Hurricane season is well underway, and for Central Florida homeowners, that means paying close attention to the part of the house most likely to fail in a storm: the roof.

David Nye, chief growth officer at Peak Roofing Partners and former owner of Skymark Roofing, published a hurricane preparedness commentary in the Orlando Sentinel this past May. The piece lays out practical steps homeowners in the region should take right now, before a storm forms, rather than scrambling when one is already offshore.

The commentary’s central recommendation is one we share: book a professional roof inspection while the calendar is quiet. A licensed roofer can identify loose shingles, compromised flashing, and fastening issues that are invisible from the ground but critical under hurricane-force conditions. By the time a named storm is in the forecast, roofing crews across Orlando are booked days out. An inspection in July or August gives you answers and, if repairs are needed, enough time to act.

One of the piece’s more practical observations is that the visible roof surface is often not the first component to give way. Flashing around chimneys and skylights, pipe jacks, soffit vents, and gutters can deteriorate or come loose while the shingles above them still look intact from the street. As the commentary puts it, “the roof’s surface is not always the first thing to fail.” That gap between how a roof looks and how it actually performs under wind-driven rain is exactly why a visual check from the yard is not enough.

The article also draws a sensible line between what homeowners can handle safely before a storm and what should be left to a contractor. Cleaning gutters, clearing downspouts, and trimming branches near the roofline are reasonable steps any homeowner can take. Walking on the roof to inspect or make repairs is a different matter, especially on anything steeper than a very gentle slope or after any rain has fallen. The piece is clear on this: if you cannot safely evaluate the condition from the ground or a stable ladder, the right call is to schedule a professional.

One point worth adding is that a seasonal forecast from NOAA describing a below-normal Atlantic hurricane season does not reduce the risk to any individual home. Those outlooks describe broad basin-wide activity; they say nothing about which storms make landfall or which communities take a direct hit. A single storm tracking across Central Florida is enough to stress any roof that has not been properly maintained.

If the commentary prompted you to take a closer look before the season moves further along, Skymark Roofing serves the Orlando area and offers free inspections with no obligation. Give us a call at (833) 759-6275 to schedule yours.