Preparing for the Storm Season

If you live in a storm-prone or cyclone area, you understand how much damage can be done to your home and garage door when one hits. So, with the storm season fast approaching, it might be time to secure the fort and get your defences ready.

Your garage door is one of the most prominent entry points to your home, and it usually stores some of your most expensive and important belongings. This is why it is essential to prepare not only your home but also your garage door and the surrounding areas to minimise damage.

Getting prepared:

• Check your home and garage door are built to cyclone standards. You can install a wind-rated garage door, which can withstand the stresses of cyclone winds.
• Clean gutters, downpipes and drains.
• Remove tree branches close to your home.
• Check/update your home and content insurance policy and your car insurance policy.
• Check the condition of the walls and roof of your home/garage, and fix loose tiles, eaves, gutters or roof screws, as well as corrosion, rotten timber and termite infestation.
• Fit your glass windows and doors with shutters or metal screens
• Install double locks on external doors, and ensure that all shutters and locks are working.
• Secure or remove any loose items around your home.
• Store poisons and garden chemicals above ground level.
• Make your own sandbags in the case of flooding (you can fill up plastic bags, pillowcases, or stockings with sand).
• Know where and how to switch off the main supply for electricity, gas, and water.
• Use a licensed contractor to relocate power points above previous flood levels.
• Have a professional builder check your home and identify ways to increase its structural security to withstand strong winds.
• Prepare an emergency kit – this should include the following.
  - a torch with spare batteries
  - important documents
  - a battery-powered radio with spare batteries
  - extra clothes
  - a first aid kit
  - water

Monitor Alerts

A storm or cyclone can hit hard and fast, sometimes without warning so remember to watch weather alerts and take advice from authorities like the SES and your local CFA.

• Bureau of Meteorology website (for weather and cyclone forecasts)
• Emergency Management website
• Your local council’s website for information on the cyclone, evacuation centres and routines, and assistance for afterwards
• ABC radio and other local media
• Bureau of Meteorology cyclone warning advice line: 1300 659 210

Upgrade to a Wind Rated Garage Door

In high wind and cyclonic areas, it’s sometimes necessary to engineer your garage or industrial door a little differently to ensure it withstands the particular stresses it may be subject to. Steel-Line cyclone garage doors are ideal for use in homes, sheds, commercial and industrial warehouses in high wind prone areas.

The National Construction Code (NCC) 2013 – Housing Provisions (Building Code of Australia Volume 2) includes a reference for garage and large access doors for Region C and Region D to comply with AS/NZS 4505 – 2012 ” garage doors and other large access doors”. This came into effect on 1st May 2013.

Steel-Line Garage Doors has re-engineered our wind-rated garage doors and had them tested at the James Cook University against the wind loading requirements as laid out in the updated AS/NZS 4505-2012.

Read more about our wind-rated doors here:

• Strut-Lock Wind Rated Sectional Garage Doors
  Wind Brace Sectional Garage Doors
  Next Generation C-Rated Roller Door
  

Contact us

Contact us today if you are worried about how your garage door will hold up in a storm or cyclone season. For over 40 years, we’ve been replacing and maintaining a variety of garage doors across Australia. So for all your garage door needs, contact the experts at Steel-Line today on 1300 767 900.