Severe thunderstorms can cause a lot of damage to your property. If you have no measurements in place to protect you from such a storm, then you’ll need to learn a few basic recovery steps.
Thunderstorms, especially severe ones frequently occur in the United States. These include heavy rains, high winds, and sometimes even snow.
It actually pretty commonly known that severe thunderstorms can kill and injure people, making them a real safety hazard not just for your property but for your life as well.
These natural occurrences impact as much as a million people on yearly bases and millions more if a hurricane decides to hit either coast.
Firstly, we are going to talk about how to prepare for a severe storm and we’ll follow up with more recovery steps.
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Preparation
It’s important to prepare for such occurrences to protect your home and yourself from physical harm. There are dozens if not hundreds of ways to protect from various cases that severe thunderstorms bring with them.
One of the most common ways of protection is to invest in a lightning rod that will protect your property from lighting and prevent any harm to your electronic belongings.
Hails and storms can cause a lot of damage to your car, so a great way to protect it is to park it somewhere with a roof over the head. The best place to do it is a garage.
The best way to protect your home is to install wind shutters and high impact windows so hail doesn’t damage your windows. You can secure your front and back door with heavy-duty bolts to prevent any unwanted breaching.
Your roof is the part of your property that will mostly be impacted by these natural occurrences. These oftentimes will damage it, causing it to leak water when it rains. Also, these damages are some of the most costly ones as you might need to do a whole renovation.
The best way to protect the roof is to add more nails to it, seal it with cement, and even place steel straps over each tile.
Now that we’ve outlined some of the preparations let’s talk about recovery.
Recovery Steps after a Thunderstorm
After one such natural event, the expenses that will go into repairs might be in the thousands. As we mentioned, the roof is the part of your home that will mostly be impacted by various things. Others include broken windows, damaged doors, damaged landscapes, and tons of others.
But let’s start with the roof.
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1. Roof Recovery
Tree branches do the most damage to your roof during a severe thunderstorm. Other damages include other debris flying and hitting the roof from high winds and hail.
Any number of these can cause a multitude of damages that includes the likes of:
- Holes in the roof
- Leaks caused by the holes
- Split seams
- Missing shingles
- Damaged shingles
- Tiles being completely broken, cracked, and split
- The gutter disconnecting from the roof
- And various other damages
Fixing the roof is a rather complicated ordeal as it requires a lot of expertise and knowledge on the subject. So your best bet would be to hire a contractor that will fix it.
Before a thunderstorm occurs, it’s best that you take care of some other things that will prevent any unwanted damages to your roof. The most common one includes tree trimming and even stump removal.
If you trim the branches of your nearby tree, then there is no way for them to reach your roof. This is one step that every American does before a storm, and you need to start doing it as well. Fortunately for you, there are expert services that focus solely on this task. For more information, make sure to visit here.
2. Siding and Exterior Recovery
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The siding and exterior of your property are equally susceptible to damage as your roof. Severe thunderstorms can cause a lot of costly damages that would be a nightmare to pay off.
Some of the most common damages done to the siding and exterior include the following:
- Cracks on the siding that can develop into much bigger problems if not taken care of
- Holes in the siding caused by debris and hail
- Dents, dings, and chinks mostly on aluminum-type siding
- Paint damage that would require an entire repaint of the exterior
As we said, some of these can result in costly repairs while others would only require a repaint. For the most part, your best recovery option would be to hire professionals that deal with these types of damages as you’re risking pests and insects from infiltrating your home.
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3. Windows and Door Recovery
Fortunately for you, windows and doors cost the least amount to repair after a thunderstorm. However, they are the easiest ones to break.
Fortunately for you, protecting this is also a very easy task and we even told you how to do it in a previous part in this article.
However, some of the types of damages done to your windows and doors include the following:
- Broken windows and splitting frames
- Splitting doors and doorframes
- Chipped paint on both windows and doors
- And various cracks shatters, and debris embedded all over them
Recovery for these is some of the least expensive ones compared to the other parts of your home. Recovery mostly includes checking for damages and wholesale replacements if you’ve found any. Replacing these could be done by yourself or you could hire a contractor who knows how to professionally carry out the task.
Regardless of what part of your home is damaged after a severe thunderstorm, it’s important to take the necessary recovery steps to prevent any future damages.
While you will need a professional’s help to carry out these repairs and recovery steps, it’s important to do it as quickly as possible. Some will cost more than others, but that’s why can take the necessary precautions to prevent costly damages.