding have sustained damage that neutralized their ability to fend off rainfall, then water may already have accumulated inside your attic or within your walls. Leaving water in those places greatly increases your home’s chance of becoming infected with black mold.
Reach Out to a Professional
Whether you’re capable of detecting all possible storm damage to your home or haven’t any idea where to inspect first, you’ll still benefit greatly from the aid of a competent exterior remodeling contractor.
Angell’s Construction has repaired countless home exteriors following storms throughout Central Minnesota. We are standing by to fully assess your home’s potential storm damage, work directly with your insurance provider, and perform all the repairs your home needs to become good as new again.
If Mother Nature has been particularly nasty to your home exterior recently, don’t fret. Contact Angell’s Construction today!