Run this August storm prep checklist before the season's statistical peak. We offer a complimentary on-site inspection, but the checklist itself costs nothing and takes less than an hour to run on most properties.
August is the month to close the gaps, not the week a storm gets named. That is when every contractor's phone rings at once and materials sell out.
NOAA marks September 10 as the statistical peak of Atlantic hurricane season. August sits in the run-up to that peak, close enough that storm prep is genuinely relevant, far enough ahead that crews, materials, and scheduling are still on a normal footing.
A board that runs a prep checklist in August is working a planned maintenance list. A board that starts the same checklist in the week a storm is named is competing with every other property doing emergency triage at the same time.
For a season-level view of what forecasters are tracking, the National Hurricane Center publishes outlooks and storm tracking that boards can check alongside their own prep calendar.
Walk the building perimeter and look at every gutter run and downspout. Clear whatever is blocking them, leaves, palm debris, sediment, before the season's heavier rain arrives.
A blocked gutter does not just overflow harmlessly. Water backs up over the edge and runs down behind the fascia instead of through the downspout, which is exactly the failure pattern behind many of the gutter repairs we see on tall buildings. See our gutter repair breakdown for what that looks like once it has already gone wrong.
During the next hard rain, watch where the water actually travels across your property. Note any spot where it pools, backs up, or takes a path that surprises you.
This is a quick observation, not the full diagnostic walk. For the complete one-hour standing-water test, including how to sort a quick fix from a crew fix and the specific vendor questions to ask, see our one-hour drainage test guide. That article covers the mechanics in full; this checklist is the shorter August version of the same habit.
An hour after the rain stops, walk the property again and photograph anything still standing. Note the location of each spot relative to the nearest building, inlet, or landmark.
Documentation done in August, before any storm, is worth more than the same photos taken after one. A pre-storm photo record gives your contractor a baseline to work from and gives your board a record that the property was inspected and maintained ahead of the season, not just reacted to afterward.
The one-hour standing-water test is the core drainage check, but a full pre-peak drainage pass covers more ground than a single hard-rain observation. Walk the property with drainage specifically in mind, separate from the general gutter and photo checks above.
Start at every catch basin, area drain, and swale inlet on the property. Confirm each opening is clear of leaves, mulch, and sediment, not just visibly present. A grate that looks fine from a few feet away can still be packed underneath.
Follow each swale and drainage path from where it starts to where it discharges. Look for low spots that have filled in over time, for grass or landscaping that has crept into a channel, and for any section where the path looks flatter or narrower than the rest of the run.
Check retention pond edges and outfall structures if your property has them. Confirm the outfall pipe or control structure is not blocked and that the pond has the depth it is supposed to have, not a silted-in shadow of it.
Pair this pass with the same one-hour test described in our drainage test guide, but run it at more than one point on the property. A single test at the front entrance will not tell you what is happening at a back corner catch basin.
Clearing gutters in August is a prep task, not a repair task, and the two should not be confused. A prep pass finds problems while they are still cheap to fix. A repair pass happens after water has already found its way behind the fascia.
Walk every gutter run with a ladder or lift and physically check for debris, not just a visual scan from the ground. Palm debris and leaf litter compact over a season and can hold water even when a gutter looks clear from below.
While clearing, check the gutter's pitch and hangers. A gutter that has sagged or lost its pitch will hold water even when it is completely clear of debris, which defeats the purpose of clearing it.
Confirm every downspout actually discharges water away from the building, not against a foundation or into a spot that just feeds the drainage problem back onto the property. This connects directly to the drainage pass above; gutters and drainage are the same water, just at different points in its path.
If the prep pass turns up separated seams, pulled fasteners, or fascia damage, that has moved from a prep item to a repair item. Our gutter repair breakdown covers what that repair looks like on multi-story buildings specifically.
Tree and limb condition is a normal part of an August property walk, alongside gutters and drainage. This section covers general practice only. It is not arborist certification guidance and it is not a legal or code requirement list. Walk the canopy the same way you would walk a gutter run, looking for what is obviously out of place.
Look up from ground level at every large tree near a building, parking area, or walkway. Note any limb that overhangs a roofline, hangs low over a walking path, or crosses close to a power line.
Deadwood is the easiest thing to spot and often the highest-value item to flag. A dead limb has no green growth, no leaves during the growing season, and often a different bark color or texture than the living wood around it.
Canopy thinning is a general maintenance practice that reduces the sail area a tree presents to wind, without requiring a specialist's diagnosis to identify that a canopy has gotten dense. If a tree's crown looks noticeably fuller and heavier than it did last season, that is worth a look.
Note any tree that has shifted at the base, has exposed or lifted roots, or leans differently than it did last year. Those are property-walk observations to flag for a closer look, not a call to make on the spot.
Anything not secured to the ground or a structure is a wind-borne debris risk once a storm arrives. Common area amenities accumulate loose items over a season faster than most boards notice, which makes August the right time for a dedicated walk just for this.
Patio and pool furniture is usually the largest volume of loose items on a shared property. Chairs, tables, umbrellas, and cushions all need a plan for where they go before wind arrives, not a decision made the day of.
Potted plants and planters, especially the larger decorative ones near entrances and clubhouses, are easy to overlook because they read as landscaping rather than loose items. Anything not planted directly in the ground can move.
Signage is a frequent miss. Entrance signs, directional signs, and posted notices mounted on stakes or lightweight frames are common on HOA and condo properties and are rarely built for wind loads.
Note where each item will be stored or secured, and confirm someone is assigned to actually move these items once a storm is named. A list without an owner is just a list.
A good documentation habit is one of the most useful things a board can build in August, separate from any conversation about coverage or claims. This section is about documentation practice only, what to photograph and how to organize it, not about what any policy does or does not require.
Photograph the exterior of every building from more than one angle. A single front-facing photo misses roof edges, side walls, and gutter runs that a different angle would catch.
Pair wide shots with close-ups. A wide shot establishes the overall condition of an area; a close-up shows the actual detail of a crack, a gutter gap, or a soft spot in a sidewalk. Both together tell a more complete story than either alone.
Walk with video in addition to still photos. A slow video walkthrough of a building perimeter, a parking area, or a common area captures context a series of still photos can miss, like the relationship between a drainage path and the buildings around it.
Timestamp your documentation. Most phone cameras embed a date and time automatically, but it helps to also say the date out loud at the start of a video walkthrough, or to include a dated note alongside a batch of photos.
Organize by location, not by date alone. A folder structure by building, then by area within that building, makes it much easier to find last year's photo of the same spot than a single folder sorted only by when the photo was taken.
This same walk-and-document habit pairs naturally with a broader exterior review. Our articles on rust stains on community walls and sidewalk grinding versus replacement both start from the same kind of property-walk observation, a small visual sign worth photographing before it becomes a bigger item.
Photos and notes taken in a calm August week serve two purposes a post-storm photo cannot. They establish what the property looked like and how it drained before any wind or rain event, which matters for any insurance or vendor conversation afterward. And they give your maintenance contractor a prioritized list to work from while scheduling is still normal.
A board that documents in August is working from a plan. A board that only documents after a storm is working from a claim.
Vendor availability tightens as the season's peak approaches, and it tightens for every trade at roughly the same time. A board that books trimming, gutter clearing, or drainage work in August is scheduling against a normal calendar. A board that calls after a storm watch is issued is scheduling against every other property doing the same thing at once.
Crews that would normally handle a job within a routine scheduling window get compressed into a much shorter one once a storm is named. Properties that already have an inspection or a scope of work on file move to the front of that queue; properties starting from scratch do not.
This is a scheduling point, not a pricing point. The value of booking early is getting on a calendar while one still exists with normal lead times, not a discount for doing it sooner.
Licensed contractors can be verified through the state's public license lookup at myfloridalicense.com before you book, which is worth doing in a calm August week rather than during a scheduling scramble.
Put these checks on the calendar this month, not after the next storm watch is issued. Assign someone, a CAM, a board member, or maintenance staff, to walk the property and take the photos.
The list of what needs a crew gets shorter every week you are ahead of it, and longer every week you are not. August is the month with the most runway left before the season's statistical peak.
Once a storm has passed and it is safe to go outside, a different checklist applies. This is a self-check list for what to look for immediately after, kept separate from the pre-storm prep list above.
Safety comes first, before any inspection of property condition. Stay away from any downed power line and treat every downed line as live until a utility crew confirms otherwise. Do not walk through standing water near a downed line or a damaged electrical panel.
Watch for structural hazards before walking close to any building. Look up before you approach for hanging debris, a partially detached gutter, or anything loose overhead that could still fall.
Send us your photos and we will triage them before the peak. We offer a complimentary on-site inspection and a clear, specific proposal for drainage, gutter, and general exterior maintenance across Central Florida, including Orlando, Longwood, Sanford, Maitland, Casselberry, Winter Park, and Lake Mary, as part of our drainage and erosion repair services and general maintenance services. Call the office at (407) 744-9122 or contact us to get ahead of the peak.
August works well because it is close enough to the September 10 statistical peak to be relevant, but early enough that crews and materials are still on a normal schedule. Waiting until a storm is named means competing with every other property for the same limited availability.
The one-hour test is a single observation during and after one hard rain. The full drainage pass adds a physical walk of every catch basin, swale, and outfall on the property, run at more than one point, so a board sees the whole system rather than one spot.
This checklist covers a general property-walk level of tree observation: deadwood, overhang near buildings, limbs near power lines, and any tree that looks like it has shifted. That is enough to flag items for a closer look; it is not a substitute for a specialist's assessment of a specific tree.
Walk the common areas and list everything not secured to the ground or a structure, then assign someone to move or secure each item once a storm is named. A list without an assigned person to act on it does not accomplish much.
Pair wide shots with close-ups at every problem spot, add a slow video walkthrough of building perimeters and common areas, keep timestamps on, and organize everything by building and area rather than only by date. That gives you a real baseline to compare against later.
It is a scheduling issue, not a pricing one. Every property in the area is trying to book the same trades in the days before a storm, which compresses normal lead times into a much shorter window. Booking in August means working against a normal calendar instead of a compressed one.
Safety first: treat any downed line as live, avoid standing water near damaged electrical equipment, and look up for hanging debris before approaching a building. Property condition checks, drainage, gutters, roofs, and trees, come after the area is confirmed safe to walk.
Bring your photos, video, and notes to your contractor and ask for a prioritized list. That conversation is easier and faster when it happens on a normal schedule in August than when it happens during a post-storm scramble.