5 Essentials to Help You Avoid Wind Damage Before Any Storm Hits

When a hurricane, tornado, or vicious storm occurs at any place people get hardly enough time to find an appropriate shelter. This is why you should not delay when it comes to protect your household property from inevitable wind damage. Simply put, you just need to prepare your home before the storm hits.

To do this successfully you will need to consider the characteristics of your home, your financial resources and the building codes in your community. The following are the homeowner's check lists from the Federal Emergency Management Agency:

How to Avoid Wind Damage Before any storm hits

1. Know your risks associated with the living area of your community. Are you aware of the hazards in your community? How often do floods or wind storms strike? It is also good to contact your emergency management office or American Red Cross chapter for more information.

2. Make sure that your roof sheathing is properly installed. For your concern, the roof sheathing is the boards or plywood nailed to your roof rafters or trusses. During a massive windstorm, wind forces flow from the roof down to the exterior walls and then the foundation. Household projects are damaged when wind is not properly transferred to the ground in a storm. Of course, the properly installed sheathing assists to ensure that the wind is transferred correctly. Ensure that the sheathing nails haven't missed the rafters. If they have you will need to redo them.

3. Don’t forget to make sure that end gables are secured to the roof. In a wind storm, the side walls of the roof area take a real beating and can collapse. Well, gable bracing generally consists of 2"x4"s placed in an "X" pattern at both ends of the attic: from the top center of the roof (end gable) to the bottom of the brace of the fourth truss, and from the bottom center of the roof (end gable) to the peak of the roof,' Federal Emergency Management Agency.

4. Make sure that you have fastened your roof to the walls with galvanized hurricane straps. Galvanized hurricane straps aid keep the roof secured to the walls in a heavy storm. Ensure that you have these in place if you live in a high risk hurricane area.

5. Make sure that your garage door is properly secured. In a powerful wind storm the garage door can be easily ripped off allowing wind to enter your home area and blow out doors, windows, walls and even the roof. It is really wise to call a reputable garage door company for the better assistance against the wind damage.