Worried Your Home Needs Storm Damage Repair? Here's Where to Check

If Mother Nature has recently come calling with some powerful weather patterns or you've just made it through a long, rough winter, you may be feeling a bit rattled and worried that your home has suffered property damage.

It's completely normal and understandable to feel anxious about problems such as structural damage after experiencing severe weather — but don't panic. The first step is to thoroughly examine your house for signs of common storm damage.

Once you've completed a thorough investigation and found nothing amiss, you can relax and get back to your life—and if you do find some sort of damage, you'll be able to get help from a reliable, experienced storm damage restoration company such as Mr. Handyman of Arlington and Northwest Mansfield. We can provide you with trustworthy damage repair services.

If you're not comfortable performing a complete check of your property yourself, that's okay! Mr. Handyman's service pros will handle it efficiently. We're trained to know what to look for. Either way, a careful examination of your property will give you the information you'll need when you contact your insurance provider. As you're going through each of the areas listed below, take your time and try to look at them from as many angles as possible so you don't miss any signs of damage.

Exterior Walls

First up, walk around your entire house and look for any visible issues with your siding, such as holes or cracks that could let moisture or pests into the interior of your walls. A missing piece of siding or prominent hole won't be hard to spot, but you also want to check for places where the siding is warped, bulging outward, or cupping inward, as that could be a sign of water damage inside the wall. Look for peeling paint or damaged stucco as well.

Roof, Soffits, & Fascia Boards

When it comes to roof damage, you may not be comfortable getting up on a ladder to inspect your roof, soffits, and fascia boards, and that's okay. For now, just look from the ground and try to see if there's any visible storm-damaged roofing materials or exterior surfaces.

Pay particular attention to your fascia, which are the boards that run along the edge of your roof eaves, parallel to the exterior walls, and your soffits, which are the boards covering the bottom of the roof overhang (the part you see if you stand under the eaves and look straight up). They may seem unimportant, but they perform some critical functions. If they're banged up, they can cause big problems with moisture damage in your attic or crawl space.

Rain Gutters & Downspouts

Damaged and overflowing rain gutters are a major cause of moisture trouble for your home, and they can really take a beating during the worst weather conditions. Make sure they're still firmly attached to the roof, usually on the fascia boards, and there's no obvious signs of breaks, weak points, or clogs. If possible, it can help to run a stream of water through them from your garden hose to check for leaks.

Windows

Next up, take a good, up-close look at your windows from the inside and the outside. If there's broken glass, you probably already know all about it —it will need to be replaced, of course. However, there can be much more subtle warning signs of window damage that make it difficult to tell if you need window repair or replacement.

Look for places where pieces of the frame or exterior trim may have come loose, or where the caulking has degraded and is causing water leaks. You'll also want to check for problems with your window screens, such as holes, rips, or bent screen frames that could give insects a way inside your home.

Doorways

Similar to windows, door frames can really get battered by storms, so give them the same treatment of checking up-close inside and outside for signs that something's not right. Wind-driven rain can cause exterior doors to become loose on their hinges or loosen up weatherstripping. It can also cause leaks, peeling paint, and surface cracks.

Trees

Check out the trees on your property, as well as large trees off your property that have branches long enough to fall on your house or yard. Look for dangling branches, cracked limbs, and any signs that something is going to fall. Small, low-hanging branches can be clipped off, but if larger branches are dangling, you'll need the help of an arborist to get them to the ground, both for your safety and to help the tree's recovery.

Deck & Porch

Take a good look at your deck, porch, or patio — along with other outdoor structures such as gazebos — for any missing pieces, dents, peeling paint or wood stain, and other visible storm damage. You'll also want to check underneath decks and porches for problems such as heaving footings, water pooling around posts, and soil erosion.

Garage & Shed

Give any free-standing structures on your property — such as garages, sheds, and playhouses — the same treatment that you gave your house. Look for anything that's out of place, like missing pieces of siding or roof shingles that have blown off in the wind.

Attic & Crawl Spaces

Finally, giving your attic and/or crawl spaces a thorough check for any signs of moisture is a very important part of the inspection process. If timber beams are exposed to too much water, they will rot and threaten the stability of the house. It may not be an actual pool of standing water, so grab a flashlight and look closely for damp spots, water stains, and other signs of water incursion.

Mr. Handyman is Your Local Storm Damage Repair Specialist

If you’ve found problems and aren't sure what to do next, put your trust in Mr. Handyman of Arlington and Northwest Mansfield for full-service storm damage repair. Whether you're in Arlington or a nearby area such as Grapevine, Coppell, or Southlake, our team of professionals can take care of every one of the problem areas listed above and get your house back in great shape, so you can rest easy.

Give us a call today at 817-567-2433 or request service online to let us know what happened to your property, so we can get started on fixing it!