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Old 01-03-2014, 07:29 PM
 
37 posts, read 63,110 times
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My wife and I will be retiring to Florida and will visit this spring to scope out towns and to look at homes & condos. I have some questions concerning construction techniques. Storm severity in Florida is no doubt more severe than here in WV where winds rarely top 40 mph. How do we assess Florida home & building construction to assure ourselves that the building & especially the roof will withstand Florida storms? Do builders in Florida use special techniques to ensure that high winds will not destroy roofs? Or is this something we should not even be concerned about?

Thank you.
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Old 01-03-2014, 07:55 PM
 
Location: Sarasota FL
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Building codes were upgraded in 1994 after hurricane Andrew, again in 96, 98, 00, 02
Walls are tied to foundation with re-bar and solid pour each eight feet, wall lintel has re-bar with solid pour, straps are imbedded each 24" in lintel to wrap around trusses. More nails are required in roof panels and shingles must be nailed. Garage door rails have more mount bolts, door has lateral reinforcement bars. 02 to present homes have provisions for window panels.
Homes built pre 94 have none of the above and 'wind' coverage part of insurance is high. If looking at a pre 94 home, have home inspected to see how or if the roof is attached to the walls.
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Old 01-03-2014, 09:24 PM
 
Location: FLORIDA
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^^^ Very good response.
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Old 01-04-2014, 01:11 AM
 
Location: Miami/ Washington DC
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I forget if the codes are purely state, county or both but what I do know is after Hurricane Andrew buildings codes became very strict. After earthquake country Florida, especially South Florida have the strongest building codes on the country. Also buying a with roll out shutters or even automatic shutters will save you money on insurance.
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Old 01-04-2014, 06:23 AM
 
Location: Aspen, Co.
102 posts, read 184,749 times
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Another thing to look at is whether the house is a "design pressure" build, meaning that the windows will cave in to prevent the roof from flying off or is the house armed with impact glass and acts like a bubble in windstorms. My home is on the intercoastal looking out an inlet so we were very concerned about a direct hit. We also built during the three storms in 2004 so we made additional changes such as poured every other course on the waterfront walls and opposite, poured solid decks and stairs, seamless metal roofing, etc.
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Old 01-04-2014, 06:49 AM
 
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It goes without saying, in general, you should stick to concrete block instead of wood frame constructed houses when possible
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Old 01-04-2014, 06:55 AM
 
Location: sittin happy in the sun :-)
3,645 posts, read 7,109,695 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chopchop0 View Post
It goes without saying, in general, you should stick to concrete block instead of wood frame constructed houses when possible
or be prepared to end up in Kansas !! Home Toto
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Old 01-04-2014, 06:56 AM
 
Location: Treasure/Space coast.
459 posts, read 613,341 times
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Really, I would think a properly constructed wood frame house would be just as good...perhaps better than CBS.
For one, it will flex and not crack.
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Old 01-04-2014, 07:31 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by quattrohead View Post
Really, I would think a properly constructed wood frame house would be just as good...perhaps better than CBS.
For one, it will flex and not crack.
I've seen those arguments as well but most of what I've read and heard suggests cbs construction is the way to go.

The proof is in the lower property insurance rates for those structures
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Old 01-04-2014, 01:37 PM
 
Location: SW Florida
14,801 posts, read 11,948,149 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by d4g4m View Post
Building codes were upgraded in 1994 after hurricane Andrew, again in 96, 98, 00, 02
Walls are tied to foundation with re-bar and solid pour each eight feet, wall lintel has re-bar with solid pour, straps are imbedded each 24" in lintel to wrap around trusses. More nails are required in roof panels and shingles must be nailed. Garage door rails have more mount bolts, door has lateral reinforcement bars. 02 to present homes have provisions for window panels.
Homes built pre 94 have none of the above and 'wind' coverage part of insurance is high. If looking at a pre 94 home, have home inspected to see how or if the roof is attached to the walls.
Not all pre-1994 built homes entirely lack hurricane protection. The house we lived in in Miami from 1985-2012 was built in 1958, and had metal hurricane straps that attached the end of each truss to the tie beam, and there was some rebar and poured concrete in the CBS walls of the house. I'm not sure the hurricane straps were imbedded in lintel ( not sure what that is, but I'm imagining it's related to the tie beam at the top of the CBS wall?) in this house or were just nailed into the tie beam on each side of the truss.

The house was virtually destroyed in hurricane Andrew when a support beam from a neighbor's ( across the street) patio overhang ( a 4x12 wood beam that was 40 feet long, broken in half when the structure was torn off the neighbor's roof) was blown through one of our living room windows- piercing a metal shutter- followed by that beam or the other half of it bouncing off the outside wall, cracking the CBS and breaking through another shuttered window in another part of the house. That let the wind in the house, which tore off the entire roof- actually twisting and breaking the trusses ( leaving some of the truss remnants still strapped to the tie beam). The living room/dining and family room were open to daylight, only ceiling joists were left. The house was located in Palmetto Bay, in the northern eyewall of the storm, and we were informed that the winds in that area had exceeded 160 MPH. We rebuilt, with the new hurricane codes in place at the time, and added our own mitigation items to protect the house from future storms the best we could. This house had been through several hurricanes prior to Andrew, and fared well, and we believe it would have done so in hurricane Andrew but for the high speed heavy debris that went through the shutters and let the force of the storm inside. I'm not sure what kind of protection would be required to protect a building in an event such as happened to this house during Andrew.

The changes in the hurricane codes from 1994 on have included, as your post mentions, increased numbers of poured concrete-rebar reinforced cells in CBS walls, including one on each side of all window and door openings, and every 8 feet along each wall. There are also requirements for roof truss and beam bracing to withstand windstorms of (?) 130 MPH, and as you mention, roofs must use products ( shingles, or tiles, depending on the type of roof) approved by the county. Currently shingles have some type of adhesive that's stronger than previous types and covers more of the shingle, and those shingles must be nailed on- the nail they're currently using has threads on it which are intended to make it harder for nails to pull out during a windstorm. When you're looking at a house, the age of the roof will indicate the windstorm protections used for the roof- assuming that the work was done to code at the time. A review of paperwork, ie, permits, inspection reports, contracts, will provide that information.

You pretty well covered the newer codes in a nutshell, I'd say. I agree I'd get a home inspector to check any home- before or after 1994 ( not all contractors built to required codes and you never know) to see if the home meets wind mitigation requirements. Or to see what is there that may go above and beyond those requirements. For newer houses where building plans and inspection reports may be available, looking at those may show what was done. Or, in many parts of the state, homeowner's insurance companies ( in particular Citizens') have required home inspections in the last several years as a condition of maintaining insurance coverage on the house. While the aim of these insurance companies ( as always, was to extract more $$$$$$ out of the homeowners' pockets, or in the case of Citizens, to eliminate their exposure to claims by dropping homeowners), their inspection reports indicate the mitigation factors present ( or not present) in a given house. I'd ask the seller about such a report, and ask to see it.

You can always ask to see the contracts and other paperwork for any work done to protect a given house against windstorm damage- ie, signed contracts, inspection reports and final signed permits for the work- roofs, shutters, impact windows and the like. When we sold that house in Miami last year, we had signed and approved county plans, inspection information available for the work done to rebuild the house after Hurricane Andrew, shutter and roofing information ( roof replaced in 2011). These were all provided to the buyers.
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