How to Prepare Your Home for a Spring or Summer Storm

Is your home ready for this year’s spring and summer storms? If not, there are some easy ways to prepare.

Well before that first big spring/summer storm touches down, you need to clean out your gutters. Any debris such as sticks and leaves that piled up over the winter can cause your gutters to back up. If they back up, they’re going to cause some major problems for your roof and your home. Since gutters are attached to our homes to protect the foundation from getting damaged, you’re risking an abundance of flooding and water damage to your ceiling and walls.

You should also take some time to trim your trees. While you may not consider this a priority, if a branch happens to be too long, it could fall on your home and cause serious damage. The spring and summer storms that we typically see bring a lot of wind and rain, so it’s very likely that an unstable tree could topple right over and land on your roof. If that happened, you’d likely have to replace your roof or the shingles. Be sure to keep your land clear and excavate any old brush and trees. About 75% of all houses in North America are outfitted with roof shingles. You can either trim the branches yourself or reach out to a landscaping company to remove a full tree from your property. If you want advice regarding if a tree is in a dangerous location, reach out to your local roof replacement contractors and see what they say.

Did you know that your sump pump could overload due to a heavy rainstorm? If your sump pump overflows, your basement could flood and ruin all of your belongings. Check to make sure your sump pump has a backup battery just in case you lose power. It’s also a good idea to have a second pump handy just in case the main one fails.

If your yard tends to develop pools of water around your home, your foundation is at risk. Work with contractors and lawn service to slope your yard away from your house. This will help keep the rainwater from sitting in a puddle and causing damage to your foundation.

The most obvious thing you can do to protect your home is to make sure that you have plenty of emergency supplies. If you know that a storm is on its way, gather bottles of water, a three-day supply of food, and medication. Throw that in a box along with a battery operated radio and a car charger for your phone. You don’t really need anything fancy for this, just the essentials.

With spring already here and summer on its way, it’s time to start preparing for any potential warmer-weather storm. Cut down any unstable trees to prevent them from falling on your roof, clean out your gutters, and get your emergency kit ready.