Hurricane Windows

taqwus

I just got some windows from Window World and during the sales pitch we were assured the windows would be hurricane proof, but reading the fine print we noticed they are not covered for hurricanes.
If a storm comes I would like to board up the area, but I do not want to nail into the windows.
Anyone have any ideas

DangerMouse

Are shutters a possibility?

DM

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taqwus

I have thought about them, but the siding around my windows is vinyl siding and some windows have bricks on one side and vinyl on the other, the house was made in the 70's

Daniel Holzman

I have never seen hurricane proof windows, and I spent a year investigating hurricane damage on the Gulf Coast in 2005, so I have looked at a lot of windows. There are windows which are wind and missile resistant, meaning they are rated for a specific impact, but if a hurricane launches a tree into a window, it is going to break through the window. Anyone who claimed they had hurricane proof anything was misrepresenting their product.

Based on examination of some 200 damaged buildings, I can say that the best way I saw to protect the windows of your home from damage was with sacrificial storm shutters. The best performing ones I saw were steel, specifically rated for wind driven missile impact. The greater the wind speed you want to resist, the more you will pay. At some point, the shutter anchorage to the house becomes critical, since the shutters are useless if they tear off the house. The idea of the shutters is to stop broken glass by absorbing impact from wind driven objects. The shutters are generally destroyed after the storm, but they did their job.

While you are thinking about the windows, the doors are also critical. Steel doors work well, but you either need glass free doors or you need a cover for the glass in the doors, just like the windows. Make sure the door is rated for your design hurricane. The hinges can be a weak point.

And check your rafters, make sure you have hurricane clips on the rafters. Architectural shingles work better than regular shingles, but the key to building survival is that the heavy weight shingles be properly fastened to the plywood sheathing. I can't tell you how many houses I looked at where the shingles peeled off, and water penetrated through the roof, causing catastrophic loss. This was often due to too few nails, improper sheathing, or use of inferior fasteners. By the way, hip roof performed better than gable end roofs, both of which were better than flat roofs.

taqwus

Thanks for the info
Not sure about the roof system
But I do have a few water oaks near that if they decide to come down I do not think it will matter what I had on the roof. Some of the branches are overhanging the house and are too high for me to get

Is there a way I can check for hurricane hangars, I do have small part of the attic I can stick my head in and look

Daniel Holzman

Hurricane clips are typically galvanized brackets and come in a variety of shapes. Simpson makes several different models. You should be able to see them where the rafter connects to the top plate. It is essential that ALL of the holes in each clip have a properly selected nail through it (Simpson typically requires a 10d galvanized nail). If you don't have them, there is a high probability the entire roof lifts off the house during a hurricane.

waterman1971

For the windows with the brick surrounds, you can use plylox clips.



Kinda hard to describe exactly how they work. Lowe's has them and they come with directions for use.

Hope this helps.

thomasjmarino

If the house was built in the 70's then chances are that you don't have anything tying down the rafter to the plate.
Going to be pretty hard doing it now.
Depending on whether or not you have soffit and how wide it is if you do, you can fasten from the outside.
Of course, you would have to remove and re-install the soffit.

We used H2.5 for a long time, but recently I've been seeing H8 on plans.