Hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30. Your property's drainage does not care whether the forecast is quiet this week or not. The systems that fail during a storm are usually the same ones that were already struggling on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon.
The good news is that the cheapest storm prep available to any board costs nothing but an hour of someone's time. It just has to happen before the storm, not after. For the same walk-the-property discipline applied to a different hazard, see our drainage solutions overview.
After the next hard afternoon rain, the kind Central Florida gets most summer days, wait about an hour and then walk the entire property. Photograph every spot where water is still standing.
An hour matters because it separates normal runoff from an actual drainage problem. Water that is gone in twenty minutes is doing what it is supposed to do. Water that is still sitting an hour later is telling you something about the system underneath it.
Most board members have never had a reason to learn how their community's drainage system fits together. That is normal. But knowing the basic anatomy makes the one-hour test far more useful, because you will know what you are actually looking at.
An inlet is the opening, often a grate set into pavement or a curb, where surface water enters the underground drainage system. A catch basin is the box beneath that grate. It is built with a sump, a low collection area, so sediment and debris settle out before water continues into the pipe network.
A healthy inlet is clear of leaves and debris, sits level with the surrounding grade, and drains visibly during rain instead of pooling around it.
A swale is a shallow, graded channel, often grassed, designed to carry surface water toward a low point, a pond, or a pipe system. Swales do the quiet work of moving water across a property without anyone noticing, right up until they stop working.
A healthy swale has a visible, consistent slope from one end to the other. Water should be moving through it during rain, not sitting in isolated low spots afterward.
Gutters collect roof runoff and downspouts carry it to the ground. Where that water lands matters as much as whether the gutter itself is clear. A downspout should discharge onto a splash block, into a pipe, or through an extension that carries water several feet from the foundation.
Taller buildings add complexity: more roof area, more volume per downspout, and drainage runs that are harder to inspect from the ground. See our guide to gutter repairs on tall buildings for what that inspection looks like at height.
A retention pond holds stormwater and releases it slowly, either through a controlled outfall structure or by allowing it to percolate into the ground. A detention area does similar work but is designed to drain fully between storms rather than hold a permanent water level.
A healthy pond has a stable water line, a clear outfall structure with no debris, and banks that are not eroding or slumping into the water. For a broader look at how these systems interact with the rest of a community's landscaping, see our drainage solutions overview.
A French drain is a trench filled with gravel around a perforated pipe, built to collect groundwater or surface water and move it away from a problem area underground, out of sight. These are common in low spots where a surface swale is not practical, tight side yards, or areas right next to a foundation.
Because the pipe is underground, a French drain is diagnosed mostly by its outcome. Is the surface above it staying dry, or still holding water an hour after rain.
Drainage is not a once-a-year task. Different months call for different attention, based on where the property sits relative to hurricane season and Florida's dry season.
| Month | Season context | What to check or do |
|---|---|---|
| December through February | Dry season, lowest rainfall | Clear inlets and gutters of fallen leaves and debris while volume is low and easy to manage |
| March | Late dry season | Walk swales and ponds while they are at their driest to spot erosion, slumping banks, or bare soil that needs attention before rain returns |
| April and May | Transition into wet season | Schedule any swale regrading or pipe repair identified earlier; this is the calmest planning window before hurricane season opens |
| June | Hurricane season opens | Run the one-hour test after the season's first hard rain and start the ongoing photo log |
| July | Regular summer storm pattern | Repeat the one-hour test, address any quick fixes immediately, and get crew fixes scheduled while availability is still normal |
| August through October | Peak hurricane season | Keep inlets and swales clear ahead of any named storm; this is not the time to start a regrade, it is the time to confirm earlier fixes are holding |
| November | Hurricane season closes | Run a final one-hour test, document the season's findings, and note anything to budget for during the coming dry season |
For a companion checklist focused specifically on storm preparation timing rather than drainage alone, see our August storm prep checklist. Hurricane season dates and any active storm tracking come from the National Hurricane Center.
Standing water an hour after rain generally points to one of three conditions, and knowing which one you are looking at determines how it gets fixed.
| What you see | Likely cause | Typical fix category |
|---|---|---|
| Water pooling right at a storm drain inlet | Clogged inlet (leaves, sediment, debris) | Quick fix, often same-visit |
| Water sitting in a low spot along a shallow ditch or graded channel | Settled swale that has lost its slope | Crew fix, regrading |
| Saturated soil right against a building wall | Downspout dumping directly at the foundation | Quick fix, redirect the downspout extension |
| Standing water along a pipe run or low area far from any inlet | Undersized or failing drainage line | Crew fix, new pipe or regrading |
Clogged inlets. A storm drain inlet full of leaves, sediment, or landscape debris cannot move water at the rate it is designed for, so water backs up around it instead of draining through it.
Settled swales. A swale is graded to carry water to a low point or drain. When the soil beneath it settles unevenly over time, the swale loses its slope and starts holding water in the low spots instead of moving it along.
Downspouts dumping at foundations. A downspout that empties directly against a building's foundation instead of being routed away from it saturates the soil right where you do not want standing water, and over time that saturation works against the foundation itself. Standing water near a foundation or walkway can also accelerate slab movement nearby; see our sidewalk grinding vs replacement guide for how an undermined base shows up in concrete.
The original three conditions cover most of a property, but a few other spots deserve their own line in the photo log. Each has its own likely explanation.
| Location | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Along the edge of a retention pond, beyond the normal water line | The pond may be holding higher than its designed level, or the outfall structure may be partly blocked |
| Low spots scattered across a parking lot | Pavement has settled unevenly, or a nearby inlet is undersized for the paved area draining to it |
| Standing water pooled around an AC condenser pad | The pad was set too low relative to surrounding grade, or nearby grading has changed over time |
| Water sitting under or around an elevated walkway or boardwalk | Shaded, low-airflow areas drain more slowly than open lawn even when the grading is fine, but recurring standing water still deserves a look |
| A consistently soggy strip along a fence line | Often the discharge point for a French drain or a swale that terminates without a clear outlet |
Not every standing-water spot needs the same response, and that is exactly why the photo survey matters before anyone calls a contractor.
Some of what you find is a simple fix: clearing debris out of an inlet, or redirecting a downspout extension so it carries water a few extra feet away from the foundation. Those are quick, inexpensive corrections, sometimes a same-visit fix measured in minutes to an hour per spot.
Some of what you find needs a crew: a swale that has settled enough to need regrading, or a drainage line that needs new pipe laid to carry water where the existing grade no longer will. That work takes equipment, a crew, and planning, realistically a multi-day job rather than a same-visit fix, which is exactly why it is worth identifying now rather than during storm season.
All three of these conditions, clogged inlets, settled swales, and misdirected downspouts, are inexpensive to correct in July. Crews have normal availability, the work is scheduled at a normal pace, and a regrade or a pipe run is a planned project instead of an emergency.
The same repairs get expensive fast once a tropical system is sitting over Central Florida for two days. Emergency drainage work competes with every other property doing the same thing at the same time, on top of whatever damage the standing water itself causes to landscaping, pavement, or building foundations while it sits there.
Run the one-hour test as early in hurricane season as possible, ideally in June before the peak storm months of August through October. A regrade or pipe replacement scheduled in June or July is a normal planned project. The same work requested in September, during active storm season, competes for crew time with every other property doing emergency repairs at once.
The one-hour test works best as a single event after a hard rain. A photo log works alongside it as a running record, kept all year, that turns individual observations into a pattern the board can act on.
A single wet spot after one storm might mean nothing. The same spot showing up in the log after four different storms, across two different seasons, means something. That pattern is what turns a maintenance guess into a budget line item backed by evidence.
A log kept from June through November gives the board three things a single walk cannot: a trend (is this spot getting worse, staying the same, or resolved), a budgeting case (recurring problems justify planned spending better than a one-time complaint), and a sharper conversation with any vendor, because you can hand over months of dated photos instead of describing a memory.
A few habits of thinking cause more drainage problems than the drainage systems themselves. Boards that recognize these tend to catch problems earlier.
Water that takes hours to drain, even if it eventually does, is still moving far slower than it should. A system working correctly clears standing water in well under an hour. "Eventually" is not the same as "working."
A recurring wet spot is not a quirk of the property, it is a symptom. The longer it is treated as normal, the longer the underlying swale, pipe, or grading issue goes unaddressed, and the more it can affect nearby pavement or foundations.
Retention ponds are designed to hold water, so a full-looking pond after a storm is often normal. The better question is whether the water level is dropping over the following days and whether the outfall structure is clear, not whether the pond looks full immediately after rain.
A downspout dumping at a foundation does not always create an obvious puddle. Sometimes it just keeps the soil saturated, which is harder to notice but still works against the building over time. Checking downspout routing belongs in the one-hour test even where nothing looks obviously wrong.
Boards sometimes delay simple fixes, like clearing an inlet, because they assume any drainage work means a large undertaking. Sorting quick fixes from crew fixes up front, using the photo survey, prevents small maintenance items from being lumped in with the projects that genuinely need equipment and scheduling.
Run it after the first hard rain of hurricane season in June, then again periodically through October. Boards that keep an ongoing photo log often note it after any rain that seems unusually heavy for the area.
No. The test is designed for a CAM, board member, or maintenance staffer to do alone with a phone camera. A contractor's role comes after, reviewing the photos and confirming the quick-fix or crew-fix sort.
Not necessarily. Ponds are designed to hold water and release it slowly. The concern is a water level that stays high for an extended period after rain has stopped, or an outfall structure that looks blocked.
Some can. Dry season, December through May, is actually the better time to schedule any regrading or pipe repair identified the previous year, since crews have more normal availability before hurricane season opens.
That is worth noting in the photo log even if it technically passes the one-hour test, since a recurring pattern at the same location is useful information for a vendor conversation later.
Any consistent person works: a CAM, a board member, or on-site maintenance staff. Consistency matters more than title, since the value of the log comes from comparing entries over months.
Florida contractor licenses can be verified directly through the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation license lookup before any work is scheduled.
Put the one-hour test on the calendar after the next significant rain, not after the next storm warning. Assign someone, a CAM, a board member, or a maintenance staffer, to do the walk and take the photos. Bring the photos to your contractor and ask directly which spots are quick fixes and which need a crew.
A board that runs this test every summer turns an invisible risk into a documented, budgetable maintenance line instead of a surprise special assessment after the next named storm.
Send us your standing-water photos and we will tell you which spots are a quick fix and which need a crew. We offer a complimentary on-site inspection and a clear, specific proposal for drainage work across Central Florida, including Orlando, Longwood, Sanford, Maitland, Casselberry, Winter Park, and Lake Mary, as part of our drainage and erosion repair services. Call the office at (407) 744-9122 or message us to get ahead of storm season.