Are You Prepared? How To Get Your Home Ready For The Next Hurricanes
If you've recently moved to hurricane country, you don't have much time to get your home ready for this year's round of storms. However, you have plenty of time to prepare for next year's hurricane season. There are actually quite a few things you can do to ensure that you're able to ride out the storms with minimal damage to your home and property. Here are three steps you can take this year to make sure you're ready for next year's hurricane season.
Retrofit Your Home
If the home you purchased hasn't been retrofitted for hurricane protection, you need to spend the next year taking care of that. This is particularly important when it comes to your doors, windows, and roof. The first thing you should do is have impact windows and storm shutters installed on your home. Your impact windows and storm shutters will help keep even the fiercest winds out of your home. An added benefit is that they'll always be in place, which means you won't need to rush to the hardware store for plywood each time a hurricane come through. In addition to the impact windows and storm shutters, you'll also need to have roofing straps attached to your home. The roofing straps will help keep your roof attached to the house when the winds blow through.
Clean Out Your Garage
If you normally park your car in the driveway because your garage is jam-packed with boxes and other items, it's time to clear things out. You might not realize this, but your car can take on a lot of damage during a hurricane. Not to mention the fact that it can actually float away should the flood waters get too high. Now that you live in hurricane country, you're going to need to keep the garage available for car storage. If you've run out of options for available storage space, it's a good idea to rent a storage unit. That way, you can use the storage unit for your personal belongings and leave the garage for your car.
Update Your Home Insurance
If you're not sure what your home insurance covers, now's the time to look that over. It's not uncommon for new homeowners to simply skim over their new insurance policies. Unfortunately, that can lead to serious problems when your home is damaged in a storm. Before you're faced with hurricane damage, be sure to go through your insurance and make sure you have the proper coverage. If you don't, be sure to update your policy as soon as possible. Let them know that you've installed impact windows and storm shutters. They may give you a discount on your coverage.
For more information, contact a company such as The Screen Shop.