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Post-Hurricane: Checking Your Tampa Roofing and Other Home Components

(Article Excerpt and Image from Your Post-Hurricane Home Inspection Checklist, PopularMechanics, November 1, 2012)

Hurricanes are forces of nature that human hands simply cannot disperse nor divert, the only option being to weather the storm and depend on trusty and durable structures. In many cases, though, storm winds are strong enough to rip through roofs, siding, fences, and almost everything else in sight, allowing the rain that follows it to cause maximum structural damage. If you want to know if you need an emergency Tampa roofing repair, here are some inspection tips:

Start High

You need to start your inspection from the roof and work your way to the ground. If you have a steep roof, settle for doing your checkup with a set of binoculars on ground level; flat roofs however, can be easily climbed without much fear of slipping and falling. Look out for missing shingles, cracked tiles, stuck debris, and other indications that there might be leaks.

Pipes and Wires

Check your home’s electrical service entrance as well as the wires that run through your home. If they happen to be sagging or they look damaged, don’t hesitate to call your local electrician. Moreover, the furnace or boiler vents and pipes in your home should also be inspected for damage, and get in touch with your plumber if they are damaged or completely busted.

Fences

An article from Popularmechanics.com written by Roy Berendsohn states that your fences could be severely damaged by a hurricane. He gives the following advice to homeowners:

Take a walk down your fence row and push against it to check for storm-weakened areas. Also check features such as vine-covered lattices or house-mounted flag pole brackets, which could be hanging by a thread after the storm. Manually inspecting these takes just a few minutes, and securing them takes not much more.

Gutters

Check your downspout and gutter system, preferably by looking at them up close from atop a ladder. Gutters, especially those that were poorly installed, can be loosened by wind quite easily, and when it comes off, it can do some heavy damage. Have severely damaged gutters replaced with more reliable ones from established contractors like Arry’s Roofing Services, Inc.

Your trusted Tampa roofer can do some emergency repairs for you, which is extremely useful against the looming threat of water damage when your roof remains in disrepair. This concept is also applicable for everything else in your home exterior, especially your siding.