8 Key Tips for Building a Stormproof Home

Security’s the top priority when designing the infrastructure of a house. Without having security, our homes go without a roof, windows, and doors. These small elements are the key to ensuring your home’s safe inside and outside from harsh weather conditions. Here’s a guide of eight key tips for building a stormproof home for more insight.

Secured Roof

A protected home starts with a properly secured roof. With a well-placed roof, you won’t worry about shingles flying off, causing the surface to create cracks that cause leaks.

So, as your builders maintain the roof, ensure they clamp the roof deck with ring-shank nails. A ring-shank nail holds the top in place to prevent pieces from flying off in high winds and changes in the air pressure.

Once you hammer the nails into the roof, it’s vital to seal your roof to prevent water damage in the attic.

Replace the Windows

We’re more exposed to the severity of hurricanes in and around Orlando, Florida. So, to better prepare ourselves and our home for the strength of a storm, we need to check that our windows are well-built to protect the home’s interior.

When going through your task list of things to replace in your home to protect yourself from a hurricane, make sure to check off windows.

Going through a service like Florida Window and Doors Solutions for services like impact-resistant windows Orlando replacements, you’re one step closer to stormproofing your home.

We can help replace your windows with something better. You need a window that can reduce the damage during a storm and save you on energy costs. So, choose impact-resistant windows when looking for other critical tips for building a stormproof home.

Check the Garage

While preparing your home for potential storm impacts, another element that may go unnoticed is the garage. The thing to worry about with the garage is the change in pressure.

For example, when water floods around the garage door area, it can decrease the air pressure, which causes the door to rip from its hinges and cave inward.

As you round up all of your personal belongings and store them away in case of flooding, you need to operate the door and ensure its hinges don’t come flying off from its tracks. Contact a professional who can install a bracing system for the garage door.

The bracing system prevents doors from caving in and getting damaged due to decreased air pressure.

Find Out the Home’s Elevation

If the home you reside in falls below the flood line, there’s a higher chance the storm’s aftermath affects your home. The best way to check your home’s elevation level is to go to your local building department and inquire.

After finding out the number your house falls under, you can then choose to raise your home’s foundation to help prevent flooding. However, if the home still gets wet, react fast to reduce moisture buildup to avoid growing mildew.

Dry Floodproofing

If there’s no time in the month or room in the budget to elevate your home, there are two additional alternatives to home elevation. The first is dry floodproofing. Dry floodproofing a house consists of using a rubber sheet around the home’s walls to improve water tightness.

Wet Floodproofing

The second choice as a substitute for elevating the floors is wet floodproofing. The process involves different materials that absorb water as it travels through the walls of your home.

Instead of water trickling down through cracks, the materials used, like vinyl or cast stone, shield the wall from touching any outside moisture.

Here are some additional items to use when wet floodproofing the home:

Vinyl floor covering
Metal doors and windows
Styrofoam insulation

Install Deadbolts

Another vital part of the home is the doors. Even with sliding doors, you want the doors to have proper bolts installed. Otherwise, you risk the doors sliding open or breaking down when water begins to rise and flood through the openings of your home.

The best way to prevent high winds from blowing doors open is to install deadbolts. A deadbolt comes with enough pressure to withstand powerful storms from knocking doors down and creating excessive damage.

Tie the Foundation Down

Likely, you didn’t know that the core of your home—the foundation—has a way of being tied down to the ground. To prevent your entire home from flying off its hinges, you want to tie the foundation down with metal connectors or hurricane straps while constructing the house.

The ties used can keep the home secure during storms. So, don’t neglect your home’s foundation without having a way to keep the entire house in place during bad weather.

Other Things To Stormproof

When stormproofing the home, you don’t want to leave any forgotten areas out. Here’s a quick rundown of other key sites to look over when building a stormproof home.

Weatherproof Your Landscape

When landscaping, you want to avoid doing a ton of work a few weeks before the storm hits. While landscaping, place a tarp over your plants and trim the trees. It’s good to cut any long branches off to avoid sudden damage to the roof.

As you clean your yard, collect all loose items such as newspaper, wrappers, and plastic bottles to avoid them blowing in the wind and causing damage.

Clean Out Your Gutters

Another thing to check for is debris inside of downspouts. To prevent damaged foundation better, you need to have clear drains so rainwater doesn’t overflow and ruin the exterior of your home. Do this periodically, and you won’t worry about roof leaks or the foundation getting ruined.

Place Outdoor Furniture Inside

If you have an outdoor patio with a cover, enclose the area with a glass screen to prevent branches from collecting in the area and your furniture from blowing away.

If you can’t enclose the porch, move all outdoor furniture into the garage; that way, the furniture’s protected, and no complex furniture pieces crashes into the home.

Weatherproofing for severe storms takes time, so while you’re constructing your home, use this time to talk with your builder about how you can prevent storms from damaging your house.

As you explore your home building options, if you’ve recently purchased a fixer-upper, contact Florida Window and Doors Solutions for help with replacing your current windows with impact windows that can prevent storms from damaging the home.