Your home is meant to be a haven from the world — a place where you can feel safe and secure.
Yet, it’s all an illusion, unfortunately. There is no literal force protecting you, your family, and your house from the dangers outside. All there is are the things you do to prepare your home against the world.
Fallen trees are one of the most common kinds of dangers people should prepare for. Although they may make spectacular decorations for your yard, trees can pose serious threats. For example, a rotted tree may lose its structural integrity, making it easy for the wind to tip it over.
Yet, a tree doesn’t need to be rotted for it be capable of inflicting serious damage. And sometimes, you may not be covered when fallen trees damage your property. Just because you may have homeowner’s insurance doesn’t mean you’re definitely protected from the damage a falling tree can cause.
People plant trees believing that they will grow to be strong, standing protectors of their homes. Yet, trees can easily hurt your home. Keep reading below to learn what your insurance may or may not do about a fallen tree.
Your Home Is Where You Put down Roots
Your house is more than just a building where you keep all of your stuff. It’s where you keep the things and the people you love, with the expectation that they will be protected. And to protect the thing that protects your loved ones, you should take out homeowner’s insurance.
With homeowners insurance, you’ll be covered against most common forms of damage. You’ll know that you won’t lose everything in a fire and that a storm won’t be able to wash away your belongings. Homeowner’s insurance protects against all that, and more.
To get homeowner insurance, you need to go through several steps. First, your insurance company will want to inspect your home. When your insurance company inspects your home, they’re looking for things that you may not even know pose risks to the building.
Failing to protect your home from storms, or neglecting to fireproof your home will drive up your insurance rates. So will your home’s overall value, which trees can add to.
Trees Can Increase its Value or Risk it All
Having trees on your property both adds to your home’s value while also introducing new risks on the property. That makes them double the trouble when it comes to choosing the right insurance provider. Your insurance company will bill you for the trees on your property because your home is at more risk than one without trees.
Just because they look nice doesn’t always mean they’re worth planting. Once they fall down, a tree can do plenty of harm.
Fallen Trees Do More Harm Than You Realize
Fallen trees can sometimes set a unique aesthetic for your property. They can make your home seem enigmatic; it can make your home look like it has a story to tell. Yet, the only story it can tell is the amount of damage done to it by fallen trees.
Keep reading below to learn more about the different kinds of damage fallen trees can cause to your home!
Structural Damage Can Spread like Branches on a Tree
One of the worst things a tree can do is fall on your home. If the trunk actually strikes your house, it can damage more than just the area of impact. The tree can also cause serious structural damage to the building that will require immediate attention.
It may damage a load-bearing beam, on its way down. If a beam as crucial to your home as one that bears the load of the whole building is damaged, your entire home may come tumbling down. Even if your home seems to stand the impact of a falling tree, it may collapse with time.
A falling tree can also tear open a hole in your roof. While the hole it opens may be too small to notice, it can cause serious leaks to spring. From those leaks, mold may begin to sprout, which will cause you to have to gut your home to install a new framework.
Pests Can Make Fallen Trees Their Homes
Even if the tree never actually strikes your home, it can still cause a lot of damage. Fallen trees usually attract pests, since pests may decide to make a rotting trunk their new home. Yet, that trunk may not be their home forever.
Pests may migrate from a fallen tree to your home, and infest the building. And if that happens, it won’t matter how much you try to exterminate the pests in your building. As long as they have the fallen tree, they’ll have a base to return to.
Fallen trees will allow pests to keep coming back to your home. If you don’t want unexpected guests like rats or bugs in your house, be sure to clean up fallen trees as soon as they hit the ground!
Different Insurance Covers Different Things
Just because you have homeowner’s insurance doesn’t mean you’re protected from falling trees. In fact, most insurances don’t cover all kinds of tree falls. Some will only protect you if the tree falls as a result of a storm or from a lightning strike.
Yet, those same plans may not protect you if the tree falls from rot. Insurance companies will almost always try to find out if a tree was dying before it fell. If they find that it was, then they may refuse to pay out for it.
The only way to know for certain whether you’re protected from falling trees is by asking your insurance company. If they don’t protect your home from falling trees, one of the most serious risks your house faces, then you may want to consider other insurance providers!
Protect Yourself with the Right Homeowner’s Insurance
As a homeowner, you should be willing to do anything to protect your house. No matter where it’s from — fallen trees or from a fire — there is danger everywhere. You’re the only one who can take responsibility for protecting your home!
Taking responsibility for your home’s safety means going with people you can trust to work on it. You should always go with the experts for anything you may ever need. And that’s why you should choose us if you need help cleaning up a fallen tree on your property.
Contact us, and we’ll help you make sure you and your home stay safe from one of the least expected dangers there are!