How many MPH winds can a Villages house withstand?
 

Sorry if this was posted before but I can't find it. Just curious about what MPH winds our houses were built to withstand? We have a vinyl sided stick built designer. I tried calling The Villages Insurance and they were outright rude telling me they had to answer the other 2,000 calls that had come in before mine and would not even listen to my question.

It is going to depend on when your home was built. Building Codes were significantly toughened in 2000.

... A key focus of the modern building code is the exterior of the building, also known as the building envelope. New homes built in Florida within an area where 120 mph winds or greater are expected must have exterior impact protection. Examples of impact protection include impact-resistant windows, hurricane shutters and reinforced doors. Other code changes for 120 mph wind zones include mandatory roof straps that connect the roof of a home through cables all the way to a basement or concrete slab. The building code community is now looking more closely at energy codes and how they interact with building codes to ensure that homes built in the future can provide energy efficiency and impact protection at the same time. ...

http://www.hurricanescience.org/soci...demergingtech/

Much more info at the link.

A quick way to tell is to examine your garage door. If it has heavy reinforcement bars, your home is likely post-2000.


I'm not an architect, but I worked for one for 20 years.

What does a published MPH withstand number really mean ? Perhaps it means the structure should protect you from flying debris or collapse up to some number. From a damage standpoint my guess is shingles will blow off at wind speed much less than say 120mph. Now the torrential rains start and you will have major water damage - still a mess. Then the mold and mildew starts. A potential major health hazard. Try and get a drying company when hundreds of thousands have major damage.Be careful of being lulled into a false sense of security with these numbers.

Our house was builit in 2008 and we do have the hurricane straps. Thanks for the info. Just looked at the garage door and there are bars going across every foot or so.

Thank you for the link. I almost feel better. :wave:

What Category?
 

It used to be a part of The Villages sales pitch to mention that the houses were built to survive a certain Category of hurricane. I thought it was Cat 2 or Cat 3, but I don't recall.

Anybody know?

New to TV. How can I tell if my house has hurricane straps?

I do wonder about these thoughts
 

I do recall BEFORE we bought that the codes had been brought up.

In any case, it is like locking the barn AFTER the horse has gotten out.

Many of the homes have been modified since they were built.
Some people have added pools, solar collectors, lawn decoration, heck your plants.

DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO PREVENT YOUR STUFF FROM BECOMING FLYING DEBRIS. LOOK OVER YOUR PLANTS. PERHAPS, IF YOU THINK THEM A BIT THE WIND WILL NOT BE ABLE TO KNOCK THEM OVER.

DO WHAT YOU CAN.

At this point it does not matter
 

If, you have the date your house was built you can look up the code that was in effect at that time.

Well that's a positive outlook. Why don't you go to Hurricane Season Preparedness | State of Florida and learn how to prepare for storms like Irma. It's never too late.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

What I'm positive about is if your home is rated for "X" category hurricane does not mean you should stay. The aftermath which is not incorporated into the rating is no electricity and no air conditioning (as an example) for who knows how long. Thus I find this number as useful as most financial advisers, sounds good but of not much value add. Why do you want to stay - to protect stuff ?

I was told that houses built after 2002 were built to withstand sustained winds of 116 MPH and gusts to 138 MPH. Having said that, after watching the way they throw up houses around here and they lack of real building inspections, who knows.

So your house didn't have building inspections? We have the sign off on each inspection for ours, your house must have slipped thru the cracks, so to speak

Why is it that you believe the houses lack real building inspections?

Look in the attic. You can see the straps on the joists.

Of value i hope
 

We went to Sparrs the hardware, farm supply place across route 44. You can see it from Publix in traverse plaza.

They are well stocked. They have charcoal and grills. They have duct tape-I PLAN ON TAPING MY WINDOWS BEFORE THE STORM HITS US. They have mops, tons of buckets. ETC..

PLEASE REMOVE ANY STUFF YOU HAVE OUTSIDE THAT WILL BE BLOWN BY A 100+ WIND.

GOOD LUCK

Building codes have been updated about five times since 2000. The homes in The Villages do not come with hurricane resistant glass. Homes built after 2005 likely have reinforced garage doors (code change), but there are different degrees of that too. After 2005 for instance, there were garage doors rated for Miami-Dade (Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties) versus the rest of the state. All of our homes have wood roof trusses. Codes changed in 2005 to require straps, which help.

Wind breaches the envelope of the home through garage doors, broken windows and roof lift (gable roofs worse than hip roofs). ALL of our homes are susceptible to sustained wind damage.

What can you do about it now? Look around outside your house for things that will become missiles. Your hanging name/number sign out front. Planters. Lanai furnishings (umbrellas, chairs, decorations, etc.) Move them into your house or garage. The east side of your house is likely going to take the brunt of the wind. If you can't bring them in, bring them as close to the outside of your house as possible.

Stay safe.

Please do some research on taping windows. Generally speaking, it doesn't prevent anything and leaves awful tape residue on your windows.

do not tape your windows-totally useless

I PLAN ON TAPING MY WINDOWS BEFORE THE STORM HITS US.

No! No! No! Taping is useless and you will spend hours scraping it off.

Why look for numbers? Just leave, if you can fit your car into a space on I75. The hurricane should not be a particular issue, its the winds from spun off tornados that you should be concerned about.

If I thought it was very dangerous to stay I'd be gone by now. (Heck, driving the rotaries here is dangerous.) I have a whole house generator, because I've lived through hurricanes and understand the effects that can linger. I'm also here because my skills as a volunteer may be needed after the storm. Rather than fuss do something useful to help your neighbors and our community.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

The "standard" is the code that was implemented by Dade County after hurricane Andrew. Almost all counties in FL adopted it, including Sumter. And the homes are inspected as they are constructed. In addition, we hired an inspector to check things out for us.

Sumter County is a stickler for inspections. When we added a generator, there were 3 different inspections conducted, and we had to get ARC approval to boot.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Great update. Thank you.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I'm trying to be useful by warning people not to be lulled into a comfort zone because your house is built to some standard. That is not a reason to stay. Also to counter some posters irresponsible advice of not to worry - won't happen here. What if it does. Just because it didn't since you have been here doesn't mean it won't. Folks pay attention to the experts. And by the way so far they have not said to evacuate our area. FYI I am not there. Left in May. But if I was there I would have left. Why would I want to put myself in harms way. Every time I do lately I get hurt. And if tornados is the concern (and I agree) not a single house in The Villages is safe. Not even those tin strips on the roof rafters can withstand that kind of force.

We agree. I'm not afraid of hurricanes but I do have a very healthy respect for them.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Do not tape
 

(AP) ORLANDO, Fla. - Officials with the National Hurricane Center had a message Tuesday for residents living in hurricane-prone areas: Don't tape your windows.

Center officials are joining with a consumer advocate group at the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando, Fla. this week to encourage residents to skip taping their windows when a hurricane is heading their way. They believe it leads to a false sense of security and actually increases danger.

Instead, residents should use proven methods such as hurricane shutters or impact-resistant windows, Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center, told hundreds of meteorologists and emergency management officials at the weeklong conference. Attendees are going to seminars on insurance policy and emergency communications as well as hawking hurricane-related wares such as canned food and building-hardening materials.

"Our goal is to break this myth," Read said, referring to taping. "It does not protect your windows. At best, it's an inconvenience. At worst, some people have the illusion that they're safe ... and people can get severely hurt."

Taping windows can create larger and deadlier shards of glass when winds blow through a home, said Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president and CEO of Federal Alliance for Safe Homes.

"The shards can become bigger because they're being held together," Chapman-Henderson said. "You're wasting your time. You're wasting your money and you're potentially increasing the danger to your home."


.

Having been here since 2002 and having survived the hurricanes of 2004 (Frances, Charlie, and Jean), I'd say that personal injury risk is rather slight. However, if Irma goes right up the peninsula of Florida, the chance of water intrusion into your house is significant.

Water can get in when shingles blow off, or get blown in around windows and doors. It can get in when the soffit vent under your eves blow out and the water blows into your attic that way. Water can also blow in through the roof vents. Water can even penetrate block walls if driven into the walls long enough with enough force.

Then, as someone mentioned, a few days later you have a serious mold problem if you haven't removed all the wet materials like carpet, drywall, furniture, clothing, etc. The cleanup is doable if you're here and able to do the physical labor, but if you left town or haven't returned for the winter, then the mold can be a very serious problem.

Of course, the lack of electricity doesn't help any since you can't run fans or AC to help dry out things. Good luck to everyone.

I read an article, do not tape windows. If a window gets blown out, you will have large pieces of glass flying that could be very dangerous.

We live in a time where belief is the same as fact and you cannot change a person's beliefs regardless of the facts.

Once my wife was fighting to the death when I questioned what she told me. Finally I got her to see that it was physically impossible. She looked at me and said why would Sue (her friend) lie to her. I think that sums it up. Many believe what they hear or read assuming what they were told is the truth. Most are unwilling to do their own research and can endanger themselves in the process.

I have no sympathy for anyone who refuses to listen and learn. We all suffer the consequences of our actions. My wife is panicking with all the news predicting the end of the world. I am doing research until 4am to find out what our real risk is and prepare for those. Other than that, I do not worry about things I cannot control. That just makes you worry twice, once before and once during.

Same response as to poster about amount of rain to flood: if you had a number, what would you do with this information?

do ALL new homes in TV have hurricane glass ?
I never thought to ask on our walk thru last week.

How does one know if they have this type of glass ?

No. Homes in TV do not come standard with Hurricane Resistant Glass. This is usually seen by code requirement in new construction in coastal areas.

Dade County code calls for doors leading outside to open out. My front door opens in and it wouldn't take much for it to be blown open since the latch is the only thing holding it shut. My home was built in 2010.

We chose to stay because we have 2 large dogs and did not know where to go. Our neighboring states are just as likely to see this hurricane so shoving 2 dogs in the car and driving aimlessly didn't seem very smart.