Is your house prepared to withstand storm damage? Learn what to do if you have storm damage on your roof.
No matter how well you take care of your roof, you can’t control the weather. If a heavy storm rolls by, storm damage will take its toll on the roof of your house. If that happens, what do you do next?
Here’s everything you need to know, so you can be prepared in case a storm happens near you.
Be Prepared
As with most home repair issues, the best thing to do is be prepared for a storm before one is even forecast. The better you shore up your roof’s defences, the better it will be able to cope with any storm that passes through.
Take a look at the trees that are near your roof. Are there any branches that are hanging near it, or even over it? Look into having those branches trimmed. If a bad storm comes through, those branches may fall off onto your roof. They could pull shingles off, or even punch holes into the roof itself. Trimming the branches back now eliminates that problem.
Inspect your roof if bad weather is on the way. You can get up there on a ladder, or bring in a roofer to do it for you if heights aren’t your thing. You’ll need to look for missing, curled or cracked shingles. These could be pulled off by high winds and let water in, so replace them now.
Get into your attic space and take a look at your roof from the inside, too. You’re looking for any daylight that’s coming in through gaps in the shingles. If you see any gaps, get them filled now before the bad weather comes.
Damage That Can Be Done By Storms
If you’ve already had a storm and encountered damage to your roof, then you’ll be seeing some of a variety of different issues.
In many cases, high winds will catch any loose shingles on the roof, pulling them up and in some cases pulling them away entirely. If you hadn’t inspected your roof recently before a storm hit, you may find that many shingles have been pulled away by the wind. Even if the shingles are a little loose, then this gives the wind leverage on them and so can pull them up off the roof.
If there were tree branches overhanging the roof, then you may be dealing with fallen branches too. These cause all kinds of damage that you’d much rather avoid. Even if they haven’t fallen off and hit your roof, they still cause problems thanks to their leaves.
These are easily pulled off the trees by the wind, and they’ll end up in the gutters of your roof. This causes blockages, a problem when you’re also dealing with rain.
Hail damage is something that you will have to look out for, too. If there was a hailstorm, the hailstones will have hit your roof with some force. In some cases, you can even see the dents the stones cause on metalwork on your roof, such as AC ducts.
Even if they haven’t done that, they can still ‘bruise’ your shingles. This is where they hit them with force and leave an indentation, or a ‘bruise’. Over time, this damages the integrity of the shingle and lets water in.
This leads us to water damage to your roof. With heavy rain or hail, coupled with blocked gutters from fallen leaves and other debris, you can easily get water in your roof. You’ll see if you have water damage if there’s water overflowing from the gutters, or if water is leaking into your home. You’ll see this in any water stains that start appearing on the ceiling of your home.
You’ll also want to check your attic, as water gets into your timbers holding your roof up, causing mold and mildew. Left unchecked, these cause serious damage and can even lead to a new roof needing to be fitted.
What To Do If You Have Storm Damage
The first thing to do after a storm is to take a look at your roof, and see what damage has occurred. As you would when you normally inspect your roof, you should take a look at the outside on a ladder, as well as getting into your attic and taking a look.
Look for any damage that you haven’t seen before, such as water damage, missing shingles, and so on.
If you see damage, you may be able to take some of the repair work on yourself. If you have spare shingles stored away, you can replace the ones that have been damaged. This is a fairly simple job, and you can find guides on how to do it online.
If debris has found its way into the gutters, then you can simply pull it out with your hands, to unblock them. If you want to ensure the blockages don’t happen again, you can buy a gutter guard to go in them. These stops any more debris getting in, and are very inexpensive.
Call Your Insurers
If there’s any extensive storm damage to your roof, you’ll want to call your insurer before you start looking into replacing it. In some cases, you’ll be able to make a claim for the costs of repairing it. The insurer will send an expert out to examine your roof, and determine whether this is the case for you.
If you have a claim, then you’ll be able to get the cost of repairing your roof covered. Check with your insurer if they have a list of approved roofers that they work with. It may be the case that you’ll have to use one of their roofers to get the repairs done.
If you’re prepared, a storm won’t pose too much of a threat to your roof. Inspect it regularly and ensure that there are no problems that can be made worse by bad weather.
Keep up with maintenance, and when there’s a storm check right away for damage. If you act quickly, you can keep damage to a minimum.
