Hurricane Preparation

Protecting Your Home

5 Major Considerations For Protecting Your Home:

1. Windows: Protecting your windows is perhaps one of the most important factors in securing your home or office from total destruction in a hurricane or severe storm.
   • Make sure all doors and windows are properly caulked and/or weather stripped.
   • Replace gravel/rock landscaping material with fire treated, shredded bark to reduce damage.
   • Cover all large windows and glass doors with securely fastened, impact-resistant hurricane shutters with proper mounting fixtures or replace them with impact resistant laminated window and door systems, if feasible.
   
   
2. Hurricane Straps: Metal hurricane straps or clips provide the proper measure of strength and safety for the roof-to-wall connection. The common practice of toenailing the trusses or rafters often is not sufficient to hold a roof in place in high winds. These clips or straps are usually very difficult to see from the attic because of insulation. Areas where the roof framing meets the top of stud walls are normally covered by dry wall on the inside and by wall cladding and soffit board on the outside. To install hurricane straps and clips, remove the roof sheathing around the perimeter of the roof to reveal the top of the wall. You may also need to remove the soffit and exterior cladding to reveal the top 12 to 18 inches of the wall. In addition, if the exterior cladding is brick veneer, you may need to remove small sections of brick as needed.
   
   If your roof has trusses, make sure you tie them to the wall by either anchoring to the top plate and then the top plate to the wall stud, or strapping the truss directly to the wall stud.
   
   
3. Garage Doors: Entry doors are easily damaged by high winds. Bolt all doors with foot and head bolts with a minimum one inch bolt throw length. Garage doors should be able to withstand hurricane wind loads and the impacts of flying debris. If yours does not, replace with a hurricane resistant one that meets the Dade County building codes. Approximately 80% of residential hurricane wind damage starts with wind entry though garage doors.
   
   
4. Roof: If your roof was built before 1994 and is gabled, brace all gable end framing with horizontal and vertical beams. Also, make sure that there is wood sheathing (planks or plywood) behind the stucco of the triangular gable end walls. Using a caulking gun, apply a 1/4 inch bead of APA AFG-01 certified wood adhesive, like "liquid nails," along an intersection of the roof deck and roof support element (rafter or truss chord) on both sides of the beam. This technique can increase the wind uplift resistance by up to 3 times, but should not be used on new roofs.
   
   
5. Doors: Your home has either double or single entry doors. If they are solid wood or hollow metal they probably can resist wind pressures and hurricane debris. However, if you are not sure whether they are strong enough, take these precautions:
   • Install head and foot bolts on the inactive door of double-entry doors.
   • Make sure your doors have at least three hinges and a dead bolt security lock which has a minimum one inch bolt throw length.
   • Since double entry doors fail when their surface bolts break at the header trim or threshold, check the connections at both places. Be sure the surface bolt extends into the door header and through the threshold into the subfloor.