4 Features All Hurricane Proof Homes Have in Common

Is your home hurricane proof, or is a disaster waiting to happen? While it’s not possible to render a home truly invincible against mother nature, you can turn your castle into a secure fortress ready to endure most extreme weather.

For residents of South Florida, tropical storms and hurricanes are a fact of life, and residents are always searching for ways to further protect both their properties and loved ones.

Let’s take a look at four features common to the latest storm resistant homes, so you can determine how best to improve your own property’s extreme weather readiness.

Learn More About Hurricane Safety:

• A Florida Homeowner's Guide to Hurricane Safety
• Does Your Home Have Strong Hurricane Protection? Take Our Quiz!
• How Hurricane Glass Protects Your Home Compared to Regular Windows

Roof Improvements

Many of the latest advances in hurricane-proofing technology focus on a structure's roof. This includes optimizing the shape to minimize wind forces.

Hurricane-optimized roofs are being secured to homes and even foundations thanks to improvements to fastening materials. In addition, waterproofing and sealing materials continue to improve to slow down and even prevent interior damage during severe hurricanes.

Flawlessly built hurricane-proof homes mean nothing without proper roof improvements!

Load Pathing

This concept is complex, but it’s a crucial strategy to building a home truly resistant to hurricanes. Effective load path planning refers to building a home so that all potential points of load, i.e. the places where force accumulates from the weight of your home, are all accounted for in construction to minimize collapses.

Storm-resistant homes built with optimal load path outlining will endure the ravages of a hurricane where standard construction techniques could cause a home to collapse. A normal inland home rarely needs to account for the possibility of 120 mph winds trying to lift the house via the roof - but a home in a hurricane zone should.

Impact Resistance

Everything that can be built for impact resistance in your home ought to be. Walls, windows, and doors can and should be built with hurricane resistant features in mind.

If you’re upgrading a home, you may want to focus first on those points which are weakest in a standard home, such as windows and doors. The failure of a non-impact window or door can be disastrous for safety, for keeping water out, for preventing structural failure.

And relative to installing impact walls in an existing home, installing impact windows and doors is relatively simple and inexpensive.

Flood Resistance and Recovery Features

Many homes currently built to withstand hurricane force winds place a large emphasis on combatting the effects of flooding. While water hazards aren’t always depicted as dangerous as the risks of high-speed winds, flooding can destroy your home and put your loved ones in peril just as easily. There are two components of flooding protection in new hurricane-proof home constructions: resistance to flooding and recovery from flooding.

Flooding resistance means minimizing points of access for water to enter and accumulate with better waterproofing, better sealing, and better drainage. There are dozens of techniques available for this task, including rain screens and housewraps.

Newer constructions have also minimized the impacts of flooding with simpler architectural layouts - ones that favor simplicity. For instance, a sturdy first story is used for storage and parking, built of concrete, with walls designed to be easily replaced in the event of flooding to prevent long term mold damage.

OTHER RESOURCES TO CONSIDER

In addition to preparing a basic emergency supply kit, take time to formulate a family hurricane plan to keep everyone organized when severe weather hits. 

For even more guidance, read the Essential Hurricane Safety Handbook for Florida Residents.

Take Every Step Possible to Safeguard Your Loved Ones

In the end, there are no completely hurricane-proof homes—nature can always shock with its wrath. But homes with the newest safety features are closer to full protection than any previously constructed.

If you’d like to find out more about renovating an existing home or rethinking a new construction, contact Alco Windows & Doors today. Speak to our experts about your options for impact resistant upgrades to both windows and doors. No project is too large or too small!