Hurricane preparedness question

[quickychick]

I've had the plywood cut for over a year now, and still haven't figured out a way to attach it to my house. My home has vinyl siding everywhere (shut up).

Any suggestions as to the best attachment method that will be the least destructive to my home during installation, but will hold during a storm? I've seen some do it using the sliding latches you'd find on a bathroom stall door but am unsure as to the strength of that. I suppose just screwing it to the house would work, but the open holes in the siding aftewards would make me nervous.

Thanks for your time. -qc

[wolffeeder]

I live in a concrete block house that has one big bank of windows I needed to cover with plywood. I went to Home Depot and got a sort of thingy, it's like a concrete screw on one end, then a flange, then a threaded bolt on the other. You drill them into the concrete and get a bunch of bolts sticking out all around the window. I would imagine they make similar for wooden houses. Maybe not the most attractive thing in the world, but I don't care that much. If you saw my house you would know why. They come with little rubber caps so you can protect the ends, and protect yourself from the ends when not on use. I like them because they also come with big wing nuts to hold the plywood down ? no tools needed to cover the window, like with the shutters.

Now, getting the holes drilled in the plywood to line up with the bolts in the wall was a challenge. I held the sheets on the bolts and tapped lightly with a hammer to make marks. It was hard to do by myself. It's a big window, so I split the sheet in to two pieces to make it easier to put up alone, and screwed a 2 x 4 along the seam to join them. When I put the things up I have to screw through the 2 x 4 into the second sheet of plywood. But there was no way I was going to be able to wrangle a giant piece of thick plywood over the bolts by myself. I also attached some burlap strap handles to the sheets. That makes them much easier to handle.

So far it's only been tested in Irene, not much of a test. Probably not as good a system as some modern code meeting fancy metal shutters, but those are out of my price range.

Mom and dad had s system where they had the sliding latches on the plywood and the bolt of the latch fit into holes drilled in the concrete window frames. That made it through three fairly good hurricanes, but it does look kind of weak to me.

Hope that helps a bit.

[FireCracker]

You can try this with angle iron brackets. This was suggested to me by a EM guy. You must have a window that sets in from the exterior wall. If you install the top brackets first you can leave them, then when ready to install panels, slide the panels up and behind top brackets. Then fasten bottom brackets from outside. See notes. Fasten into solid wood only.

Top brackets sit like this:
__
|
(Left side is exterior side of window)

Bottom sit like this:
__|

If you are interested email me and I will send you a rough drawing.

[caribepr]

A lot of homes here use the *slider* method you talked about, for both plywood and metal shutters. The main thing is making sure your attachment, no matter what method you use, is securely installed. The nice thing about this one, or the angle iron one as well is that you can leave them up (the sliders or angle irons, not the plywood!) all year.
My favorite it the standard, classic Caribbean style, thick, solid shutters, either one or two (folding) panels. They are always there, look attractive all year and are fast fast fast to use. Most people I know that have them have an angle iron on both sides to put in a 2 x 4 from inside and outside for the finish up, or some have one flat iron bar that goes from the top of one side to the bottom of the other. When not in use across the windows, they just hook back to the outer wall, as decorative shutters do. These do not have to be expensive; they are seen on the most simple shacks as well as multi-million dollar homes.