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Fixing your house after a storm is vital to avert a secondary disaster. If you fail to deal with storm damage correctly, you may prematurely move back to your home and jeopardize your family’s health due to various hazards. You have to act swiftly — but not rashly.
Follow these five steps to get your wind-ravaged, flooded property restored in a timely manner.
1. Prioritize Safety
Evaluating a storm-damaged house can be dangerous. Although it’s still structurally sound enough to remain standing, it may collapse without warning due to compromised roofing sections, beams, load-bearing walls or foundations. If your house doesn’t cave in, stepping on a slippery surface or debris can injure you.
Don’t go in without wearing personal protective equipment, bringing proper tools and devising a well-thought-out plan. Wear what construction professionals would when performing this task, including nonslip closed-toe footwear, safety glasses, a head cover like a helmet or hard hat, and work gloves. Be wary of poor indoor air quality — put on an N95 respirator to protect yourself from contaminants and reduce your risk of getting ill or hurt.
Regarding the actual property evaluation, start with the exterior. Walk around the perimeter and look for visible red flags, such as fallen roofing shingles in the yard, cracked siding panels and broken windowpanes.
Keep your evaluation cursory — unless you’re a professional roofer with an adjustable, non-self-supporting ladder and a fall protection kit. Although roof issues are more apparent up close than from the ground, biting off more than you can chew does more harm.
When inspecting the home interior, ensure the power and gas lines are off. Exposure to damp electrical outlets and leaky gas pipes can endanger you. Watch out for peeling wallpaper, warping floors, bulges in ceilings, paint stains and other evidence of water damage.
2. Beware of Invisible Damage
Some signs of storm damage are subtle and can elude an untrained person. Engage all your senses to collect information your eyes can’t perceive.
For example, a musty odor that reminds you of a mildewy vehicle may indicate mold growth, alluding to high moisture levels. Thumping and scratching sounds suggest your storm-damaged house has critters that probably got through a hole. If wildlife can get inside your property, so can the elements. Soft drywall is tactile proof of water intrusion.
Furthermore, your senses of smell, hearing and touch can’t always detect every damp area. Without a thermal imaging camera or a moisture meter, hidden water intrusion sources can remain undiscovered for a long time, compound, and become bigger headaches.
There’s also the subject of broken windows and fallen glass. While larger shards are easy to see and collect, smaller chips may elude you at first. As you go about removing glass, make sure you’re checking the floor with a flashlight after each pass. Light glinting off the glass will let you know where you should focus your attention.
3. Document the Damage
Pull out your camera, record your property assessment and take as many shots as possible for insurance purposes. Videos and photos freeze your house in time, capturing the extent of storm damage before the investigation commences.
These digital documents will back your insurance claim and protect your best interests. They can tell a story and reveal what went wrong, aiding the investigation. Your records can help you refute any allegation of intentional damage meant to inflate your payout.
Put off cleanup. Many make the mistake of removing the items they want to discard ahead of the claim process. Temporary fixes, like covering damaged windows with towels, bags or tape, are fine and shouldn’t affect your outcome.
Moreover, keeping your recordings and images on file allows you to make before-and-after compilations. These are handy when you sell your house and prove its structural integrity. Interested buyers may learn about its storm damage history and use it against you as a bargaining chip.
4. Notify Your Insurer
Contact your insurance agent or the appropriate department about your loss to initiate the claim process. Do not waste time, for informing your insurer late can backfire and disqualify you from filing.
Review your policy to refresh your memory of your insurer’s preferred medium. For instance, your flood insurance provider may require you to immediately submit a written notice of your situation.
Ask everything you need to know while you have them on the line. For example, you can inquire about when you can begin cleanup or whether you can do repairs yourself.
Afterward, your homeowners insurance carrier will send an adjuster to investigate. Dealing with this professional can be nerve-wracking because your house’s restoration funds are at stake.
Prepare by familiarizing yourself with your coverage and knowing your rights to negotiate a settlement you deserve, not what your insurer thinks is enough. Accepting the first offer is a common mistake.
Be polite and truthful to avoid unnecessary conflict. Do your research to substantiate the estimated storm damage restoration costs.
Record your conversation or take notes to remember all the details to ensure the final settlement offer is consistent with the initial verbal promise. Let the other party know about it. That said, refuse to give a recorded statement because you don’t have to and your insurer may use it against you.
5. Avoid Overestimating Your Capabilities
Self-sufficiency is a tenet of survivalism. Survivalists make everything from scratch, such as firecraft essentials, door security bars and rainwater harvesting systems. Restoring your storm-damaged house is a definite badge of honor. However, you may not be qualified for the task.
Say you’re handy enough — the law may not legally allow you to repair specific parts of your broken property without holding an appropriate and valid license. If your house isn’t free and clear, you may have to seek permission from your mortgage lender to do it yourself.
Discerning survivalists and preppers know when to ask for help. Focus on projects that don’t require licensed professionals if you insist on getting your hands dirty. These vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. For example, Oregon considers most home improvements to be licensed work.
Get Your Storm-Damaged Home Fixed ASAP
Restoring a wind-ravaged or water-intruded property is a taxing process. Tackle it accordingly to keep this unfortunate situation from getting worse.
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