Protecting your home against wind damage, and the areas where wind can enter your home is probably the most important thing that you can do to reduce damage to your home and property in the case of a hurricane or other weather phenomena with high winds.
Securing or retrofitting your home is easiest done when you are already planning a renovation. This way, both your time and your cost will be lessened.
There are several areas of your home that you can reinforce: Roof, Shutters, Straps, Doors and Windows, and Garage Doors. These are not listed in priority. All areas should be secured. Believe it or not, much damage is caused to a home when wind enters through the garage door.
I recently saw a wind test done on a model that illustrated how quickly a home can fall apart in high winds. The first to do was the nice picket fence outside. The next to cave in was the garage door and front door. After that, the roof opened up and the house was toast. Imagine if someone was sheltering inside at the time. They would be in real trouble.
There are many ways and many products to help you retrofit your home. Some things can be done yourself if you are handy, although you may want to call in professionals anyway, especially for jobs that require reinforcing straps, such as the roof to the top of the wall connection.
To secure windows, you can consider protective, not decorative permanent shutters and/or impact resistant windows. Both will help keep wind out of your home, where it can quickly tear a home apart, not only by whipping through, but by also creating pressure changes.
When retrofitting your home against wind damage, make sure that you follow updated codes and standards. These building codes were established from lessons that were learned in real life from homes that did not make it through high-force winds. Obviously you don’t want to cut corners, so consider the standards as the minimum requirements for your home’s protection.
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