How an Illawarra innovation seals storm damage for up to a year

Matt Lennox is the inventor of Stormseal which helped many Sydney residents following a hail storm just prior to Christmas.

Stormseal was fitted to homes after a number of tarpaulins came loose and blew off property that had previously been damaged.

Mr Lennox has come up with a solution for people who have a huge hole in their roof and want to go back and live in their home without worrying about the cover blowing off and being exposed to the weather again.

But many home owners do not know they have the option. And that they need to ask for the Illawarra innovation from their insurance company if they want Stormseal fitted to heir home for up to a year. They can’t just go out and buy it themselves.

Mr Lennox received a Government grant to commercialise Stormseal several years ago but not enough to include a significant community awareness campaign.

He has slowly been getting the word out. But one of his challenges is that the adoption of Stormseal requires builders to go through a day’s training. The training is quick and easy to organise but encouraging  change can be a slow process.

Fitting Stormseal is different to a tarp and that is why training is required.

Mr Lennox said there has been many examples now of how reliable the alternative product is. A big advantage is it can stay on a home for up to a year in tact after only one fitting.

That is important because builders often need to re-quote for additional damage if a tarp blows off and re-submit their new quotation to the insurer for approval. And that can take up to four weeks.

“On average insurance builders will return four to five times to refit tarpaulins during the claim life-cycle, so is time consuming for all concerned and costly as you’re continually paying for building services to patch things up,” Mr Lennox said.

“Stormseal is a project management tool to eliminate “repeats" as it puts downward pressure on overall claim cost whilst allowing the builder to properly orchestrate repair efforts and, most importantly, allows storm ravaged policy holders to resume somewhat of a normal life”.

“I look at the car dent/glass replacement industry, its fast proficient and cost effective. Homes are completely different but if we take those learnings and apply them to roofs like highly trained crews applying Stormseal, it would save hundreds of millions in reconstruction, significantly reduce construction programs and give insurance companies a competitive advantage for the reinsurance market.”.