Hurricanes are one of the worst natural disasters you can experience, as the high winds and massive storms can be extremely deadly and destroy entire buildings in seconds. That’s why places with frequent hurricanes put a lot of money into preparing for these major storms. If you live in an area affected by a hurricane, you should learn how you can clean up your home afterward to get back to your regular life quickly.
Keep Yourself Safe
Staying safe is the first and most crucial step to follow when cleaning your place after a hurricane. Just as you’d stay safe during a storm, you should be careful when cleaning your place. The damage from the hurricane can make your home a dangerous place to navigate.
Wait for the All-Clear
Before you go home to start cleaning, you should wait for professionals to tell you the home is safe. Hurricanes can cause all sorts of damage to your house. From burst pipes to gas leaks, there are many dangers you should avoid at all costs. Only go in to clean your home if you know the place is clear of these dangers.
Perform a Basic Inspection
Before cleaning your home, perform an inspection of the building. Just a simple one to find the places with the most damage and to identify what you need to do. This inspection should help you find the areas that need the most attention and help you focus your attention.
What You’re Looking For
Performing an inspection means knowing what you’re looking for to identify the issues from the hurricane. In your first home inspection, you should check for more significant issues and not focus on minor damages, as the big things can cause more problems if you don’t fix them quickly.
Structural Damage
The first thing you should look for around your home is structural damage. Look for cracks in your walls and ceiling to find potential leaks. You should also check your foundation for damage whenever a big storm hits your home.
Exposed Dangers
While you should only go inside a home after you get the OK from a professional, you should still check your home for any significant dangers. Damage to pipes can lead to major health risks if you miss it when fixing your home. Switching to stronger windows before a hurricane can prevent sharp glass all over your floors, with Florida hurricane windows as a prime example.
Water Damage
Water is a massive issue during hurricanes, as these storms come with significant rains that can easily damage your home. Check your home for water damage to identify potential repair spots. Water damage is very serious as it can weaken the structure of your home and affect your health.
Photograph Everything
During the inspection of the home, you should make sure to photograph and document everything inside and around your home. This will help you greatly when speaking to someone from an insurance company. This can help you recover the money you need to rebuild your home.
Cleaning Your Home
When it comes to actually cleaning your home in the aftermath of a hurricane, this is the guide you should follow. These tips will help you when you’re inside the house, ready to start drying your home and cleaning off the items that the hurricane affected.
Come With Gear
Cleaning your home of all the messes that can arise from a bad hurricane will take the right gear for the job. That includes safety gear you can put on to protect yourself from dangerous bacteria that may be present on the things you’re cleaning. So, have this gear ready for use the moment you step back into your home.
Air Out Your Home
After a hurricane, flooding and wet buildings will be a frequent problem for a home. The first thing you can do is dry out the area. Creating a good airflow by opening your windows and doors will help you get rid of any moisture around the house.
Take Your Time
It’s very easy to rush through cleaning your home as you want the place to get cleaned as soon as possible. However, airing out a home can take several days, and it can take even more time to clean your place as you need to clear out everything from appliances to furniture to books.
Remove Broken Items
You should go through all your items and determine which ones you can keep and which ones are beyond repair. While it can feel horrible, throwing away badly damaged items will help you keep your place clean.
Dry Wet Items
Any items you determine are worth keeping should go into a dry space with good airflow, where you can dry them off and repair any damage.
Sanitize As You Clean
When you’re going through your items, sanitize each piece you keep, as you don’t know what dirt and bacteria can linger because of the rain and mess the hurricane causes as it comes through. Sanitizing your place will help you avoid future health issues in your own home.
The Big Parts
A hurricane can cause many significant issues across your house that you can’t deal with without the proper training. Leave this type of damage to professional cleaning and repair teams to prevent injury or yourself or further damage to your building. These big fixes include wall and floor damage, water damage, mold growth and damage, and insulation replacement. Leaving these bigger tasks to professionals is a big part of cleaning your home after a hurricane.
No one wants ever to have a hurricane damage their home, but it’s a serious concern in many places throughout America and the world. These storms can come through and damage your home with little to no recourse available to you. The best you can do is take precautions and clean up the aftermath, which is why learning the proper steps is so important.
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