There’s nothing like having fully-grown trees on your property to provide shade and beauty. Unfortunately, the same trees that can provide so many benefits can cause major problems during a storm. The key to balancing beauty and safety is taking preemptive steps to ensure that the trees can’t cause damage to your home even when the weather turns downright nasty.
Keep the Trees Healthy
Although there are no guarantees when it comes to trees, one great way to keep your home safe during a storm is to keep your trees healthy. A tree that’s well-fertilized and free from disease is much less likely to drop major limbs during a storm that can cause damage to your home. Therefore, it’s a good idea to have an arborist inspect any trees that are close to your home to see if you need to take any steps to get rid of pests or improve the soil’s nutritional quality.
Improve the Strength of Your Home
Depending on the severity of the storm, there may be nothing you can do to prevent tree limbs from colliding with your home. Therefore, you need to have your home prepared to take on rough conditions. Storm damage restoration specialists can provide insider advice here, as they understand how homes are most commonly damaged. By reinforcing your home in key areas, you can be more confident that your home will weather a severe storm unscathed.
Photo by Giffin & Crane General Contractors, Inc.
Prune Your Trees
As trees grow and age, they will inevitably develop some dead limbs, even if they are healthy. To improve the health of your trees and ensure that these dead limbs don’t fall on your home, it’s important to prune your trees on a regular basis. A skilled tree care company can expertly remove dead limbs without causing damage to the adjacent limbs that are still alive. Just be sure to prune your trees during the right time of year to prevent long-term damage to the main tree structure.
Know When to Move On
In some cases, the best course of action to protect your home is to remove a tree that’s unhealthy and likely to fall over during a storm. Although it can be hard to lose a beautiful tree, it’s best to take it out while you have control over where it will fall. Unless you have the right equipment and experience, you should never attempt to remove a tree yourself because they can splinter as they’re falling, a condition that could seriously injure you and others who are nearby.
Photo by SURROUNDS Landscape Architecture + Construction
Although it can be hard to spot differences on a day-by-day basis, the trees in your yard are constantly changing. This means that you need to keep a watchful eye on your trees in order to spot changes that could put your home in danger. Taking responsibility for your trees will help you to act quickly to help make the preparation process easier and less expensive.