Our Work
Recent hurricane & storm damage projects.
When a named storm hits SWFL, the first 72 hours are board-up, tarp, and water mitigation. The next 6 months are insurance documentation, mold prevention, and rebuild. We handle all of it — Ian-tested, IICRC certified, two SWFL offices for fast dispatch.
Hurricane work is a sequence: secure, mitigate, dry, document, remediate, rebuild. Skip a step and your insurance claim suffers or mold takes over. We run the full sequence and document every step the way adjusters want it.
Sanibel was devastated by Ian — the only land access (the Sanibel Causeway) was severed for weeks. Many beachfront homes are still rebuilding. Our Sanibel hurricane work focuses on long-cycle reconstruction.
Our Sanibel crew works across the full city — from Sanibel Lighthouse, J.N. Ding Darling NWR, Bowman's Beach, Periwinkle Place, Sanibel-Captiva Causeway, Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum — and we're familiar with how hurricane / storm damage scope changes between Sanibel Bayou and Gulf Ridge.
Sanibel disaster history: Hurricane Ian (2022 — barrier island devastation), Hurricane Charley (2004), repeated tropical impacts. We were on the ground in this city for each event and know the local permitting + insurance landscape.
Sanibel took the eyewall of Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022 — Category 4 winds and a surge that lifted sections of the Sanibel-Captiva Causeway and severed the only road access for weeks. Charley pushed water over the same beaches in 2004. Every storm response on this island has to assume the causeway will fail again, that the first crew on the ground may be the only crew on the ground for a week, and that half the owners are off-island when the storm arrives.
We pre-stage 6-mil reinforced tarps, 5/8-inch CDX panels, hurricane screws, and shrink-wrap on the island in advance of any named storm with a Sanibel cone. Once the wind drops below safe-work threshold we dispatch by structural-risk severity, not by call order — a peeled roof in Gulf Ridge gets covered before a broken window in Sanibel Bayou. We document pre-existing roof condition with drone imagery before the tarp goes on, because every adjuster from Citizens to Wright Flood will compare pre-loss to post-loss when the supplemental claim opens 18 months later.
Surge intrusion on a V-zone Sanibel property is a different first 24 hours than wind-only damage. Saltwater, sand, and substrate contamination put the loss at Category 3 by IICRC default. We cut drywall to a documented inspection height above the high-water line, marked stud bay by stud bay, pull saturated insulation, and stand up dehus before mold pressure builds in the closed-up interior. The FEMA 50% substantial-damage calculation also enters the file early on Sanibel, because the Lee County and Sanibel building department thresholds get triggered fast on older island homes and that determination shapes everything downstream.
A large share of Sanibel homes belong to seasonal residents — Midwest, Northeast, sometimes international owners. After Ian we built a documentation protocol for absentee owners: geotagged photo logs uploaded daily, room-by-room moisture readings, equipment counts, and a remote-signoff workflow that lets an owner in Chicago or Toronto authorize each mitigation phase without flying down. We carry that workflow forward into every storm response now. The owner's Citizens HO-3, NFIP flood policy, and FEMA Individual Assistance application can run in parallel from a single damage assessment package without the owner setting foot on the island.
The crew that worked Sanibel through Ian's aftermath still works Sanibel. We know which addresses lost roof on Periwinkle Way, which Bayou-side streets pooled longer than anyone expected, and which Sanibel building department permits move faster when filed by a contractor with a track record on the island. Causeway logistics, environmental review near Ding Darling, V-zone protocols, absentee documentation — that is the response posture this island actually needs.
First 48 hours: roof tarp, window board-up, debris removal, water mitigation start. Property secured against rain and intrusion.
Structural drying, moisture mapping, daily photo logs, equipment counts, content inventory. Everything an insurance adjuster needs.
Roof, drywall, paint, stucco, flooring, fixtures. Hurricane-code compliant rebuilds. Same crew that mitigated does the rebuild.
For Sanibel homeowners, the answer depends on the specific scope — call us at (239) 920-7972 for a same-day estimate. Our Sanibel hurricane / storm damage crew handles this routinely; we can give you a clear quote after a 15-minute walkthrough.
For Sanibel homeowners, the answer depends on the specific scope — call us at (239) 920-7972 for a same-day estimate. Our Sanibel hurricane / storm damage crew handles this routinely; we can give you a clear quote after a 15-minute walkthrough.
For Sanibel homeowners, the answer depends on the specific scope — call us at (239) 920-7972 for a same-day estimate. Our Sanibel hurricane / storm damage crew handles this routinely; we can give you a clear quote after a 15-minute walkthrough.
For Sanibel homeowners, the answer depends on the specific scope — call us at (239) 920-7972 for a same-day estimate. Our Sanibel hurricane / storm damage crew handles this routinely; we can give you a clear quote after a 15-minute walkthrough.
For Sanibel homeowners, the answer depends on the specific scope — call us at (239) 920-7972 for a same-day estimate. Our Sanibel hurricane / storm damage crew handles this routinely; we can give you a clear quote after a 15-minute walkthrough.
Our Sanibel hurricane / storm damage crew dispatches across the full city — from Sanibel Bayou, Gulf Ridge, Sanibel East End, Sanibel West End, Periwinkle Way corridor, Sanibel Captiva Road, Bowman's Beach, Beachview Estates, covering ZIP codes 33957. Storm damage scope varies street by street in Sanibel — our local crew knows which neighborhoods need which response first.
Sanibel insurance carriers we work with: Citizens Coastal, high-value carriers, NFIP V/VE zones. We bill direct on most claims and document to adjuster standards from the first call.
Same crew, same standards — we cover the surrounding cities too:
Yes. We pre-stage board-up material inside the causeway during named-storm windows specifically so we can respond before owners can travel. For Sanibel Bayou properties we typically run 5/8 CDX over windows and tarp roofs with synthetic underlayment and battens rather than blue poly, because blue poly fails within 4-6 weeks in Sanibel sun and triggers secondary water claims. We document every opening with timestamped photos and GPS, push the file to your carrier the same day, and remote-sign authorization with absentee owners via DocuSign so we're not waiting on wet ink to mobilize.
Gulf Ridge homes sit higher and typically take wind and wind-driven rain damage first, while Sanibel Bayou and the lower elevations south of Periwinkle Way take surge and tidal flooding. After a named storm we triage by hazard category: surge-flooded Sanibel Bayou properties get S500 Category 3 dry-out priority because chloride saturation has a 72-96 hour window before structural framing is compromised, while Gulf Ridge wind-damaged properties get board-up and tarp priority to prevent secondary water. We sequence crews to hit surge properties first, then loop back to wind-only after the dry-out is started.
FEMA Substantial Damage requires that if repair cost exceeds 50% of the structure's depreciated market value, the rebuild must bring the entire structure to current code, including V-zone elevation if you're below current Base Flood Elevation. For Sanibel-Captiva Causeway-side V-zone properties this can mean lifting the structure or rebuilding on engineered piles. We model the 50% threshold against the Sanibel building department's assessor value before scoping, because exceeding it by even a few thousand dollars can add six figures in elevation cost. Phased repairs across policy years are sometimes the right strategy.
Sanibel's absentee-owner percentage is one of the highest on the Lee County coast, so our hurricane response is built around remote sign-off. We pre-load a limited Authorization to Mitigate with your carrier and a separate Direction to Pay in your file before the storm, both DocuSign-ready. After event, we send geo-tagged damage photos and a draft Xactimate scope within 48 hours, you approve via e-signature, and we mobilize without waiting on causeway re-entry credentials. We share the file directly with your property manager near Periwinkle Place so they can verify scope without traveling.
Post-storm Sanibel-Captiva Causeway access is restricted to credentialed contractors, residents, and FEMA-coordinated logistics for typically 7-21 days depending on event severity. We hold standing causeway access credentials with Lee County emergency management, pre-stage roofing tarps, plywood, and dehumidifier inventory on-island near our Sanibel staging point, and run a daily ferry-back of debris to the mainland. For large rebuilds we coordinate barge delivery direct to Sanibel from Punta Rassa when truck access is limited, which is the same logistics path used for the original post-Ian rebuilds in 2022-2023.
Free estimate. No pressure. Insurance billing handled. Call our Cape Coral line and we'll have a project manager in Sanibel fast.
28720 S Diesel Dr Unit 7
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
Open 24/7 · Emergency Dispatch