Confused...Plywood or not?

[chicagopizza]

I'll make this short as Florida should be the main focus. Bottm line-some people are out there buying plywood. The city and hospital are boarding up. I am a home renter-don't want the expense, but don't want damage either and the owners left no plywood. The rental agency said "Don't watch the ____ weather channel. They are alarmists. Nothing to worry about. Don't spend ANY money." Please note this is a quote from someone else-not me.

Is this person saying this to keep from reimbursing me or is there really no reason for plywood here?

[HurryKane]

Well, look at it this way...if you go ahead and get the plywood now, cut it now, do some pre-installing now...then even if you don't need it now, you'll be darned ready when you do.

When putting plywood up for Ivan, I was very glad to have already had the panels precut from back when Isidore threatened us. VERY glad. It cut house prep time by probably 6-8 hours. Ivan was the first time I've boarded my home...and I suspect it had never been boarded up before I bought it.

[inotherwords]

Do you have renter's insurance to cover your contents?

[chicagopizza]

fromagent this week. Appaently, she "forgot" to tell me that insurance coverage for hurricanes and floods is extra. So, yes, if I a robbed I am covered. No coverage with a hurricane realated situation. I can buy it, but will take 30 days to take effect. No good for Jeanne. I just want my family to be safe without overreacting.

[HurryKane]

I'd go ahead and get the wind and hale insurance, because hurricane season is FAR from over.

[inotherwords]

Yikes, that's too bad about the renter's insurance. Maybe you'll be OK this time and can upgrade your coverage after this all is over. Sounds like your landlord is a real peach if he/she doesn't care about your safety or the integrity of his building.

[chicagopizza]

As for the landlord, it was her secretary. I guess she just feels like nothing more than what we always get, so why bother? We have been lucky and are naturally protected. I agreed the whole summer, but am thinking twice about Jeanne since some locals feel we are long overdue.

[HurryKane]

chicagopizza (yum) I know you are worried...I urge you to go ahead and put plans in place for the wind/hale insurance and plywood. Even though they might be a bust for Jeanne, preparing for other storms might help you feel a little more comfortable about things.

Best of luck to you and your family.

[Persepone]

I'm up north and they have no such thing here...

But from what I have read, these are not "destructive" and look as if they would work for rental property, no? If you buy and pre-cut and label your plywood now and do a trial install using the clips, you can find out exactly how long it takes you to put up the plywood, etc.

Also, I have a totally stupid question. Does anyone know? If you can't get to outside windows, can you install plywood from INSIDE your living space? Yeah, installing outside gives you the advantage of having the structure holding most of the force, etc.--but I'd still think putting it in the window frames with some type of clips from inside the building would be better than doing nothing at all.

My daughter's home (built in about 1815) has outside storm shutters, but also has INSIDE storm shutters! If you close both sets of shutters, you have a sort of window sandwich. I don't know if the original idea was storm protection, insulation or protection against Indians or what but those inside shutters are pretty solid. While they probably would not work in Cat 5, they would probably work in Cat 1-2 storm. (PS this house is in an area damaged in 1938. To the best of our knowledge no damage to house from that storm.)

Even if you are a tenant, investing in the plywood would seem worth it. And since you are a tenant, take it with you. Plywood is always useful stuff
and you can use it for some other purpose if you no longer need it for hurricane shutters.

I think EVERYONE should take the time now to sit down with their insurance agent and query them about exactly what insurance their homeowners or tenants' policies do and do not cover because insurance agents are really weasely (up here at least) about explaining what is/is not covered and there are all sorts of loopholes and weasel clauses. In the end, the best thing to do is to try to protect your property so that you don't have claims in the first place, alas. They NEVER pay you enough.

[depotoo]

exactly persepone - there will be an article covering some of that is this months newsletter.