Get Your Home’s Exterior Ready for Rainy Season: A SoCal Checklist

Southern California doesn’t get much rain — it gets rain events. Months of nothing, then an atmospheric river drops a season’s worth of water in days. Homes here fail differently than in wet climates: problems hide all year, then announce themselves during the first big storm. Run this checklist each fall, before the forecast forces you to.

1. Look at the roof (from the ground is fine)

• Scan for lifted, cracked or missing shingles — binoculars work; you don’t need to climb.
• Check ceilings and closet corners inside for faint stains from last season you may have shrugged off.
• If the roof is 15+ years old or you spot anything, get a professional inspection before the rain — roofers’ calendars explode after the first storm, not before it.

2. Clear gutters and downspouts — then test them

Clogged gutters don’t just overflow; they push water under roof edges and dump it against your foundation. Clean them, then run a hose and confirm downspouts actually discharge away from the house — extensions and splash blocks are the cheapest flood insurance you can buy.

3. Walk your drainage the way water will

• Do patios and walkways pitch away from the house? Puddle lines and staining tell the truth.
• Are area drains and channel drains clear? Lift the grates; roots and debris love them.
• Low spots against the foundation? Note them — solving them ranges from regrading to a proper drain run, and dry season is the time to do either.

4. Seal the stucco’s small honesty problems

Hairline cracks drink storm-driven rain, especially on wind-facing walls. Sealing cracks and refreshing failed caulk joints around windows, doors and penetrations is inexpensive preventive work — and if the walls are chalky and overdue anyway, a proper repaint is the full fix that also happens to look fantastic.

5. Give slopes and walls a hard look

• Bare or eroding slope faces will shed mud onto whatever sits below them — jute netting and planting help short-term; terracing fixes it permanently.
• Existing retaining walls: look for new bulges, leaning, or clogged weep holes. A wall that can’t drain carries the whole saturated hillside.

6. Trim what the wind will use

Storm damage in LA is often really wind damage — branches over the roof, palm fronds, unsecured patio umbrellas. Trim back anything that touches or overhangs the roofline.

The fifteen-minute version

Binocular roof scan · gutter clean + hose test · drain grates lifted · caulk/crack walk-around · slope glance · branch trim. An afternoon, most of it free — versus the storm-week emergency call every homeowner dreads.

Find something on the list you don’t like — a soft spot on the roof, a wall that’s leaning, drainage that fails the hose test? That’s exactly what our free estimates are for. Better to meet us in October sunshine than in January rain.