Winter Storm Prep Checklist for Tri-Valley Homes (Do These Before the November Rains)

Drainage — The Highest-Value Items

• Clear gutters completely, including corners and downspout inlets. Oak and sycamore litter fills them faster than people expect, and an overflowing gutter puts a curtain of water down the wall and into window flashing.
• Extend downspout discharge at least four to six feet from the foundation. Discharging at the base of a wall is the most common self-inflicted drainage problem there is, and on expansive clay it also creates a permanently wet zone that drives differential soil movement.
• Flush every area drain and yard drain, and confirm the outlet is clear. Sediment accumulates invisibly over the dry season and disables them silently.
• Check retaining wall weep holes on hillside properties and clear them.
• Walk the perimeter and look at grading — ground should slope away from the house. Settlement over decades frequently reverses this.
• Look at the driveway: on a hillside lot, does it channel surface water toward the garage?

The Building Envelope

• Inspect the roof after the first wind event of the season rather than before it — Diablo winds lift shingles and loosen flashing in October, and that damage leaks in January.
• From the ground with binoculars, look for lifted, curled or missing shingle tabs, displaced ridge cap, and flashing that has pulled away at chimneys, vents and skylights.
• Go into the attic on a bright day and look for daylight through the sheathing, plus any staining on rafters.
• Check window and door weatherstripping and thresholds, particularly on the weather-exposed elevation.
• Clear debris from window wells and light wells.
• Look at skylight seals, which are a common and under-inspected leak point.

Mechanical and Below Grade

• Test the sump pump if you have one — pour water in until it cycles. Then fit a battery backup if it does not have one, because peak flow and storm-driven power outages arrive together.
• Check crawl space vents and access points for water intrusion paths, and look at the vapour barrier while you are down there.
• Confirm you know where the main water shutoff is and that it actually turns. A valve that has not been operated in twenty years often will not close when you need it.
• Fit insulated covers on exterior hose bibs and disconnect garden hoses, particularly in the hillside neighborhoods where freeze risk is real.
• Insulate exposed pipe in the garage and crawl space.

Mid-Season — The Part Everyone Skips

Insurance and Documentation, Before You Need Them

• Confirm whether you carry a water or sewer backup endorsement, and check the limit.
• If you are near a creek corridor, on a hillside runoff path or downhill of open space, price flood insurance by September — NFIP policies typically carry a 30-day waiting period and cannot be bought reactively.
• Photograph your property in good condition now. A before-condition record is genuinely useful in a claim.
• Save a restoration company’s number in your phone. During an emergency at 2am you do not want to be searching.

What to Have Ready Before You Need It

• A meter key, kept by the front door. Meter box lids seize, and prising one at midnight with a screwdriver rarely goes well.
• A torch that works, plus spare batteries, somewhere you can find in the dark.
• Sandbags or absorbent socks if your property has ever taken surface water at a doorway or a garage apron. They sell out regionally once a storm is forecast.
• A wet-dry vacuum for genuinely small events, understanding that it is for a puddle rather than a flood.
• The number of your plumber, your insurer and a restoration company saved in your phone rather than looked up while standing in water.
• A photograph of every room, taken now. Establishing what the house looked like before is the documentation nobody has and everybody wants.
• A charged power bank. Storm-season outages coincide with exactly the moment you need a phone to make calls and take photographs.
• Knowledge of where the main water shutoff and the electrical panel are, shared with everyone in the household rather than just whoever read this.