They need to change the building codes in FL

[logybogy]

Every county, inland and coastal, should be under Dade County's building code.

This would make damage from all Cat 1, 2, 3 and most weak 4's minor.

Yeah, it'll add $10,000 to the cost of new homes. Big f-ing deal. It's the price you have to pay for living in paradise.

Pay now upfront or pay later in insurance premiums and deductible losses from storm damage.

Either way, you pay.

[tronbunny]

Already doing well with homes built in my Osceola County subdivision-post 1995.
No compaints, here.

[Sanibel]

There is good sense.


Now let's let the construction lobby and politicians at it.


Maybe they should relax the codes and let people live in tent housing that is easier to roll up before a storm and put back up after...

[Sanibel]

It would be interesting to convert a damaged neighborhood into an experimental dome community. Of course, this would probably not be struck for another 200 years...

[Canelaw99]

They will probably do that with the counties that have been hit hardest this year because there's so much new building that has to happen. That's what happened here. These codes only came about after Andrew because the buildings were destroyed and the county didn't want to have to go through that again if they could help it. I expect to see some changes in the near future for the rest of the state.

[tronbunny]

Interesting, that before Frances, Gov Bush said that he'd like an opportunity to take lobbyists who want to relax codes up in a helicopter to view Charley damage.
Not a chance we'll hear from those guys again for a while.

[Lebowsky]

You can build a safe home at a very reasonable cost in Florida. A rectangular CBS home with aluminum shutters, a low roof profile, and minimal east/west exposure holds up very well.

The problem is the yankees come down here and want to live in houses that look like the ones up north.

[Sanibel]

Pyramid roofs like ours tend to do slightly better than gable-end types. Though our neighbor had half their tin blown off in one giant piece by Charley. Almost all the pyramid roofs in our neighborhood were sound after taking 140mph gusts...


I guess a pyramid is a squared-off dome of sorts...

[frankthetank]

iM WITH SANIBEL...ALTHOUGH i'm thinking more along the lines of campers (tents get a little dewy)...Florida is a big bullseye and the darts will keep coming in the following years...if it wasn't for AC people wouldn' t live in Florida (most)...

[KeyLargoDave]

"Hip" or "hipped" are the terms for roofs that slope down in all directions, rather than having only two slopes and flat gables. As Sanibel said, like the top of a pyramid.

I've also seen research that says flat or low-slope roofs do well, though in Florida they're often seen mostly on low-cost tract houses.

[jdray]

Take a look at the housing built over the decades.

Houses built in the 50s and 60s were for the most part, Concrete Block with low pitch roofs on a raised foundation. Surprisingly, most of these take the least damage. Other than window damage. (replacement windows work fine)

The home boom of the 70's and 80's and early 90's were wood frame with very little in the way of hurricane strengthening. These homes are wiped out each time a strom comes their way.

Homes built post-Andrew in Florida have higher codes. These are getting better and better. Amazing what a hurricane bar can do for a garage door.
These suffered less damage than earlier homes, save for concrete block homes.



Maybe people need to stop and think here.
For hundreds of years, people in Florida DID NOT build a permanent house on the beach. It made no sense to. You built inland.

As our population grew, we built smallish homes that could withstand storms. Concrete block or wood frame that was compact. And away from the beach, unless it was a vacation home and not full-time occupied.

Once the population boom happened, many many people from around the country wanted houses like what they had back home and built them. (Do you really think a house that is up to standards in New York or Vermont will withstand storms and such down here?)

How about building the homes we used to build and make them a little stronger and more updated? This would work wonders.
People who build on the beach..... I have no sympathy for. For one, they try to own the beach. (Law states otherwise, unless it's St Johns County, they want to give everything to Ponte Vedra). 2, they should know they are the first to get hit, and storm surge is the worst part of the storms.

Im 4th generation Floridian. My parents/grandparents/great grandparents were smart. They built inland in homes that still stand today.

[Sanibel]

I've found that a screened porch with an overhead fan is tolerable even in the worst summer heat and humidity. We are on the Gulf where sea breezes kick in every afternoon, so the heat isn't too bad. It can actually be kind of nice with a big cup of iced tea and ice. No fan at all becomes intolerable. Even in the worst heat I can live with just 6 hours of air conditioning a day. The pay-off to this is ideal summer evenings with beautiful tropical thunderheads all around. If I had a choice between giving up air conditioning or mosquitoes I would choose mosquitoes in a snap!


In a perfect world Florida would have a road widening act to allow very wide mobile homes to travel on them and perhaps build extra lanes or emergency routes. Then they could build bigger mobile homes and get them out of the way. The rest could then be strengthened with a stronger code...

An act should be done creating very wide interstates with double the present capacity. Then they should put up a "No Vacancy" sign on the state...

The alternative is cheaper large-scale concrete...

[Lebowsky]

jdray, my parents' house in WPB (house I grew up in) is one of those 60's CBS houses. It got hit by both Frances and Jeanne and the total damage is a couple dozen shingles. Not a drop of rain got in, no structural damage whatsoever, no flooding.

In thirty minutes my dad can turn it into a fortress.

[jdray]

Amazing what they knew back then....

[Sanibel]

Many of the flat 3 story condo roofs had 15 meter hurricane winds blow straight across them unimpeded. Because of this negative pressure sucked off the roofing material allowing rain to penetrate the structure.

You would not believe the mounds of condo interiors piled by the roadside here. There are industrial drying units sitting next to condos and businesses blowing dry air in through long sheet plastic tubing about 2 feet in circumference. Many of these buildings had their air conditioners on the roof that were also blown away. It's a mess down here...

[ObsessedMiami]

Interesting, that before Frances, Gov Bush said that he'd like an opportunity to take lobbyists who want to relax codes up in a helicopter to view Charley damage.
Not a chance we'll hear from those guys again for a while.

Interesting also that the Governor said on Sunday, "Our building code is working, if you look at post-Andrew construction, most of it does very very well." Hmmmm Governor speak with forked-tounge

[tronbunny]

Interesting, that before Frances, Gov Bush said that he'd like an opportunity to take lobbyists who want to relax codes up in a helicopter to view Charley damage.
Not a chance we'll hear from those guys again for a while.

Interesting also that the Governor said on Sunday, "Our building code is working, if you look at post-Andrew construction, most of it does very very well." Hmmmm Governor speak with forked-tounge

Ummm, I think that's the same thing he said post-Charley.
He believes that current codes are fine...and should NOT be relaxed..

Again, most post-Andrew buildings are in good shape.

let's try not to legislate away stupidity (lost cause), but keep the current anti-stupidity laws.

[blizzard20]

*In connecticut vote down make new building codes for Hurricanes because it would cost to much . You will never make building safe for cat 3/4 or cat 5 Hurricanes . In ct law doesn't allow any kind of curfews .

[gravitylover1]

Pay now upfront or pay later in insurance premiums and deductible losses from storm damage.

Either way, you pay.

And if you're not willing to build to upgraded standards you shouldn't be able to get insurance at all. Remember it's not just the directly affected that pay higher premiums later. I'm in NY and my commercial coverage for weather related damages is going up this year "due to losses sustained in extreme weather events around the country."

[shorrock]

Post andrew (Miami-Dade) code was applied a-la shotgun effect around the state. Some counties adopted, some didn't, some took bits and pieces. Jeb got, I believe, a uniform construction code across the state to the 95 Miami-Dade code. All new and remodled housing must now meet this code.

As an interesting side-note, they were talking about insurance down here yesterday. Said that they don't expect dramatic insurance increases down here, or insurers to pull out. The state windstorm pool wich people thought were nuts after Andrew has held up very well in light of the storm. NO insurance companies are going out of business yada yada yada. Think rates will go up because insurance companies look for reasons to make more money.