When a named storm hits Surrey, our phones ring off the hook — and almost every emergency could have been prevented weeks earlier.
Walk around your house with binoculars and check: ridge tiles (any gaps or lifted ones?); slipped or missing slates and tiles; flashing around chimneys; the state of the mortar on your chimney stack; gutters for sagging sections; TV aerials and dishes that are barely holding on; and overhanging branches that will hammer the roof in wind.
If anything looks wrong, photograph it and send it to us — we'll tell you honestly whether it needs attention now or can wait for spring.