House in hurricane zones NB

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Capt_Marlinspike

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All the pictures we see on the TV of post hurricane damage always seems to show battered buildings that were built of matchwood and tissue paper. People living in Florida know it is subject to hurricanes, they are affluent americans WHY DONT THEY BUILD HOUSES OUT OF PROPER MATERIALS?


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Housebuilding materials are a particular bugbear of mine, as I have built my own timber frame house and keep getting told by insurance companies that it is not " traditional construction". However the facts dispute this as, almost all new houses being built in the UK today are timber frame as it is by far the easiest and best way to meet thermal insulation targets. the majority of ALL houses, EVERYWHERE else in the world are built from timber. Brick and Block building really only predominates in the UK - mainly due to the availablity of vast amounts of clay and bugger all timber.
As far as resistance to a hurricane goes - a roof on a brick and block house is really only held down by its own weight - there are a few straps holding down the wall plate, but not many - so it would proabably be even more likely to fall off, and bring the walls down with it.

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<a roof on a brick and block house is really only held down by its own weight - there are a few straps holding down the wall plate, but not many - so it would proabably be even more likely to fall off, and bring the walls down with it.>

So you build the house with a reinforced concrete frame faced with brick or timber and with a thin concrete slab under the tiled roof. OK, the tiles get ripped off, but the rest of the house would be undammaged.

It wouldn't be particularly expensive- most new houses in northern Africa are built this way, and in appearance it would be indistinguishable from a conventional house.

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yes you could do this and I have seen this method of construction in Africa and south america - however It does not seem to be hugely prevalent in Western europe and the US for some reason - i'm not sure why.
There are a couple of issues with this however
The concrete should be steel reinforced - in alot of the thirld world houses it is not - indeed in spain until recently it was not - just cast in-situ concrete, the problems with which were exhibited horrifically in Turkey a few years back in an earthquake.
The environemental impact is massive -cement is a terrible material in terms of the amount of energy required to make it.

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Looks like for the folks in New Orleans, it won't matter too much how the house is built if it's under 20' of water! They are worried that Ivan will force water over the banks of the levees on the Mississippi. If this happens, New Orleans is actually built in a depression below water level, and the water will flow in with nowhere to drain to!

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/09/15/loc_loc1ivannawlins.html>http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/09/15/loc_loc1ivannawlins.html</A>

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni
 
Yes, the environmental impact of concrete is huge, but given how many million tons of the stuff we use every year in applications where there are suitable alternatives, does using a relatively small amount in a way that means people don't loose their homes and belongings really matter?

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' houses' seen on tv, all ripped apart are pre constructed, 'mobile' homes, shipped in 2 parts and bolted together on the property, and NO they don't belong along a coast, but that is what the people are willing to buy to live there, and the gov allows it.

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Most of the owners in Grenada would not be able to aford such a building. A friend of mine living in Grenada had a very solid house, but the roof was still lost after a piece of 10"x6" mahogany could no longer take the stress as the eye went overhead.

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just for the record, when the eye passes over, there is almost complete calm, then the back edge hits ya and away you go again.

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you are of course correct, however, that few moments before the eye appears were what did the business (wind abt 135 kts)

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Florida building regulations stipulate that, amongst other things, garage doors on new-builds must be "hurricane-rated", apparantly most significant damage to modern houses occurs when the garage door is breached and the resulting pressure blows the roof off. Don't know when these regs came in but presumably many older homes won't comply anyway - and certainly not the trailer parks. Don't crticise them too heavily, much of recent UK building has occurred on flood plains.....and guess what - they flood!

Quote from the State Hurricane Readiness leaflet from 2004:

"If you do not need your car to travel, put it in the garage. If you love your boat more than your car, put your boat in the garage....."

<hr width=100% size=1>Rgds

Simon
Its Only Money
Fairline Sprint
Solent-based
 
i don't think that ins companies should pay out more than once to owners of houses built in known flood areas, just keeps my rates going up each year..

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