Home Insurance Guide

It doesn’t take a hurricane, though they don’t help, to wreak havoc on your home. In fact, sometimes the most benign winds can cause damage if they pick up a hard stick or an errant stone; so it pays to protect your home against wind damage even if the news doesn’t announce gale force wind warnings. One of the other insidious things about wind damage is that sometimes it just causes damage just underneath your deductible. A stone goes through a window and the replacement cost a hundred bucks or so, that’s probably under your deductible, and you can’t get any reimbursement because it’s too low. Or maybe it’s a few bucks over your deductible and you don’t want to risk increasing your premiums over a few dollars. Ultimately, you can do a lot to protect your home against wind damage.

Roofing: Get properly sized and nailed sheathing to protect your roof and ensure that the underlayment material is installed properly. If you are installing a new roof, get water infiltration protection installed so in the event the tiles get torn off you won’t get soaked with water.

Windows: Install impact-resistant windows or buy shutters you can close that will protect against high winds and any projectiles.

Doors: If your doors are solid wood or hollow metal, it’s more likely to resist the wind pressure and defend against flying debris. If you know of an oncoming wind event, remove glass doors if you have a regular door behind it - no sense having them up and having them break.

Garage Doors: Brace these bad boys because they’re the most prone to damage because of wind. They are generally not very strong in the first place so getting a bracing kit, ask the manufacturer of the door, and installing it will help tremendously. Be sure to also brace the panels vertically and horizontally as well. The wind will try to get in wherever it can and those panels are weak points.