This past year has been full of insane amounts of precipitation, be it rain, snow, or hail.
The winter came with blizzards during every month and knocked out my power on four separate occasions.
Thankfully I have a supplemental heating system hooked up to a storm generator for these exact situations. Some of my poor neighbors aren’t so lucky to have additional heating sources in their homes. We had an ice storm last year that knocked out electricity to half of the state for about three weeks. Some people think that supplemental heat in the winter is just about staying comfortable in one’s home, but that doesn’t even bother me to the degree that water damage does. Sadly, the water in your plumbing system can freeze, expand, and cause your pipes to burst. When the water starts running again, you’re left with a catastrophic water leak. But our summer precipitation seems to be equally extreme this year, with flash flooding damaging a number of important roads in my community. I can’t imagine the degree to which buildings around here are exposed to weathering and degradation from the climate. Concrete in particular is beaten and abused by the rain and wind that consumes the area during the summer season. If you’re building with concrete and using rebar tie wire as reinforcement, consider using corrosion resistant steel rebar like galvanized zinc coated rebar tie wire or type 304 stainless steel rebar tie wire because they won’t rust to same degree as black annealed steel rebar tie wire. Steel is naturally corrosion-prone if it isn’t conditioned properly or given a zinc coating like galvanized steel rebar tie wire.