Storm Season Hardscape Playbook: before June 1, during a watch, and the first 72 hours after
A checklist written after the 2024 season, for pavers and concrete on the Sarasota coast.
- Season
- June 1 to November 30
- Worst weeks locally
- Mid-August to mid-October
- Recent events
- Ian 2022; Helene and Milton 2024
- First rule
- Photograph everything in May
What should hardscape owners do before June 1 on the Sarasota coast?
Photograph every surface with a date stamp, including the edges and the pool coping; top up joint sand and reseal if due; check that edge restraint is concrete on any edge a surge can reach; make sure deck and yard drains run; and note where the survey pins are so a shifted field can be re-laid to the lot line. During a watch, move furniture and planters off pavers. After, follow the post-storm sequence before anyone touches the surface.
The 2024 season is the reference: Helene's 6.68-foot surge on Longboat Key on September 26 and Milton's landfall near Siesta Key on October 9 put most island hardscape under salt water twice in two weeks.
Before the season (April and May)
- Photograph every hardscape surface, close and wide, with the date; save to the cloud.
- Inspect edge restraint; replace spiked plastic with a concrete curb on seawall, street and Gulf-side edges.
- Re-sand joints to full depth; reseal with a penetrating product if due (18 to 24 months coastal).
- Clear deck drains, yard drains and swales; run a hose test.
- Sound the pool deck for hollows; a void now is a collapse in a surge.
- Locate the survey pins and photograph them.
- Keep the paver spares dry and stacked where they won't float.
During a watch (72 to 24 hours out)
- Move furniture, planters, grills and loose pavers off the surface and indoors or strapped.
- Don't schedule a pour, a sealing or a polymeric sand install inside the window.
- Photograph again if the previous set is older than a month.
- Turn off irrigation so the base isn't saturated before the surge.
After (first 72 hours)
- Photograph everything before moving anything; the insurer needs the untouched state.
- Don't pressure-wash; don't reset pavers; don't resurface. Let the base drain.
- Note the waterline height on walls and the direction the pavers moved.
- Rinse salt from concrete and stone surfaces with fresh water once the yard drains.
- File the claim with the photos and the pre-season set.
Then the restoration sequence and the documentation guide.
Questions we get about this
Should I seal pavers before hurricane season?
If they're due, yes, and finish by late May so the sealer cures before the rain pattern sets in. A fresh penetrating sealer keeps salt and silt out of the paver body; it doesn't hold the field down. What holds the field down is edge restraint and a full joint.
Can you pour concrete during hurricane season?
Yes; June through November is half the year and most pours happen then. Pours are scheduled around the afternoon rain and, on the islands, not inside a named-storm watch window. A slab poured 48 hours before a surge is a slab poured for nothing.
Before June 1
- Check the joint sand. Joints that have dropped more than a quarter inch let water into the base. Top them up with polymeric sand and let them cure dry before the season starts.
- Check the edge restraint. Walk the perimeter and push. Anything that moves is the line a surge will open first. Spiked restraint at a seawall or a street edge should be replaced with a poured curb.
- Clear the drainage. Deck drains, yard drains and the roadside swale all have to be flowing before the first storm, not after it.
- Photograph everything. Dated wide shots and close-ups of every hardscape surface, stored off the property. This is the single highest-value hour of preparation, because it is the before picture an adjuster will ask for.
- Seal if it is due. A sealed surface sheds silt and salt more easily. If the cycle is due in the summer, do it in May rather than September.
- Move loose items. Furniture, planters and grills become projectiles and gouge a deck on the way past.
The first week after a surge, in order
| Day | Action | Why the order matters |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 1 | Photograph before touching anything; note water lines on walls and fences | The adjuster's file is built from this; cleaning first destroys the evidence |
| 1 to 3 | Clear debris by hand, not by pressure washer | High pressure drives salt and silt into the joints and strips the remaining sand |
| 3 to 7 | Let the base drain; walk it and mark low or hollow areas with chalk | A saturated base cannot be assessed or compacted |
| 7 to 21 | Sound the surface and survey for voids; get the restoration scope written | Voids are invisible from above and decide repair against rebuild |
| After drying | Lift, flush the base with fresh water, rebuild in lifts, reset units, new polymeric sand on a dry day | Resetting on wet salty base means doing it twice |
| +30 days | Clean and seal | Sealing traps salt and moisture if it is done early |
What is a repair and what is a rebuild
The test is the base, not the surface. A paver field where the units shifted but the base sounds solid is a lift-and-reset, typically $8 to $15 per square foot of the affected area. A field over voids, or a slab that was undermined, is a rebuild regardless of how the surface looks.
Concrete behaves worse than pavers here for a structural reason: a slab spans its voids until it cracks, so the damage is hidden until it fails, and the remedy is demolition. A paver field telegraphs the void as a dip you can see and fix in sections with the original units. That asymmetry is the strongest argument for pavers on a barrier island or a canal lot, and it is worth more than any appearance argument.
The documentation side is on the insurance documentation guide; the mechanics are on paver repair and storm restoration.
Last reviewed September 10, 2026 by the Sarasota Concrete editorial team (author name pending owner input). Written after the 2024 season; updated after each season.