Home Inspections - buying house in Jax / St. Aug (insurance, buying a house)

[tsd]

I expect to be buying a house in St. Aug within the next 6 mos. What specific tests about inspecting the house should I be aware of? I own house in ATL and am failiar with houses here but Jax on coast is different location.

For example, becuase it's near the coast with hurricanes, are there certain housing hurricane codes / inspections / ratings I should look for? Also, someone mentioned on another post, that it is wise to get an infrared moisture sensitivity test for the walls due to the inherent moisture in the air for North Forida.

Thanks

[mawipafl]

Ironic that you posted a question about hurricane-withstanding house construction. Just last night I caught part of a TV show about the 7 things one should know about that subject. I missed all of the "7", but I recall this much:

The shape of the roof - hip roofs allow winds to swoosh up and over whereas gabled roofs can catch the wind. However, with gable roofs, if they're properly constructed and attached and braced in a specific way to the house, they can withstand high winds.

How the roof is attached to the house is important. There should be hurricane clips holding the roof to the joists. These clips are not the typical metal sheets one can see on trusses - they're different, and there are two types.

The joists themselves have extra bracing inbetween as well as 2x6 or 2x8 cross pieces going perpendicularly.

Roofing materials - if it's tile, the tiles should be screwed on rather than just mortared and glued. If it's asphalt shingles, there should be a second moisture barrier under the roofing paper (special tape along all the seams of the plywood).

The roof deck should be nailed down to every rafter with (can't now recall) a certain kind and length of nail, and nails placed (I think they said) every six inches. An inspector on the TV show demonstrated how they can look for that with a little gadget that electronically picked up the metal of the nail and they could mark the joist at each place to show how well the deck was nailed down.

One of the most important ways to keep a house intact during a hurricane is to not allow the wind in. Doors that open out rather than in can't be blown in. Impact resistant glass in windows prevent projectiles from breaking the glass. Hurrican shutters were recommended even over impact resistant glass. Garage doors should be rated for more than 110mph winds, meaning their construction is specific and they are well-bracketed to the garage frame.

Is all of this over-kill for our part of Florida? Maybe, maybe not. If a house doesn't have all these things should one walk away? Not necessarily in my opinion. The more hurricane-resistant a house is, the cheaper the insurance, but it doesn't mean that the house isn't soundly constructed.

[tsd]

wow Mawapafl - great, detailed answer. I will keep these in mind when I conduct my search.

Thanks!

[EricBoyd]

I'm sending you a DM with the name of an inspection company that I normally recommend.