Protect Your Home Against Hailstorms and Wildfires

By Anna Lockhart.  

As hailstorm and wildfire season begins, it is important that you prepare your home to withstand these dangers.  

In a recent episode of the AskARoofer™ podcast, hosts Megan and Lauren sat down with guests Lee Lipiniskis, CEO of Levello Construction, and Wendy Marvin, CEO of Matrix Roofing and Home Solutions, to discuss their tips and advice for preparing for and recovering from extreme summer weather conditions. 

If your home is in a wildfire zone, it can be beneficial to install intake vents. Wendy explained their importance, “Using specialized intake vents that have a mesh inside of them that don't allow sparks to come in can help. Because if the house is going to burn, and the fire is upon you, there really isn't a lot you can do. But if you're in a situation where there was a wildfire across the river, and nobody thought it would cross the river, and it did. Because we found out that sparks can fly up to three miles... From the spark’s standpoint, the intake vents are going to be the main place that they would enter the home, and then smolder, and then cause fire.”  

An intake vent can help prevent sparks from entering the home and causing damage or catching the house on fire. Vents like this could be the difference between your home remaining mostly undamaged from a nearby fire and being burned severely should the sparks reach the inside of the home.  

For those living in areas where hailstorms are common, there are a few things homeowners can do to prepare for those events to minimize damage. The key is to protect against the accompanying rain and stormy weather. Lee shared her advice, “Clean out your gutters. That's one of the biggest things that you can do to prepare for rain. We just had all of that rain. We even had rain and hail in Colorado like that for four years. And so, I caught so many calls for roof leaks, and I'd go out, and look at it, and a lot of the times it's clogged gutters.”  

Clogged gutters can not only be a detriment to a home in harsh storms, but also can lead to fire damage if wildfires are nearby. The sparks and cinders that can blow in from up to three miles away could potentially ignite the debris clogging the gutters of the home. So, it is very important, in any weather climate, to check and maintain your gutters.  

Listen to the podcast to hear even more helpful advice from Lee and Wendy so you can protect your home from hailstorms and wildfires this summer season.