best hurricane windows

brucw

best- hurricane windows

concretemasonry

Are you concerned with air leakage or with impact resistance from debris. The requirements will depend on your location (actual location and not just the state).

For water penetration, the most inportant fact ir the installation including meshing the primary home moisture barrier with the flashing at the top, sides and bottom of the window.

Dick

Daniel Holzman

The windows that are best
Are the ones that stand the test
Of infiltration and impact from debris.

But do you have the cash
To resist wind driven trash
That arises from the roiling sea?

rossfingal

Jeesh!!
"Daniel Holzman"
Apparently, you're a poet!
Who would have thought!!

RF

Windows on Wash

The Simonton Storm Breaker is a well received and widely distributed product.

__________________

concretemasonry

Daniel Holtzman is from the home of many old poets and authors (Dickenson, Emerson, Poe, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Alcott and even a few Kennedy's. It not surprising that some of the old stuff rubbed off.

Just watch a hurricane window impact test and it is scary, but not nearly as dramatic as a wall penetration test with a 145 mph air cannon and a 12' 2x4.

Dick

oberon

Or the same 2x4 into a window for tornado impact resistance testing.

concretemasonry

oberon -

Two different tests with slightly lesser weights and velocities for the window criteria and with different 2x4s because the projectiles for the wall tests do not not last very long (usually 1 test for an acceptable wall construction).

To my understanding, most of the testing was originally done for projectile protection since projectiles were the main cause of fatalities from tornadoes.

Dick

oberon

Good morning Dick

Per ICC requirements, the 2x4 used for window impact is 13.5', 15lbs, with a velocity of 150ft/sec.

Like walls, the test is generally set up with a new 2x4 for every impact since the 2x4 will shatter as often as not on impact.

I have participated in this testing and it is an amazing sight (and a lot of fun too...if not officially).

And as a general comment (maybe get a discussion going?), unlike hurricanes relatively few homes are directly affected by any particular tornado. From meetings and discussions that I have been involved with I think that tornado protection, with few exceptions, is going to be limited to "essential facilities" whether government (police, fire, etc) or private (hospitals) and I would suspect that in the case of hospitals we will likely see government subsidies helping out as well.

Of course any information learned from this type of testing can be applied at some level to other types of structures - including homes - but I think the cost to benefit ratio to protect homes from the potential of taking a hit from a tornado just isn't there.

A heck of a way to make kindling.