vegas

do not buy a 2 storey house unless it has storm shutters as I am now seeing how difficult it is to try to board up the top storey windows.

TRPardoe

If this thing strolls up past Fort Myers to your doorstep you might not have a 2nd storey ;-)

:scared:

veryfunny

I have a question, do all brick houses in Fl get knocked about as well?

vegas

you do not get brick built houses in Florida. 2 storey houses are block built to the first floor then the second floor walls are built of wood. The whole wall is then covered with a stucco finish. The only problem with this that i found was that with hurricane francis the rain was being blasted against the walls and coming through as it is only single block. I had a steam cleaner which sucked up about 15 gallons of water off the carpet.

veryfunny

What is the justification of having wood huts built?

Thydney

Well you do our neighbours is but they a few and not as we would envisage in the UK, they don't do a cavity wall.

veryfunny

For a state that has natural disasters most of the time, you would think they will build better houses, look at the Japanese, they design buildings to withstand some scale Earthquakes.

Thydney

My sentiments exactly apparently the roof should withstand 135 mph winds bit worrying Charley and Ivan are or were both 140mph + :scared:

TRPardoe

It was apparent after Charley that recently built houses fared much better than older houses. This is due to improved building codes.

For instance, garage doors now have to withstand 135mph winds (I think). Older garage doors were only rated up to 90mph. If you lose your garage door, your roof comes off.

All my neighbours who had recently renewed their roof had no lost shingles. Houses with older roofs had a lot of loss.

The only place where Concrete Block Construction does not work in Florida is in Stilt homes, such as you get in Fort Myers Beach and the Barrier Islands. The ground floor has to be relatively open so that storm surge can pass beneath the inhabited floor above. If you enclose the ground floor to make a garage or workshop you have to have vents built into the walls to allow for water passing through.

Building a ground floor house on the Barrier Islands is insanity. You probably could not get flood insurance unless it was on a very high mound.