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.


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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.