Hurricane Season Shutter Prep & Patio Reset in Fort Lauderdale

When a storm watch is issued, Fort Lauderdale STR Cleaning stays on call 24/7 to reset outdoor furniture and cushions before landfall and turn properties around once conditions clear — storm shutters themselves are handled by a separate contractor, not this crew.

What happens to a booking when a storm watch goes up?

Nothing about the reservation changes automatically — the calendar stays booked unless the host or guest cancels it — but the property side does. Fort Lauderdale STR Cleaning stays on call 24/7 through hurricane season specifically so a host isn't scrambling to find someone the day a watch is issued. Outdoor furniture, planters, and anything loose on the patio or lanai gets staged and secured ahead of the storm, separate from whatever cleaning was already scheduled for that turnover.

Timing is the hard part, not the work itself — a watch can be issued days out or hours out, and a property with a same-day checkout and a new guest arriving before the storm needs the reset done faster than one sitting vacant for the week.

Do you install or take down storm shutters?

No — shutters are a property manager or contractor's job, not this crew's. STR Cleaning doesn't touch the shutter system itself; what it handles is everything around it: clearing and securing the patio, wiping down and storing cushions that shouldn't be left outside in high wind, and getting the outdoor space back to guest-ready once the shutters come back down. If a host needs both jobs done, that's two different calls, not one, and coordinating the timing between them is usually on the host or property manager. Most hosts book the shutter contractor days ahead of a watch and use STR Cleaning's 24/7 availability for the shorter-notice work around it.

What's actually in a 'patio reset'?

Before a storm: furniture gets moved off open decks or lashed down, cushions come inside or into dry storage, and anything that could turn into a projectile in high wind — umbrellas, planters, string lights — gets brought in. After: the same furniture gets checked for storm debris and salt residue, wiped down, and restaged the way a guest expects to find it, which is a different job than a routine turnover because the starting condition is unpredictable until someone's actually standing on the patio looking at it.

• Furniture off open decks or lashed down
• Cushions moved inside or into dry storage
• Umbrellas, planters, and string lights brought in
• Post-storm: debris and salt residue wiped down before restaging

Why document the property before hurricane season starts

A property condition report — noting the state of outdoor furniture, screens, and finishes before storm season — is worth having on file specifically because storm damage and ordinary wear can look similar after the fact. Without a baseline, it's a guessing game whether a torn screen or a scratched table happened back in June or during whatever storm rolled through in September, and that gap is exactly where disputes with a guest or an insurer start.

How fast can a property turn around once a storm passes?

There's no fixed number for this — it depends on debris, road access, and how many properties in a given pocket of the metro need attention at the same time. Covering 9 service areas cuts both ways: it means crews are already spread across the metro rather than centralized in one spot, but it also means a storm affecting the whole area creates demand everywhere at once rather than in a single neighborhood.

What hosts get wrong about hurricane prep

The most common mistake isn't skipping prep — it's waiting until a watch is already issued to think about it. Furniture that's been on the same patio for two seasons without a wipe-down is harder to secure quickly and shows storm damage more easily than furniture that's been maintained on a normal turnover schedule. Prep that starts at the beginning of hurricane season, not the day before landfall, is what actually saves time when a storm does show up. That's true across all 9 service areas — the properties that come through hurricane season with the least damage are usually the ones already on a maintained turnover schedule, not the ones getting a first look the week of a storm.

What if the property sits vacant through a storm?

A vacant property still needs the same before-and-after treatment as an occupied one — arguably more, since there's no guest checkout to trigger a visit and flag anything that needs attention. Fort Lauderdale STR Cleaning's 24/7 schedule covers that gap: a host can request a check and reset on a vacant property the same way they would around a booking, rather than waiting for the next guest to discover storm damage on arrival.