Home Safe Home

Many of us felt repeatedly violated in our own homes in the fall of 2004 as Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne crisscrossed the region and yet again in the fall of 2005 with Hurricane Wilma. What’s in store for us this year? Time will tell. But being prepared gives us our best chance of protecting ourselves and our possessions. As we learned from other sections of www.stormtips.com, surviving the storm is our number one priority. But let’s be honest, severe damage to our homes is something we want to avoid.

So what have we learned about protecting our own castles? We’ve learned that the best hurricane protection is easily put into use, effectively protects windows from flying debris and blowout, and provides some level of extra benefits.

The single most important characteristic of effective hurricane protection is that it be rapidly deployable. Hurricanes have a way of suddenly changing their path, leaving precious little time to react. And when only a few days pass between multiple storms it simply becomes impractical to devote many hours of intense physical labor putting shutters up and then taking them back down. Spending the final hours prior to storm impact trying to secure your home, climbing ladders and using unfamiliar electrical tools is not an effective or safe use of your time and energy.

Every storm teaches us more about the necessary structural integrity of good hurricane protection. Until 1992, when Hurricane Andrew struck, everyone was most concerned with the ability of shutters to mitigate the effect of direct wind velocity. With each subsequent storm we learn that even greater risk comes from relatively high wind velocity combined with small flying objects. Once a small object breaks a window, high winds can do immediate and significant structural damage to a home, up to and including literally blowing the roof off. Fortunately, new building codes quite clearly define the necessary standard for resisting both small and large projectiles and still providing protection from damaging winds.

In order to decide on the best hurricane protection for you, the ancillary benefits must be considered. How do they look? How much time and energy do they require to maintain? What else can they do for me? Some types of hurricane protection can provide a wealth of benefits year-round.

Impact glass offers a unique method of providing storm protection for some windows and sliding door openings. While certainly one of the most expensive options, it has the appealing benefit of having nothing mounted externally to distract from the home’s appearance and absolutely no labor to expend when a storm is imminent. The size of impact glass panels, though, is quite limited. For smaller openings, typically less than thirty-two square feet, this option can furnish good protection while maintaining your clear view.

Buyers, however, should be aware of two important considerations. First, impact glass is quite breakable. A wayward baseball or other projectile can and will break impact glass, though the breakage itself will be safely contained, much like an automobile windshield. Unfortunately, a panel of impact glass cannot be replaced simply and inexpensively like a normal glass panel. Complete replacement of glass and frame is typically required, and will likely cost as much as the original installation. Secondly, the same strength that provides storm protection, prevents access in an emergency. The fire department or other emergency personnel cannot enter through an impact glass opening nor can anyone escape in the event of a fire or other emergency.

Stationary panels provide strong, durable hurricane protection for a minimal initial cash outlay. The simplest form of stationary panel is a sheet of plywood cut to shape and then mechanically fastened, either nailed or screwed, over each window of your home. More typically, new homes come with a series of custom-made panels of corrugated steel designed to overlap in sequence and either fit into an integrated track system or be mechanically fastened with screws that are countersunk into the frame around the perimeter of each window and door.

But stationary panels have a host of drawbacks as well. Of all styles of hurricane protection, they take the longest to deploy. An average house requires several hours of intense physical labor and many more if your home is more than one story. Second-story installation is particularly challenging and inherently dangerous. Handling the roughly hewn panels can even cause injury, with sliced fingers and hands being quite common. The necessary mechanical fastening can seriously deface your home permanently. And just as they are difficult, dangerous, and time-consuming to install, they are equally challenging to take down. Since stationary panels are effectively sealing you within your home, every minute that they remain in place is putting you and your family at risk. In the event of emergency your escape routes are limited. Emergency personnel can not gain entrance or exit in the event of a fire. While providing low-cost hurricane protection, stationary panels are rarely a good choice.

Accordion panels also provide a somewhat reliable form of hurricane protection. The horizontal-sliding, fan-folding blade design is much faster and easier to deploy than stationary panels. Typically, accordion panels are accessed from inside the house by leaning out of the open window to pull the two sides together. They are then latched together, again typically from the inside. Thus, the effort is not too terribly burdensome for a reasonably able-bodied homeowner, but due consideration is in order for the elderly or otherwise mobility-limited. The sliding tracks will need to be regularly cleaned and lubricated.

Homeowner’s should be particularly careful about what an accordion shutter will do for the appearance of their home. Most agree that this type of hurricane protection can really distract from virtually every architectural style. Furthermore, this pervasive appearance will likely prevent you from deploying the shutter for anything but serious storm protection.

Rolling shutters provide an entirely different form of storm protection. The horizontal slats are tightly rolled into a small profile box above the window or door, thus blending into most home facades neatly. Since the sliding tracks are vertical, they tend not to accumulate dirt and debris so remain almost maintenance-free. The aluminum slats are very strong, providing excellent protection against extremely high winds and projectile impact.

Rolling shutters can be manually operated with a small strap or a gear that one cranks by hand. But most are operated with an electric motor, thus requiring nothing but a touch of a button to instantly deploy. So while your neighbors are in line at the lumber yard or climbing ladders and hanging out of windows, the homeowner with rolling shutters can simply press a button to deploy protection all over the house. Of course, another press of the button and all of the rolling shutters retract, allowing visibility out and light back in. There is no doubt that rolling shutters provide the best combination of structural integrity and rapid deployability.

What really makes rolling shutters an exceptional value is the wealth of ancillary benefits they provide. Lowering a rolling shutter provides total blackout inside your home, equally ideal for your bedroom or home theater. Rolling shutters also provide outstanding noise attenuation, blocking the sound of your neighbor’s dog barking or children splashing and squealing in the pool next door. Nothing is better than rolling shutters for protecting your living area from the damaging effects of the sun’s UV rays or the heat gain of intense summer sun shining through your windows. Raising and lowering your roll shutters daily can save considerably on utilities.

Many people depend on alarm systems to provide home security. But alarms merely inform you of the arrival of an intruder. A rolling shutter decisively blocks them from entry and seals your home up tight, whether you are inside or away.

And because rolling shutters are usually electrically operated, they can be linked to a wide range of electronic controls that raise and lower them based on rain, temperature, wind, and sun conditions. You can even link them to a home automation system and make them part of your designed scenes that you create with lighting and music.

You have choices in hurricane protection for your home. Your choices come with a wide range of prices, features and benefits. Only by thoroughly researching the time and energy necessary to deploy, the structural integrity, and all of the ancillary benefits can you make the right choice for your home.