How To Check Your Home For Damage After A Storm

After a storm hits, it can be extremely stressful for homeowners. If you live in a climate with a lot of high winds and heavy rain, storms might sound terrifying even if they seem to leave minimal damage. However, even if you think your home survived a storm unscathed, failing to check for damage after a heavy snowfall or hailstorm can leave your house vulnerable for months to come. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to prevent storm damage by getting your house checked by water damage fairfax va services. If you know what to look for, you can prevent damage from occurring while strengthening your house for years to come. Don’t assume that just because you don’t see the damage from a bad winter means it isn’t there. Our homes can deal with a lot of strain over a period of time. Still, you don’t want to wait too long to pay attention to what’s going on with your home after the rainy season. If you want to know how to find damage to your home after a storm, here are a few tips.

Check Your Roof

After a big storm, your roof is the first place you’ll want to look to survey the damage. However, what you’ll find might not be what you were expecting. Damage to your roof doesn’t look obvious at first. The trick to protecting your home in the long term is finding signs of water damage or leaking before it has a chance to infiltrate your home and start rotting the firmament. This means looking for any missing, curled, or broken shingles on your rooftop. If you’ve had a situation where snow and ice have built up on your roof for a long time, you’ll want to pay extra close attention to the affected area. Are your gutters working? Are ice dams and icicles forming at the bottom of your roof? When you look under your roof, are you seeing any sign of water damage or rotting? Be thorough when you do your search. Even if you see only a small amount of debris on your rooftop or surrounding your chimney, clear it off and get a good look at what’s underneath. Picking up on roof damage right after it happens could mean all the difference when it comes to preserving your roof.

Look at the Sidings

If your sidings are made of vinyl or aluminum, you probably won’t have to worry about too much damage after a general storm. However, if you live in an area where hailstorms are common, you’ll definitely want to check your home’s siding to see if any dents or scratches have formed. Even though vinyl is strong and scratch-proof, it could still get dented by coming into contact with a particularly forceful ball of hail or a high-wind sleet storm. Even if the damage to your siding seems minimal, it will help to document it and take pictures so that you’ll be covered for issues down the road. If you’re seeing anything truly worrying, contact your insurance, send them pictures, and ask about next steps.

Make a Note of Anything Missing

Missing shingles aren’t the only things you’ll want to keep an eye out for. When you’re surveying your home, check for less obvious issues like missing pieces of siding, chipped shutters, or dented gutters. If you’re seeing pieces that are missing on the side of your home, you’ll probably want to take a close look at what those pieces were protecting. For instance, if your shutters have flown off or gotten damaged, your windows might be compromised as well. Even if your windows are well insulated, check for smaller cracks and make sure the middle panel of the window hasn’t shattered during the storm. This can be a subtle break that looks like an oil slick pattern in the center of your window, showing that the internal panel full of compressed gas has broken, rendering your window basically useless.

Look for Signs of Water Damage

For any homeowner, water damage is a nightmare. It spreads all over the house and creates huge structural problems, not to mention the potential for mold and mildew in your home’s insulation and walls. Spotting water damage early, however, can help you get out from under the problem. If you see even a small amount of moisture collecting in the corners of your walls or ceilings, try to identify the leak and work to patch it. Don’t wait until a huge discolored spot appears. This will make it nearly impossible for you to fix the issue without investing in a new roof. Check the inside of your home to make sure you’re not overlooking any signs of potential leaks or damage after a storm.