What to check around your home before storm season
The Gold Coast Handyman is the home repair and maintenance expert on the Gold Coast, QLD, providing mobile service across Southport, Burleigh Heads, Robina and the wider city.
From late spring, storm cells start rolling off the hinterland most weeks, and they will find every weak point your home has been hiding. Here is what should be in order first.
GUTTERS & DOWNPIPES.
The first big downpour of the season always lands on gutters full of a year's leaves and sea-breeze grit.
Water that cannot get away goes under the roof and into the walls instead.
A pre-season gutter clean and check is the single best-value job on this list.
DECKS, FENCES & SHADE SAILS.
Storm-front winds test every post, paling and fixing point.
Look over the deck, pergola and fence line for loose boards, leaning posts and rusted brackets, and take shade sails down before the season rather than after the first gust does it for you.
A fence that is already leaning does not survive a southerly buster.
LOOSE ITEMS & INSURANCE PHOTOS.
Trampolines, outdoor furniture, umbrellas and pot plants become projectiles in a storm cell, so know where they will go before the warning is issued.
While you are walking the yard, photograph the house inside and out — current photos of an undamaged home make any later storm damage claim dramatically easier.
If the walk-around turns up jobs you would rather hand over, our pre-season maintenance visit covers this whole checklist in one booking.