What to do with your glass after a named storm

Safety first, and we mean the boring version

Before anything else: do not go up a ladder onto saturated ground, do not touch glass with a visible crack or a compromised frame, and stay away from anything near a downed line. Cleaning can wait. Most post-storm injuries in this trade happen in the first two days, on soft ground, in a hurry.

Walk the exterior from the ground and photograph everything before you touch it. Insurance adjusters want the before state, and you will not remember which pane had the chip.

Why the first 96 hours matter

Storm surge and wind-driven spray put far more salt on glass in a day than a normal month delivers, and they drive it into frames, tracks and weep holes along with sand and organic debris. While that layer is still loose, plain water removes most of it. Once it has gone through several wet and dry cycles in coastal sun, it bonds.

The same applies to the tracks. Wet sand packed into a slider track sets almost like a mortar. Left for a fortnight it has to be dug out, and rollers usually come out damaged.

The order of operations

If the property is safe to approach and you have water pressure, a simple hose rinse in the right order does most of the work. Start high, work down, and do not scrub anything dry.

• Rinse roof-adjacent surfaces and gutters first so debris runs down onto surfaces you have not cleaned yet
• Flood the glass from the top with plain water and let it carry grit off, no wiping
• Flush every track and weep hole before the grit dries
• Only then wipe frames and sills, working with plenty of water so you are floating grit rather than dragging it
• Leave bonded deposit alone and have it graded rather than attacking it with an abrasive

What we do on a post-storm visit

A post-landfall visit is not a normal clean. It is a flush: high-volume pure water across every elevation, tracks and weeps cleared, screens pulled and washed flat because storm screens are always full of pine straw, and a documented condition report for insurance.

Plan clients get priority slots, usually within 96 hours of road access being restored. That is not a marketing promise so much as a scheduling fact: we already have their pane counts, their access notes and their gate codes on file, so we can move.