Every year, the United States damage restoration services industry generates more than $4 billion worth of profit! There are more than 110,000 people around the country who work in damage restoration surfaces. These numbers are just some indicator of how much value people get out of professional help when they need to manage the aftermath of a storm.
However, people might not spend as much on damage restoration services if they knew better how to manage storm damage on their own. In some cases, people call the experts to repair a problem that would be simple for them to fix themselves.
On the other hand, sometimes people end up trying to fix damage that is too extensive or complicated to fix without professional tools and training.
Unfortunately, that can require people to later hire professionals to fix a larger and more expensive problem. So what are the appropriate responses to the different kinds of storm damage, and when do you need to call the professionals?
Read on to learn all about the most important things to pay attention to as you navigate the aftermath of a damaging storm!
Understand the Different Types of Storm Damage
There are many different kinds of storm damage. To know how to respond to your storm damage, you will have to look at the specific cause of it. For example, you would respond one way to a large tree branch falling on your roof, and you would respond another way to powerful winds stripping shingles off your roof.
At the same time, you will have to keep in mind that every type of storm damage comes in a variety of intensities. Sometimes, a small branch might only require you to replace a few shingles. On the other end of the spectrum, it can cave in a whole section of a home.
Keep in mind that with each type of storm damage, you may be able to fix it on your own, but it is also possible that you may need professional help. In other words, don’t rule out calling the professionals based on which type of damage you have. Instead, you may or may not call the professionals based on the intensity or complexity of the damage.
Of course, you might also want to call for professional assistance if you are not interested in repairing the problem yourself. County Action Restoration and other services provide convenience as well as expertise.
Assessing Water Damage
More people suffer from water damage than any other kind of damage during storms. Some people notice that water starts collecting in the corner between the exterior walls of their home and the ground immediately adjacent. When this happens, water has a tendency to seep deeper into the foundation of the home.
In extreme cases, this can lead to foundation damage, putting the integrity of your home’s structure at risk. However, in most instances, this will lead to something more like leaking water into the basement.
However, if this problem occurs frequently, it can lead to other problems. Once there is plenty of moisture in your home, it will become the perfect breeding ground for mold and mildew. Mold and mildew removal should usually be left to professionals due to the health risk involved. To find removal experts in your area just search “mold remediation Fort Lauderdale” or whichever area you live in. Now make sure to check some reviews and find a service that suits your needs.
Depending on how long you take to manage water damage, you might end up allowing a small problem to turn into a large one. Speed is of the essence when it comes to water damage in a way that it is not when it comes to wind or hail damage.
If you leave a small problem with water alone for a week, it could end up doing permanent damage to your floors and walls. You might find that the entire home becomes inevitably full of mold as the seasons change.
You can avoid most of these kinds of problems by resolving things quickly. However, you might need extremely powerful fans and other tools to manage water damage. That is why it is important to call the professionals more often in the case of water damage than in the case of wind or hail damage.
Storm Damage Repair for Wind Damage
Make sure to pay attention to what kind of cause leads to each kind of damage your home suffers. Sometimes, the same storm can cause multiple kinds of damage.
A storm with heavy winds might strip off some shingles while also knocking tree branches onto the rooftop. If possible, you will want to know which parts of your roof were damaged by which kinds of damage.
As winds get faster and stronger, they start to rip shingles off. That can be bad enough on its own, but that can also leave the rest of your home vulnerable to rain.
In other words, wind damage combined with water damage is a much bigger deal than wind damage on its own. You should keep in mind that water damage will continue to progress if you don’t get help fixing it right away.
On the other hand, wind damage tends to be somewhat more stable. Whatever damage occurs will be over with after the storm. It is also worth keeping in mind that wind damage can end up damaging vehicles and even pieces of furniture in your home.
Sometimes, the wind may blow objects at incredible speeds at your home and smash windows.
If you have repaired wind damage before, you may be able to resolve some of your problems on your own. However, if there are aspects of the damage that you have not handled before, it might be better to call the professionals.
Serious wind damage can hit a house in a variety of ways at the same time. That makes it difficult for anyone but a professional to have experience with every aspect of it.
How to Manage Hail Damage
One of the things about hail damage that surprises many people is that you cannot always tell whether you have suffered any. After a storm, your home might look exactly the way that it did before even if it has suffered significant hail damage. How is this possible?
Hail damages things without moving them very much. That is because it applies a significant amount of force to a tiny spot all at once. In contrast, wind delivers a lot of force across a huge area and across many minutes or even hours.
That means that hail damage can crack your shingles without your shingles also falling off your roof. If you do not look carefully, you might not notice that some of your shingles have been broken into pieces.
Significant hail damage can also damage other parts of your home, like roof vents or pipes on the exterior of your home. In fact, you might want to pay special attention to anything like that around your home. These things will generally be much more sensitive to hail damage than the exterior walls of the home itself.
You may want to keep in mind that different kinds of roofs manage hail damage differently.
Rubber roofs tend to come away from hail damage with very little damage at all. In contrast, asphalt roofs can lose their fresh appearance after a pounding from hail. Of course, hail can also crack shingles.
Understanding Impact Damage
When it comes to impact damage, the rules are simple. Small trees tend to do small amounts of damage. Many people can manage to replace a few shingles on their own.
Even if a medium-sized branch does dent a piece of your roof, it will probably not threaten the integrity of your home. However, large trees can do deep kinds of damage that degrade over time.
These issues are not as sensitive to time as water damage, because you can often fix them weeks or even months after. However, they do have the same tendency to get worse over time. You do not need to rush, but you do need to make sure that you fully repair damage from large trees falling on your home.
Deciding if You Need Professional Storm Damage Repair
In most cases, calling the professionals is the right thing to do if you haven’t managed a problem on your own before. If you want to start learning to repair your roof on your own, replacing shingles is a relatively simple task.
The more profound the damage to your roof, the more sense it might make to call the professionals for help. You can check out online ratings and reviews to help you find the right storm damage repair company for you!
Understanding the Most Common Types of Storm Damage and Their Solutions
The more you understand about storm damage, the better you can assess when you need professional help versus when you can handle a problem on your own. That can also help keep you from trying to repair damage that you might accidentally make worse. In some cases, the powerful and expensive tools and training of the experts will be necessary.
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