Health & Lifestyle

How Hurricanes and Storms Can Damage Your Home and Set You Back Financially

Hurricanes and storms are some of the common disasters that can cause serious damage to your house. Whereas it is difficult to control the weather, you can take some measures to protect your home against damage.

When floods and storms occur, it will be important to repair works on the damaged parts, causing some financial setbacks. In some cases, you may not be prepared to bear the financial burden. Let’s look at how hurricanes and storms can damage your home. 

Cracks

The damage caused by hurricanes and storms may vary with the speed and the magnitude. Damage from hurricanes is among the main claims by homeowners every year. Hurricanes can cause dens on shingles, gutters, and aluminum siding of your home. 

One of the reasons for the increase in insurance claims is the popularity of vinyl siding among homeowners. The lightweight vinyl siding design that can endure strong storms can still get damaged.

If your house is damaged by storms, one of the things you will be prompted to do is to claim from your insurer. However, in some cases, your company may fail to honor the claim for whatever reason, prompting you to seek intervention from insurance lawyers. Finding a good lawyer easily is possible with the help of USAttorneys.com. The portal will link you up with qualified and experienced lawyers to help deal with any unlawful denial of an insurance claim. 

Roof damage

Hurricanes and storms are often accompanied by heavy rains that can cause serious damage to your home. The missing tiles and shingles can cause water leakage and are not taken care of cause the roof to rust. In worse situations, the storms may cause the roof to fall off, making you incur high roof replacement costs.

Strong winds and hurricanes can push heavy snow to settle on your roof, especially when the roof is very weak. That is why it is important to conduct a regular roof inspection. Strong winds can also cause the roof to wear out faster after ripping off shingles or lead to the structural frame of your roof. 

Gutter damage

The unexpected hurricanes and storms can damage your gutters and this can be difficult to detect unless you do an inspection. Depending on how your house is constructed, the wind pressure caused by aerodynamics can greatly impact the roof edges. Thus, the gutters can be affected by the force of the wind since they are connected to the roof.

The most obvious damage is the broken or sagging gutters. Failure to fix detached gutters immediately may cause you to incur high costs at a later stage. This is because further rain can drain improperly, causing the water to collect around the sides and putting your foundation and basement at risk. 

Another risk may be from loosened gutter brackets, although this may be difficult to identify through a visual inspection. As the storms continue to pull the gutters, the fastening brackets may bend and further storms may damage the fascia or gutters.  

Leaks and moisture

Some things at the roof’s underside and the attic may be prone to rot and mold. Your home is not watertight, which means that leaks in attics and roofs may be evident at some point. 

Features such as attic hatches and recessed lighting can create some gaps allowing air leakage around your house’s interior. Mold spores can find their way into the living areas and so you should not ignore them. 

Roof leaks may be a fire hazard in case water gets into the electrical system. No matter the extent of damage, you need to dry any moisture on the roof area and replace any damaged insulation.