Storm preparations
Get your home ready for hurricane season with easy updates
Tropical Storm Cristobal, which impacted Louisiana and Florida over the past few days, is a reminder that a season of named storms and hurricanes is upon us.
Some of what we do to prepare for bad weather is in the moment: gathering bottled water, fresh batteries and other staples. The best preparation, though, is taking good care of our homes year-round so that storms and hurricanes, potentially, will do less damage.
Joe Baney, director of field operations for John Moore, the Houstonbased home services company, shared eight areas of home maintenance to consider right now.
1. Your roof
When high wind blows through, missing shingles are the most obvious sign that your roof is aging and in need of repair. A second way to check is by inspecting your attic for water stains because weak spots in your roof can allow rain to get in, leaving evidence over time.
Baney said that homeowners want their roofs to be in the best shape possible, because a bad roof in a tropical storm or hurricane can compromise your entire home.
“If you have a shingle roof that’s 20 to 25 years old, it’s way more susceptible to damage in high winds because the shingles are just deteriorated,” he said, noting that you can
have your roof inspected and even look at its underside in your attic in good weather and during a heavy rain to see if any water is coming through.
“All it takes is one shingle missing to get water up in others and make them missing, too. Ask yourself, ‘Am I in as good shape as I can be before a storm hits?’ ” he said. “Once a storm blows through, look at it to see how much damage you have. I wish there was some magical thing to keep shingles in place, but there’s not.”
2. Windows
Older, deteriorating windows are a problem both with rain and wind. Regardless of how old they are, make sure your windows are sealed with caulk and the trim board around them is secure. That will keep wind and rain out, and help with energy efficiency, too.
“Good windows seal and shut and have no wind blowing through,” Baney said. “Some you can hear wind whistling, and that’s not a good window.”
If you upgrade windows, make sure to get double-paned with UV protection to keep heat out and air conditioning in during hot summer months.
Older windows also can have rotting frames that allow water in, potentially damaging your walls and floor, too. If any have broken or cracked glass, get those fixed by a glass or window repair person because in strong winds, that glass can simply shatter into your home.
If you’re near the water, you may want to board up your windows when a hurricane is imminent to protect your windows from projectiles.
Some people swear by using duct tape on windows to prevent shattered glass. If you try that method, Baney suggests using three crisscrossing lines.
3. Clean your gutters
Provided you can climb a ladder, cleaning out your gutters or eaves troughs is an easy DIY task. Baney said that pine needles, leaves and dirt all accumulate in gutters, clogging downspouts and prompting all sorts of other problems when it rains.
“I don’t know why you can’t get 10 or more years out of gutters if you take good care of them, and that means keeping them clean,” Baney said. “It’s easy to check to see if they’re clogged. If you see clumps or piles, the whole thing can be full of leaves, and you don’t always need to get on a ladder to look for that.”
When we have a heavy rain, check to see if water comes out of your downspouts. If it does, you’re good. But if you see spots where water is overflowing the gutter, then you’ve got debris that needs to be cleaned out.
“(Clogged gutters) can create so many problems,” Baney said. “We see it a lot. We go out and a gutter has been completely full of leaves for years. The downspout doesn’t work at all and water rolls over the edge of the gutter, and it’s doing that on the outside and the inside. Then we look at the board nails it’s attached to and that’s rotted out. It can create a lot of secondary damage.”
4. Trim your trees
A canopy of trees shading your yard and arching over your driveway looks beautiful, but in a wind storm it’s an accident waiting to happen. Heavy, looming limbs can break off and land on your car or fall through windows or the roof of your home.
“If you’re constantly picking branches or limbs out of your yard, that’s a sign your tree is aging,” said Baney, adding he’s not an arborist but has seen plenty of damage done by aging, untrimmed trees. “Some people let trees go, saying, ‘It’s a tree, what do you do?’ Well, some trees need to be kept back and trimmed.”
Look for heavy branches or limbs that hang low or others that stretch across your driveway, where a car might be parked. Others dangle near or over your roof — or your neighbor’s roof or even near power lines. All of those are potential problems because they can break off and damage what’s beneath them or get caught in strong winds and become a projectile.
Baney said homeowners should keep trees trimmed to avoid trouble. If you’re not sure how to do it safely and in a way that protects the health of the tree, hire an arborist who will know exactly what to do.
5. Surge protector
If a storm creates an electrical surge, that sudden powering off and on can fry any electrical devices plugged in when it hits — and Mother Nature won’t discriminate, ruining things that cost a little or a lot.
An easy way around it is to have a surge protector, either one that’s installed in your home’s electrical panel or even those strips of outlet plugs you can use in different rooms in your home.
The strips aren’t expensive but can look like a lot of clutter. A home surge protector is more expensive, but it’s also more effective, Baney said.
Any home can be retrofitted with one, but it should be installed by a licensed professional who will take the panel apart, connect the surge protector and then reinstall everything, Baney said. It can cost $600-$700 for an average-size home, with the cost going up with the size of the home.
“Your electronics — none of that stuff is cheap — and you can protect everything for 600 bucks … and I mean everything that is plugged in,” Baney said. “It’s a reasonable investment to protect your electronics, and it protects other things, like your air conditioner, your freezer, your refrigerator.”
6. Generators
Some homes are built with whole-home standby generators; the rest of us can buy a portable unit at a hardware store and keep enough gasoline to operate it during a power outage.
Baney said that now is a good time to test your generator — regardless of which kind it is. Turn it on and make sure it does what it’s supposed to do so that if you lose power during or after a storm you can use your generator to operate your refrigerator, coffeemaker or other appliances.
If you don’t have either, at least make sure you have a good size cooler you can fill with ice, he said.
7. Install a French drain
Let’s say you live in a neighborhood in transition and homes around you have been demolished and replaced by bigger, newer ones on a lot that’s been elevated with fill dirt. You’re now the low point on your block, and every time we get a heavy rain, the water on your neighbor’s lots runs into your backyard.
One of the best ways to resolve that — avoiding standing water in a low point, likely your backyard — is to install a French drain. A French drain is a trench that contains perforated pipe that removes water where you don’t want it — your yard and around your home — and sends it where its supposed to be — the street and an appropriate storm sewer.
The size of your project will likely determine whether you want to tackle it yourself or hire it out, but it should be no surprise that there are plenty of how-to videos on the subject on YouTube.com, and one of them has more than 1.3 million views.
“If you see standing water in your yard from a normal rain, you need to think about, ‘Holy cow, what happens if we get 17 inches of water in two days?’ ” Baney said. “If you don’t have (a French drain), ask yourself if you should.”
Baney added that if you already have one but you still have standing water, check to make sure your lines are clean. One way to test it now is to put your garden hose on the drain and see if the water backs up. If it does, it likely has debris that needs to be blown out.
8. Water wells
If you live in a rural area, you may have a well system. That means if a storm causes you to lose power, you also lose the ability to flush your toilet and run water from faucets and your shower, Baney said.
“If you live on a well system, you’re electricity dependent and you need to plan for how you’ll get power to that well (during a power outage),” Baney said. “You know that old story of a storm’s coming, so fill your bathtub with water? That’s because so many people were on wells.”