"We Fix Broken Homes" Servicing Raleigh-Durham and
Eastern North Carolina
Important: COVID-19 Announcement.
Prepare your Home and Foundation for Hurricane Season

How to Prepare your Home and Foundation for Hurricane Season

Posted on June 29, 2021

Your Crawl Space & A Hurricane

The importance of keeping your house safe from a hurricane or even a strong storm starts with keeping a tab on the news and the changing weather conditions. Preparation along with information will keep you from losing your home. It is impossible to save your house and belongings after getting a warning for a hurricane unless you plan and prepare for it during the no-threat season. It is equally important to ensure that you safeguard your home against natural disasters. An opening as trivial as a small hole through the window or in your home exterior can cause severe damage when heavy rain and wind engulfs your area.

Several courses of action can help you bolster the defenses of your property. Below are several ways listed short-term and long-term ways to proactively prepare and maintain the structure and security of your house.

Short Term Solutions

If you waited till the last minute to prepare, don’t worry about your finances or time. Do what you can with what you have. Install hurricane shutters, patch up weak places, and try your best to hunker down in your home. Sand bags are also an option for small floods.

Install Hurricane Shutters

The first option is to installs storm shutters to protect your house from strong winds and pouring rain during a hurricane season. They can help you keep your house safe if you are a small budget. However, hurricane shutters don’t really protect the foundations of your home. They only cover windows and glass screens and avoid damage caused by shattered glass.  

Keep Plywood, Nails, and a Hammer Accessible

Another quick but short-term solution is installing plywood outside the windows to seal them, to help avoid water and wind entering your house. To be prepared, you can keep the plywood cut according to the size of your windows and keep nails and hammers near your reach.

Long-Term Solutions

Short-term methods will help your windows and doors, but you still want to protect your foundation long-term. Below we list a permanent and the most effective solution that can protect the foundations of your house.

Crawl Space Encapsulation

Apart from being one of the highly hurricane-prone states, North Carolina homeowners are at risk of damage from radon gas. It is a radioactive gas coming from natural deposits of uranium in the soil. According to EPA, radon can cause lung cancer among non-smokers. On the other hand, if you have crawl space, high humidity, and water damage in your crawl space, it can lead to mold problems, causing allergies and chronic illnesses. The radon gas rises from the rock in the ground and rises from the soil. It can reach your living space through holes in the foundation and openings in your crawl space. High levels of radon are present in 100 of North Carolina’s counties. Among them, Raleigh has some of the highest radon levels in the entire state.

Crawl space encapsulation like SafetyCap is one of the most effective solutions to avoid mold and radon exposure. Crawl space encapsulation not only works to secure your house boundaries, but it also works to reduce the upward push of radon through cracks in the foundation and openings through the crawl space.

Crawl Space Encapsulation can stop these factors from contributing to health problems and foundation instability. Those who have already encapsulated their crawl space report better air quality, enhanced comfort, and reduced radon levels. If you feel like you need to safeguard your home or have a faulty crawl space, call Atlantic Foundation for more information.

    Free Evaluations

    Just fill out the Quick Form below to let us estimate the project costs Click here for Service Area