How To Inspect Trees In Your Yard To Prevent Home Damage
This weekend, I showed property during one of the worst rain storms in the history of Tallahassee, FL. Tropical storm Debby is dumping over 15 inches of rain in our area. Although it was badly needed rain, it is a lot of water within a short time. As a result, we had many toppled trees, many water-soaked limbs broken and landing across power lines, vehicles and sadly homes. Outlying counties of Franklin, Gadsden and Wakulla are experiencing flooded streets and homes as well as storm damaged trees.
While we could not predict the storm, or control the amount of rain we received, we can prevent some potential damages in the future by inspecting the trees in our yard and that are near our homes.
What to look for when inspecting trees in your yard for damage:
- Tree trunks: Looking for signs of disease, cankers, split trunks, lightning damaged trunks, already leaning trees. Is ground at base of leaning tree upheaved? Leaning trees have weak and possibly damaged roots.
- Weak Branches at tree trunk: looking for cracks at junction, cracked bark, dead limbs off large branches. Are branches disproportionate to the tree, i.e. all on one side, while other side is dead, cracked or split?
- Dead Wood: This is just a must remove situation. Dead branches or trees should be removed. They are simply an accident waiting to happen.
- Examine what is within range of falling tree or under branches? Can it be moved to prevent possible damage? If not, consider pruning or removing the tree.
- Examine young trees BEFORE they mature. Can they be moved before they grown into the path of a home or structure such as a deck or roof, or will roots possible damage footer, slab or home foundation? If so, move the tree now!
If you are unsure of the condition of trees in your Tallahassee yard, consider hiring an arborist, a specialist in trees. This is also a good time to check on your insurance policy coverages for limits of liability or damages, covered expenses should you have in incident and have to be moved from your home, and also time to check your home’s roof. Are there any lifted or damaged shingles, nail pops, curled shingles or loss of granulation. Are there leaves accumulated on the roof, in valleys or clogging gutters? Water will travel under shingles if pooling on a roof. Hire a professional roofer for a roof evaluation or for cleaning.
For recommendations on Arborists in Tallahassee, Insurance agents, or Licensed Roofers, ask us as your Tallahassee, FL Realtors. We will help get you to a professional for you tree, insurance and roof inspection. We are here to help our home buyers, examining not just home features, but examining yard conditions for potential problems. We will help our home sellers identify problems ahead of listing and make repairs proactively in order to market the safety and solid structure of their homes. Ours is a win-win job when working with home buyers and sellers!
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