Tips For Protecting Your Beach Home In The Off Season

Posted on: 27 August 2019

Owning a beach house, whether it's little more than a one-room cottage or a grand oceanfront property, means your family always has a place to escape for weekends or longer vacations. To ensure your beach house is always ready for your visit, you need to keep it secure against both thieves and the elements. The following are a few tips for securing your beach home.

#1: Install hurricane shutters

Hurricane shutters are a good idea, particularly for oceanfront properties. When closed, these shutters are impervious to wind and flying debris. This not only protects the glass, but it also helps guard against flooding that occurs if the seals around the windows fail. When not in use, these shutters either fold up or roll out of the way, becoming virtually invisible and not impeding the views you likely paid for with the house. Hurricane shutters are designs to cover doors and windows, so as an added benefit, they make it much harder for an intruder to find entrance into your home.

#2: Schedule property maintenance

Keeping the lawn trimmed, bushes cut back, and debris picked up is vital. It serves two purposes. First and foremost, an overgrown lawn signals to any potential thieves that your home is sitting empty, making it an easy target. The second purpose is to prevent storm damage. Although shutters protect windows and doors, they do not protect siding and roofs. Dead branches and overgrown trees can cause major damage to the exterior of your home in the event of a hurricane or wind event. Having a service come by every few weeks to perform basic maintenance solves this issue.

#3: Shut down at-risk systems

Certain systems in the house are more likely to have problems. The most obvious is the plumbing. A break in a water line can lead to major leaks, which can take weeks to months to be noticed if no one is in the house. By the time you discover the damage, hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages can occur. Shut down the water main into the house each time you leave it for more than a few days so you won't have to worry about this. You should also turn off and unplug all appliances before an extended absence. Otherwise, a power surge, such as during a storm, could ruin everything.

With planning and the right tools, your beach house will be safely waiting for your next return. Get started today with a hurricane shutters provider.

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