Summer Storm Season: Waterproofing and Maintenance for Outdoor Access

Summary: Summer storms don’t have to wreck your entrances, ramps, and outdoor walkways. A simple waterproofing plan plus a tight maintenance routine keeps people moving, prevents injuries, and saves you from last‑minute overtime emergencies.

Walk Your Site Like a Storm

A quick pre-season storm walk-through catches most outdoor access problems before they turn into emergencies, as guides like the Homes & Gardens storm yard prep make clear.

Walk the same paths your staff and customers use from parking to doors, side entries, loading areas, and outdoor seating. Do it right after a good rain if you can.

Hit these checks:

• Low spots that hold water near doors, ramps, or time clocks
• Soft, muddy areas at the bottom of steps or wheelchair routes
• Loose, cracked, or uneven pavers where someone could trip
• Doors where water splashes against or seeps under the threshold

Think of this as a 20-minute safety and payroll audit: every blocked door or slick step is a future injury report, time-off request, and schedule reshuffle.

Waterproof the High-Traffic Paths

For surfaces your team and customers use every day—steps, ramps, decks, loading pads—use coatings that flex and bridge small cracks; polyurethane and elastomeric membranes rank among the toughest options in tests summarized by Everdry Columbus on durable waterproofing.

Clean thoroughly, let surfaces dry, repair cracks, then apply a compatible waterproof coating in at least two coats. Look for products that are rated for exterior use and offer slip-resistant finishes when sand or grit is added.

Don’t forget the “small” parts that cause big headaches: door sweeps, threshold gaskets, caulk at door frames, and anti-slip nosing on steps. These are cheap, high-ROI swaps.

Nuance: some contractors swear by polyurethane, others stand by bituminous or sheet membranes; in practice, the right choice depends on foot traffic, sun exposure, and how well you prep the surface.

A practical approach: tackle one zone per week after closing—front entry, then employee door, then loading area—so you harden your site without blowing up schedules or paying weekend overtime.

Keep Water Moving Away From Entries

Heavy summer downpours overwhelm your outdoor access fastest where water has nowhere to go, and that’s why landscape pros in guides like Green Acres’ heavy rain article hammer on drainage and grading.

Start with the roof edge. Make sure gutters aren’t dumping straight onto walkways or toward doors. Downspouts should empty onto splash blocks or extensions that carry water at least several feet away from entrances and ramps.

On the ground, look for places water pools against building walls or on paths. Shallow swales, gravel-filled trenches, or a couple inches of added soil to create a gentle slope away from the building can make the difference between “wet concrete” and “temporary wading pool.”

Simple drainage upgrades that fit in a morning:

• Add or extend downspout elbows away from doors and ramps
• Set splash blocks so they point downhill, not back toward the building
• Cut a shallow, rock-lined swale to pull water across the lot instead of through your doorway

After the next big storm, walk the site again. Anywhere you see standing water near access points goes on your upgrade list.

Put Storm Tasks on a Schedule, Not a Wish List

Routine weatherproofing beats last-minute scrambles; homeowner-style checklists like the DoItYourself outdoor weatherproofing guide adapt nicely to small business sites. The trick is to shrink them into habits your team can actually keep.

Build a simple cadence:

• Weekly: 10-minute “eyes on” check of entries, ramps, and drains before opening
• Monthly: clean debris from gutters, downspouts, door tracks, and trench drains
• Pre-season (spring): re-seal high-traffic surfaces, refresh caulk, replace worn sweeps and mats

Assign these to roles, not heroes—e.g., “opening shift lead” or “week 1 maintenance task”—so they’re on the schedule just like any other work. Predictable tasks cost regular hours; emergency cleanups cost overtime, missed punches, and angry customers.

Know When to Bring in Waterproofing Pros

If you’re seeing water inside near doorways, cracked exterior walls, or chronic leaks at stairwells, you’ve crossed into structural waterproofing territory where systems like those in the Polyguard exterior wall guide are built to shine. At that point, DIY patching just buys you time—not a solution.

Call a pro when you see:

• Water lines, bubbling paint, or white mineral stains on interior walls near entries
• Spalling or flaking concrete at steps, ramps, or retaining walls
• Repeated leaks in the same spot, even after you recaulk and reseal

When you talk to contractors, push for a phased plan: for example, fix the worst entrance this year and the secondary doors next year. Schedule the work for slower weeks so you’re not closing doors during peak hours.

Handled this way, waterproofing becomes part of your operational strategy—not an annual panic. You keep people moving, protect payroll from storm chaos, and stop treating every thunderstorm like a five-alarm fire.

About the author

Silas Mercer

Small Business Efficiency StrategistWorkforce Management ConsultantCloud Systems Integration Specialist

Silas Mercer doesn't just track time; he reclaims it. With over 15 years of experience turning chaotic back-offices into well-oiled machines, Silas creates content for business owners tired of payroll errors and time theft.

As a pragmatic 'Operations Fixer,' he specializes in bridging the gap between complex cloud technology and everyday small business needs. His mission? To help you implement NGTECO’s AWS-secured solutions to automate attendance, ensure compliance, and focus on what really matters: growth. No jargon, just results.