So how can we ensure our home and family are safe throughout spring? Funnily enough, the answer lies in home maintenance. Here are a few jobs to tick off your spring cleaning list in the leadup to peak spring storm activity.
Is your property protected against storm damage? If not, then it may be time to update your home insurance to better ensure your property is protected from the extreme weather forecasted for this spring season. Be mindful of how storm damage cover may impact your premium, and don’t hesitate to shop around for a better, more competitive deal to boost cost-value on your policy.
Keep in mind too, that some insurance providers may have a waiting period after starting a policy before all cover kicks in. If there’s a waiting period for storm damage cover, then make sure you’ve finalised your new policy a few weeks in advance to ensure your cover is valid come peak storm activity.
Trim overhanging trees
The most damaging element of spring thunderstorms isn’t the thunder, but rather the wind and damp. Harsh weather conditions like whipping winds and torrential rains can slowly but surely erode your roof, resulting in water ingress through cracked or worn roof tiles, which is why your roof materials may need to be replaced due to ‘wear and tear’.
But there’s one thing that can drastically reduce the expected lifespan of your roof during storm season, and that’s falling trees and plant debris. If your property has any overhanging trees that are a perceived threat to your home and roof, then consider trimming or cutting these trees and tree branches as needed before the rain kicks in.
Trimming tall bushes and shrubs can also be ideal here, mainly to avoid harsh winds carrying low-lying debris up to make harsh contact with your home’s windows, gutters, and roofing. The clearer your garden is, the less likely you’ll accrue damage to your property from contact made with branches, leaves, and other potentially damaging plant debris.
Clear gutters, drains, and pipes
Even if contact with plant debris doesn’t immediately chip windows or crack roof tiles, leaves and twigs carried by the wind can still pile up in your home’s gutters and downpipes surprisingly quickly. If left unchecked, these accumulations of plant debris can not only lead to clogged pipes and gutters, but may even result in rainwater pooling on your roof and leaking into your ceiling cavity and walls.
They say that the best approach to gutter maintenance is a proactive one, and typically one that involves cleaning out your gutters, pipes, and drains at least twice a year: once in autumn and again in spring, to keep falling autumn leaves and plant debris carried in spring storms from turning into damaging sludge that leaves your home susceptible to moisture damage, wood rot, cracked pipes, and a myriad of other costly issues.
Gutter maintenance can be handled independently with just a ladder, a spotter on the ground, and a good pair of gloves. However, if you own a multi-storey property or are hesitant to climb up for any other reason, consider looking into the gutter maintenance services local to you.
Schedule HVAC and electrical maintenance
Spring thunderstorm season means an elevated risk of asthma attacks and other respiratory symptoms for residents living with asthma or seasonal allergies. The season’s strong winds carry pollen and other allergens in the air, with storm weather conditions also positioned to break pollen grains into microscopic particles with great capacity to irritate or even enter deep into the lungs.
Families living with allergies can stay safe throughout the spring storm season by ensuring their home heating and cooling systems are cleaned out and serviced as soon as possible. Clearing your HVAC filtration systems will help keep cleaner air circulating throughout your home over this spring and through to summer, where your family can expect to use A/C on a near-daily basis.
Alongside scheduling your regular annual HVAC maintenance, this season is also a good timeframe for your property’s electrical maintenance. Thunderstorms can damage your home’s electrical panel and even internal fixtures and fittings in more ways than one. On top of risks of power surges and burnt fuses from lightning strikes, spring rainstorms may leave your home’s electrical system susceptible to water ingress. Moisture and live wires can be a dangerous combination, so ensuring that your electrical system is fully secured with support from a licensed electrician can naturally provide plenty of peace of mind throughout spring.
Prepare an emergency kit and plan
Additionally to causing direct damage to your property, spring thunderstorms can also bring about emergency conditions in your neighbourhood, ranging from flooding to electrical fires. If for any reason your family finds themselves in a position where they will need to evacuate or maybe even go without power for an extended period, then you’ll need to have an emergency plan in place. This may look something like having a safe, flood-ready evacuation route mapped out from your property, or even just a power failure kit to ensure your family maintains access to first aid items, food, water, important documents, and phone charging and other electrical essentials during a power outage.
If any member of your household is reliant on maintaining access to electricity to power medical equipment, consider investing in a backup generator for your home. Keeping a mini fridge powered by a backup generator in a garage can also be ideal for storing medication or other items that need to be kept below a certain temperature.
As for phone charging, you may opt to invest in some solar powered or handcrack power banks to ensure you can keep personal devices fully charged even during a power outage.
Stay up-to-date with local emergency service alerts
With all your spring home maintenance done and dusted, all that’s left to do is keep your eyes to the skies and your ears to the radio to stay up-to-date with local emergency service alerts throughout the season.
Be sure to also download the Emergency+ app on your phone if you haven’t done so already to receive real-time updates from your local emergency services and council offices. For flood warnings, head to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) website and the SES for local emergency management updates.
