Every year hurricanes and tropical storms cause tremendous destruction in the United States. Hurricanes and their aftermath cause a massive loss of life and property damage. This raises an important question- Is your home resilient to hurricanes? Even though it’s not entirely possible to escape the wrath of mother nature, you can certainly make your home hurricane-proof to make them withstand the roaring fury of a hurricane.
Hurricane-proof home designs provide moisture resistance against wind-driven rains and surging water levels, wind resistance with a continuous load path, and impact-resistant walls. More and more homeowners are investing in hurricane resistant home designs to protect their homes from dangerous winds and flooding caused by hurricanes.
If you want to know the critical features of a hurricane-resistant home, here is everything you need to know.
Some Promising Features of Hurricane-Resistant Home Designs
Moisture-Resistant Design
Hurricane-resistant homes are designed to prevent moisture infiltration and accumulation from the heavy rain and flooding caused by hurricanes. Hurricane-resistant home designs include four key features that help them withstand moisture infiltration and accumulation during or after stormy winds and floods. The four key features included by builders and architects are deflection, drainage, drying, and durability.
Effective Drainage Systems
No matter what measures you try to implement, a heavy flow of water makes its way onto your home during the hurricane. Thankfully, hurricane-resistant home designs are known for their robust and sturdy drainage systems. Hurricane-resistant home designs feature effective drainage systems such as footing drains and gutters with downspouts that prevent water from accumulating.
Hurricane-Resilient Wall Systems
The best thing is walls of the hurricane-resistant homes are designed to maintain the structural integrity in the cluster of strong downburst winds during the hurricane. The walls of hurricane-resistant homes have the structural capacity and stiffness that make them resilient to high frequencies of winds. This is a great way to protect non-structural components of a house like the plumbing, mechanical, and electrical systems from the damage. What’s more, they make sure that the walls comply with local and federal building codes.
Durable Products that Dry Quickly
Hurricanes can bring flood water to your home that may contain sewage and pollutants. Hurricane-resistant homes are constructed from durable and waterproof materials like a weather-resistant barrier (WRB) that don’t degrade when they come in contact with water and dry quickly.
Professional builders and architects use a high-quality weather-resistant barrier (WRB) that is known for its durability, vapor-permeability, high tensile strength, UV resistance, and ease of installation. A high-quality WRB must comply with necessary building codes and regulations to promote water resistance and vapor permeability.
Deflect Rain Water Away from a Home
Builders and architects specialize in minimizing the damaging effects of rain on homes during a hurricane by incorporating technology that deflects the moisture.
- Ballistic rated home windows and doors can easily withstand harsh stormy winders and deflect water away from the windows.
- Plantings and adequate soil drainage in the landscape can effectively reduce your home’s exposure to wind-driven rain during the hurricane season.
- Rain deposition can be reduced by 50 percent by adding peaked roofs and overhangs.
- You can also include Hurricane shutters to provide more excellent protection from heavy rains and winds.
- Including well-designed surface features in the house exterior like trim, openings, and surface texture can prevent water accumulation around the exterior wall.
The Bottom Line
With the frequent occurrence of extreme weather conditions like hurricanes, more investors and homeowners are keen to build homes that can withstand natural calamities. Building a hurricane-resistance home might seem like an expensive option, but choosing the right builder is key to making sure your hurricane-resistant home is durable and economical.
If you are planning to construct a hurricane-resistant home, make sure you always rely on a professional builder. The benefit of hiring professional builders and architects is they use high-quality materials to build and design hurricane-resistant homes. They incorporate robust engineering and advanced technology that provides a higher level of protection to the building keeping water infiltration and accumulation at bay during a hurricane.
In addition to this, hurricane-resistant home designs offer higher durability for more years to come, ensuring low maintenance and tremendous cost savings in the long run.
