Make sure your house can handle summer storms

Australia’s summers are famous for long, hot days and beautiful beaches. But the summer heat also brings heavy storms. Which means that you want to make sure that your house is ready and weatherproof to handle them.

But the summer rains are also a great opportunity too. It actually means that summer is the best time to get a building inspection.

How to make sure your house is weatherproof
Every building has structural aspects that are important for weatherproofing. These are what a building inspector will make sure to examine when they inspect your house. While your house may look fine to you, there can be cracks and gaps that let water in and can have a damaging and costly impact.

There are several reasons your house may not be weatherproof:

• It may be a design problem, like the landscape of the garden that causes rain runoff to move towards your building.
• Or it could be damage over time like cracked or missing roof tiles that lets rain into the building.
• Thirdly, it could be a maintenance issue – like letting your gutters fill with leaves, so that water cannot flow easily.

A trained building inspector will be taking note of all these types of issues and will spend time examining the joining of exterior walls, the drains, and sealing around windows. All of these factors contribute to a weatherproof house, and any one weakness can end up costing thousands in damages.

A rainy season is the best time to get a building inspection
But there is good news too. The summer storms are actually a big help to building inspectors. The behaviour of water and the weakness of a building are both on display when it’s raining. Inspectors can easily spot problem areas during rainfall, which might be harder to spot when it’s dry. Which means the seller can’t hide the structural issues that would help to inform your decision.

• During the rainy season, inspectors can monitor gutters not holding water or flowing the wrong direction.
• They can see areas where the roof is leaking due to cracked roof tiles, damaged flashing and silicon sealants.
• Leaks will show up inside the house, with areas of damp or moisture on the walls. But In the dryer months these problem areas can be painted over and are harder to detect.
• The flow of water also shows any major gaps or cracks in the exterior walls.
• As well as yard drainage issues caused by landscaping around the house, or water flowing under the house.

Being able to spot these issues is very important. No matter how nice the house may look, if it isn’t weatherproof then it will cause a lot of problems for you and involve a lot of costs and repairs.

If you’d like to check a house for weatherproofing, just get in touch with our expert team today. We can send an inspector to you right away to check your drainage, sealants, roof tiles, and more.

Book an inspection now.

 

Our friendly team are here to help you, 7 days a week, with all the facts you need to make a smart decision. If you wish to book an inspection or just have a few questions, please don’t hesitate to call us today on 1300 407 341.

This article is provided for general information purposes only. Its content is current at the date of publication. It is not legal advice and is not tailored to meet your individual needs. You should obtain specialist advice based on your specific circumstances before taking any action concerning the matters discussed in this article.