How do you prepare your home for hurricane season with windstorm products?

Living in Florida in general you will deal with a hurricane at some point and you a most likely considering some type of windstorm product to protect your property.

There are several products that you can choose from. The typical products are:
1. Plywood
2. Storm Panels
3. Accordion Shutters
4. Impact Windows

For either of the products, they will need to be approved products if you want to have a wind mitigation inspection completed by a windstorm inspector to submit to your home insurance company. When your home is ready you can contact an inspection company like GGR Home Inspections to perform your windstorm mitigation inspection. The home inspector will visit your home on a scheduled day to inspect your home’s openings to identify the product that is being used to protect each opening and provide the homeowner with form OIR-B1-1802.

The windstorm inspection form OIR-B1-1802 contains 7 sections that the windstorm inspector will be inspecting. These sections are:

1. Building Code – when was the building built
2. Roof Covering – what type of roof is being used
3. Roof Deck Attachment – what is the roof attached to (ie. Plywood)
4. Roof to Wall Attachment – how is the roof attached to the building (ie. Straps or clips)
5. Roof Geometry – how is the roof-shaped
6. Secondary Water Resistance (SWR) – is there an additional protection barrier installed. (homeowner must show installation documentation to get this credit)
7. Opening Protection – a chart that shows the level of protection for an opening

When is the best time to prepare your home for hurricane season?

Hurricane season officially begins June 1st through November 30th each year. The time to prepare is between December through May. The earlier the better to give time for receiving and installing the windstorm product of your choice.

What to consider when choosing windstorm protection products?

When choosing a windstorm product, you may want to consider the following:

1. Where is your home in Florida, is in it, and HVHZ (High-Velocity Hurricane Zone)…
2. How many levels the home has…
3. Is there a ladder to put storm plywood or storm panels in place…
4. Do I have people and tools to place storm plywood or storm panels in place…
5. How much time do you want to spend closing up the home’s openings before a storm…
6. Does it matter what the appearance of the home is with the windstorm protection in place…
After you have made the decision of the type of product you want to start contacting a qualified contractor for procurement and installation of the windstorm product as needed. If you are in Broward County or Miami-Dade County you are in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ). In this area, you must have HVHZ approved products to receive credits from your insurance company in your homeowner’s insurance policy.

GGR Home Inspections is a certified windstorm inspection company. If you have additional questions and want to get in contact with GGR Home Inspections please send us a note, text, or call.