The time to fix a loose bolt is a dry morning with nothing on the map. Once a warning goes up, hardware and plywood go quickly and the work is harder to arrange. What follows is looking, not building.
Openings and what holds them in
Start at the fixings rather than the panel. A shutter can be sound while the anchors holding it to the wall are not. Walk the outside and look. Bolts weeping rust, screws that turn without biting, hinge plates lifting off the wall, cracked concrete around an anchor. A fixing that has sat in salt air for years is corroding where you cannot see it. The head tells you little about the shank.
Then check that everything still closes and latches. A shutter that has to be forced in a calm week will not go on at all in wind and rain. If storm panels are stored somewhere, check that the hardware to hang them is stored with them, and that you have tried one on this year.
Anything bolted to the building
Canopies, carports, solar arrays, water heaters, dishes and air conditioner brackets are all loads carried on their fixings. Wind does not have to take the whole thing. It only has to work one connection loose and let the rest move. Look for rust at the base plates, a gap opening where a post meets concrete, and cracked sealant around a bolt, which lets water in to rust it from behind.
Painted steel that is sound can be maintained. Steel flaking at the footing is a different job, and one to deal with before the season, not during it.
Where the water will go
Heavy rain follows the path your house gives it, designed or not. Stand outside in the next downpour and watch. Look for gutters overflowing at a joint, a downpipe discharging against a wall or a footing instead of away from it, ground sloping back toward the building, and a yard drain silted up since anyone last cleared it.
Water standing against a house does not stay outside it. It wicks into porous material, and block, render, timber framing and gypsum are all porous. Getting it back out of a wall is slower than keeping it out. Give roof penetrations the same attention: vents, pipe boots and anywhere a fixing passes through the surface.
Loose material in the yard
Anything the wind can lift is a projectile, and it will find the openings you just checked. Walk the property and deal with:
- Offcuts of ply, sheet metal and old roofing stacked beside the house
- Empty pots, buckets and bins light enough for a gust to take
- Garden furniture, trampolines and shade sails that are not fixed down
- Dead fronds and branches hanging over the roof or a service line
- Blocks, gravel and tools left on a flat roof or a balcony
Concrete you already know about
If there is a rust stain on a beam, a hollow-sounding patch under a balcony, or bar showing at a slab edge, the season is when it gets worse. Wind-driven rain pushes salt water straight into the crack and onto the exposed steel.
The same goes for anything still carrying a storm repair. Mawar passed over Guam in May 2023. If a roof, a canopy or an opening on your house is still wearing a fix that was meant to be temporary, treat it as work outstanding. A temporary repair that has sat through more wet seasons is not a repair.
You can walk this list yourself. If something looks structural, such as bar showing, a post that moves, or a canopy footing rusted through, have a builder look at it before the season rather than after. Our estimates are free and include an on-site walkthrough, anywhere on Guam. Call Matt on 671 683-8332.
