Written by Titan Restoration of AZ
Buying a home is the biggest purchase most people will ever make — and the most detrimental to make mistakes during.
For Arizona Foothills homeowners, this is even more true.
The Arizona Foothills is a beautiful place to live, full of wildlife, hiking trails, beautiful weather, and much more. But there are also a collection of risks that come with it — which cause many first-time homeowners in the area to make mistakes they don’t even know they are making and land themselves in very costly situations.
If you learn what to watch out for and how to avoid these mistakes, you can save yourself a lot of money, time, stress, and irreplaceable loss.
The Top 4 Most Common Mistakes that Arizona Foothills Homeowners are Making – And How to Avoid Them
- Not Preparing Your Home Correctly for Monsoon Season
Monsoon season in Arizona, which occurs every year between June and September, brings heavy rains, flash floods and high wind speeds reaching up to 100mph.
The worst part about this weather is the major damage it can cause to homes. To avoid the most common damage homeowners see from monsoon storms, precautions must be taken both inside and outside the house. But what you do outside your home is the most important — and often the most overlooked.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not paying close attention to the trees around your home. Top-heavy trees and large branches can fall on your home and cause devastating property damage, so regularly inspecting and trimming your trees is crucial. You can also check the soil, which may not seem all that important, but heavy rains can loosen the soil around trees and increase their likelihood of getting uprooted. You can check your soil by pushing a screwdriver into the dirt — if it slides in easily, you’re at risk for falling trees, and a higher chance of water runoff and flooding.
Flooding is another major issue during monsoons. You can take precautions to avoid water damage to your property such as making sure you have proper drainage in your yard, cleaning out your rain gutters and downspouts, and placing sandbags in front of your doorways during storms. But once you have water enter your home, it’s critical you take the correct steps to handling water damage immediately.
- Underestimating Mold — And Not Taking Action Fast Enough
Mold is a very dangerous hazard, and is something that most homeowners in the area will have to deal with at some point. Mold is almost always caused by water damage — and it’s all about timing. The mistake homeowners usually make is waiting too long.
Mold can be stopped before it even starts, but this must happen in the first 24-48 hours of water damage. It’s critical to completely dry the water damaged areas as quickly as possible (best done with special equipment by a restoration company) and remove all moist objects from your home to deny mold a chance to grow.
But if you spot mold already starting to grow, call a professional. Mold is something you should never take a chance on.
- Lack of Fire Prevention
Arizona has some of the hottest and driest air in the US. And in the summer and fall months when the heat is at its highest, fire prevention is an absolute must.
There are several things you can do to help prevent potential fires, such as creating a defensible space around your home, distancing trees and shrubs in your landscaping, pruning your vegetation regularly, mowing and watering religiously, etc. But one of the most common mistakes homeowners make is removing native plants in favor of other plants and grasses which may look prettier but are actually much more flammable. Sticking with native, fire-resistant plants in your landscaping can play a large factor in preventing or minimizing fire damage to your home.
- Forgetting to Check Your Roof After Every Storm
Roof problems are one of the most common issues for Arizona homeowners. Improperly installed roofs to aged surfaces are only the beginning, as costly roof damage looms over every homeowner’s head from the constant lashings of Arizona’s monsoons, high winds, dust storms, hail, trees and debris, etc.
Meticulously checking for damage after every single storm may seem a little over-the-top, but it is critical. It can also be a task that is easily forgotten about — until it’s too late. After every storm, use binoculars to check for loose or lifted tiles, cracked tiles and missing tiles on your roof, damaged or missing flashings, check your gutters and downspouts for blockages, check your ceilings for watermarks or dark spots with a flashlight, etc.
Prevention Starts with Preparation
The Arizona Foothills is a beautiful area, but with a sometimes punishing environment. So it’s crucial that you take the right steps to protect your home and avoid the mistakes that so many homeowners are making.
With the right preparation, costly and devastating damage to your home can easily be prevented — giving you peace of mind and the ability to truly enjoy your home in the beautiful Arizona Foothills for years to come.
About Titan Restoration of AZ
Titan Restoration is the industry leader in home and commercial restoration in Phoenix, AZ, and the surrounding areas, specializing in water, fire, and mold damage remediation, and more.
