The Exterior Check to Run Before and After a Gulf Coast Storm

Most storm damage on this coast is not dramatic. It is a lifted edge, an open joint, a soffit panel that dropped half an inch. Then it rains again.

Run this check twice a year, and again within a week of any storm. Look at the wood, not only the roof. The failures that cost the most start at fascia joints, soffit ends, window casing corners and porch post bases. They are visible from the ground months before a ceiling stain shows up inside.

All Types of Painting Remodeling Sheetrock Repair has worked out of Ocean Springs since 2011, and covers Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula, Moss Point and D'Iberville.

Why check the wood and not just the roof?

Because wood is where the water ends up.

Wind lifts a shingle edge or a soffit panel. Rain follows it in. The roof may look fine from the street while water runs behind the fascia and sits in the overhang.

NOAA's Storm Events Database records an EF-1 tornado on 1 November 2018 that tore the porch roof off a house on Riverlodge Drive. That is a framing and carpentry problem, not a roofing problem. A roof-only look walks straight past it.

The same database records a 130 mile per hour EF-2 on 19 June 2023 near where the Pascagoula and Escatawpa Rivers meet. It caused 773,000 dollars in property damage and is the largest single non-hurricane property damage event in the Jackson County file for 2015 to 2025.

So the check has to cover trim, not just shingles.

What does the local weather actually do to a house?

It opens joints in the heat, then fills them in the rain.

The NOAA 1991-2020 normals are worth knowing:

• Biloxi, station USC00220792: 66.80 inches of rain a year, 20.5 days with at least an inch, and 51.9 days at or above 90 degrees.
• Pascagoula 3 NE, station USC00226718: 70.43 inches a year, the wettest station serving this coast, with 23.2 days over an inch.
• Pascagoula Lott International Airport, station USW00053858: 80.3 days a year at or above 90 degrees, the highest heat day count here.

Read that as a cycle. Long hot spells split old paint and pull caulk joints apart. Then a heavy rain day runs straight into the gap. Eighty days of heat and twenty-plus days of hard rain a year is a lot of cycles.

It is also not only hurricanes. NOAA recorded a 66 knot thunderstorm gust, 76 miles per hour, at Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport on 1 July 2025. The same day, power lines came down on Washington Avenue near Bayou View and a large oak came down on 15th Street. That was an ordinary summer afternoon.

Pascagoula gets it from the water directly. The database records waterspout-origin tornadoes coming ashore into the city on 30 August 2017 near Market Street, on 22 October 2017 over an industrial plant on the east side, and on 30 August 2021 south of Ingalls Avenue. You can see the whole picture on what we cover in Pascagoula.

The before-season check

Do this on a dry day, from the ground, with a screwdriver in your pocket.

1. Fascia line. Walk the whole run and look for a sag, a dark streak, or a butt joint that has opened.
2. Soffit. Look along the underside of the overhang for a dropped end or a stained panel.
3. Window and door trim. Press the bottom corners of the casing and the sill. Soft means rot.
4. Porch posts and carport beams. Push the screwdriver into the base where the post meets concrete. That is where end grain sits in water.
5. Caulk joints. Anywhere two materials meet. Split caulk is an open door.
6. Gutters. Full gutters push water behind the fascia, which is the single most common way a fascia run dies.

You are not diagnosing anything. You are finding the spots that need a closer look.

The after-storm check

Same list, plus four things wind does.

• Anything that moved. A soffit panel out of line, a piece of trim standing proud, a downspout off its bracket.
• New gaps. Wind driven rain goes through openings that were not there last week.
• Debris hits. A branch strike on trim or a garage door surround.
• Wet ground under the eave. Water dripping where the gutter should be carrying it.

Then go inside and look at the ceilings, especially on the top floor and near the outside walls. If a stain has appeared, the water has already found a path, and that is a stained ceiling inside rather than a paint problem.

Found something soft? Book a free estimate and we will probe the whole run before quoting, because the soft patch you found is usually the middle of a longer problem.

Does the age of the house change what to look for?

It changes it a lot, and the split on this coast is sharp.

Moss Point has the oldest housing on our route. Its median year built is 1968 and 79.9 percent of units went up before 1980. D'Iberville has the newest, a median of 2003 with 58.6 percent built in 2000 or later. Biloxi sits almost exactly between the two, 38.8 percent pre-1980 against 38.4 percent built since 2000. Gulfport is 43.5 percent pre-1980.

That gives two different jobs on one coastline.

Older houses fail as wood. Soffit, fascia, window casing and door trim rot from the back, where you cannot see it. The paint can look sound while the board behind it crumbles. That is the pattern across most of older housing stock in Moss Point.

Newer houses fail at details. Flashing, caulk joints and fastener penetrations. The wood is usually still fine. The seal around it is not.

So ask what decade the house went up before you decide what you are looking for.

When to call somebody

Call when the screwdriver goes in, when a run has sagged, or when a panel has moved.

The repair itself means cutting out the decayed wood, finding the water path that fed it, and fitting sound new wood in its place. Every cut end gets sealed before the board goes up, and the fasteners go into solid framing rather than into sheathing. That work is set out on cutting out rotted fascia and soffit. Once the carpentry is sound, sealing and repainting the new wood is the other half of the job.

Ken Carr founded All Types of Painting Remodeling Sheetrock Repair in 2011, and he looks at the job himself. We work Monday to Saturday, 6:00 AM to 8:30 PM, and Sunday, 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM.

Have a photo of what you found and call (228) 355-8497. The price goes in writing before any wood comes off.

Related guides

• Rotten Wood Around a Window: How to Tell What's Fixable
• Why Does My Trim Keep Rotting Even After It's Been Repaired?
• Wood Rot Repair or Replace: How to Test It Yourself

Related service: Carpentry and Rotten Wood Repair