Matt Lennox, an experienced insurance builder, has witnessed the harmful impact of tarps too many times, including storm-damaged properties whose damages have increased 5-fold due to tarp failures. For example tarps came off a Berowra Heights home 11 times, escalating the claim from $50K to $285K.
In December 2018, a devastating hailstorm damaged 33,000 properties in northern Sydney. Berowra was one of the worst-hit suburbs. The storm damage bill rose from $75 million to $1 billion due repeated failures of tarps and other ‘make-safes’. When Stormseal was installed, residents were hugely relieved, with some homes still being protected 16 months later.
On 20 January 2020, a catastrophic storm lasting about ten minutes sent huge hailstones smashing into thousands of vehicles and buildings across Canberra. Insurance claims have since topped $500M. The hailstorm inflicted terrible damage on many iconic institutions and iIrreplaceable treasures and archives of national importance were exposed to the elements. Aussie innovation Stormseal was the answer.
Stormseal’s great for our reputation, which is good for business: our turnover has increased by 33% in the past year.
Residents love our work with Stormseal so, more often than not, they get us to quote for their permanent roof repairs too, once their insurance claim is paid. We get more leads and win more jobs because we’ve earned their trust, and they recommend us to others.
‘I teamed up with three other business partners to set up the roof division of Abereum Roofing & Plumbing a short while ago and it’s taken off, mostly thanks to Stormseal,’ says Mitchell Clarke.
‘We started with just two guys, but I’ve taken on another four already to meet the demand, and I’ll be putting eight more through the Stormseal installer training in the next month.
For protecting storm-damaged properties, Aussie invention Stormseal provides far superior weather resistance and is much more cost-effective than tarpaulins. But Australian storm victims are still suffering under tarps because of a costly flaw in our insurance industry. Why?
It’s been 8 months since Hurricane Michael hit Florida pounding its coast & Mexico Beach, but the area is still in clean up mode, just as hurricane season is about to hit again. There is one damaged home that’s ready for the next hurricane season.
In June 2018, to test Stormseal’s weather resistance under the most extreme natural conditions it was installed on the roof of a hut high in the Swiss Alps. ‘Over several weeks, the wind speed average was over 100 km/h [62 miles/h] and some days up to 200 km/h [124 miles/h]. At the end of January, after many storms, the Stormseal film was still looking good.
For Ryan and Chey Johnson, the happy arrival of their second child was sadly offset by the devastating damage to their Berowra home caused by the December 2018 hailstorm.
‘After the hail wrecked the roof, the wind and rain came,’ said Ryan.
97% of Berowra homes damaged by the hailstorm were ‘made safe’ with tarpaulins, many of which have since failed multiple times.
A massive storm hit the home of Todd and Jo Chapman just before Christmas. “It was frustrating because the insurers kept having to get contractors back to make safe the house again, but they just kept blowing away, letting the rain in,” said Todd. “I would conservatively estimate that the original damage has now increased by 50%.”