Trends

The space, encased in concrete, functions as a pantry for everyday use. But when the next storm sweeps across the region, it also can serve as a bulwark against hurricane-force winds and wind-driven debris.

Storm shelters are more common in tornado-prone areas and in coastal regions. But they can offer an added measure of protection for Orlando-area homeowners as well, says Stephen Gidus, co-owner of PSG Construction in Winter Park. PSG, an award-winning remodeling firm, spearheaded The Renewed American Home project.

“For The Renewed American Home, we were trying to add different features to demonstrate what’s available for building and remodeling,” Gidus says. “A safe room is an increasingly popular possibility.”

Stormproofing a home wasn’t necessarily a priority for Central Floridians prior to the 2004 storm season. But after four major hurricanes—Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Ivan—wreaked havoc on the area, there was a movement among builders, manufacturers, governmental agencies, advocacy groups and buyers to better fortify homes against the elements.

“People are more concerned about it,” says Ken Mack-Solden, Florida area vice president of marketing for Pulte Homes. “The hurricanes we had [in 2004] put people in that frame of mind. They want to feel confident that when they buy a home, it’s going to stand up to a storm.”

And, if predictions for this year’s hurricane season hold true, storms will be coming. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s forecast is for as many as 10 hurricanes this year. Several could make landfall in Florida.

Fortunately, building codes are constantly changing to require stronger, more storm-resistant homes, says Beth McGee, executive director of the Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando. And as codes change, construction materials and techniques evolve to meet, and even exceed, requirements.

McGee says Florida homebuilders are placing more of an emphasis on building storm-resistant homes than they did just a few years ago. They’re learning new strategies to address issues such as wind resistance and water intrusion and they’re offering features such as safe rooms.

In fact, storm-resistance has become a powerful marketing tool for builders who want their homes to stand out from the crowd, particularly during a sales lull.

DiVosta Homes, for example, uses “Built-Solid” as a sort of motto. DiVosta, a division of Pulte, is currently building steel-reinforced homes with either poured concrete or concrete block walls in communities such as VillageWalk at Lake Nona, where prices start in the $260s.

“Steel-reinforced concrete homes are structurally stronger than wood frame or typical concrete block,” Mack-Solden says. “We had communities that were directly in the path of the [2004] storms and had nothing more [damaging] than mailboxes falling over.”

And in some of DiVosta’s coastal communities, such as Waterway Village in Vero Beach, safe rooms are standard. The solid concrete rooms, which can double as walk-in closets, are built to FEMA standards and can withstand winds up to 250 miles per hour, adds Mack-Solden.

Mercedes Homes of Melbourne also uses cast-in-place concrete walls as well as many other storm-resistant technologies. Roof trusses, for example, are aligned directly over load-bearing walls to help make roofs less susceptible to lifting off during a storm.

Mercedes and other Florida homebuilders are learning how to better stormproof homes from demonstration projects and studies conducted by organizations such as FEMA and PATH (Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing).

Also helping are organizations such as The Institute for Business and Homes Safety, a Tampa-based nonprofit that developed the “Fortified for Safer Living” program to educate builders and buyers on affordable options that increase a home’s disaster resistance. The institute is funded mostly by the insurance industry, which has an obvious interest in damage mitigation.

Lake County homebuilder Kristin Beall of Charlie Johnson Builder partnered with the institute to create storm-resistant homes in a Eustis community, The Oaks at Summer Glen. More than 50 homes, priced starting in the $220s, will be built with features such as safe rooms and wind-resistant shingles that are rated for 130-mile-per-hour winds.

In addition, garage doors installed on homes at The Oaks are built to withstand winds of up to 140 miles per hour. And the paint can take winds up to 100 miles per hour.

Adding such features isn’t as cost prohibitive as you might think. Beall says stormproofing measures will add about 5 percent to the cost of a home at The Oaks—a small cost when you consider the potential cost of hurricane damage.

Another storm-related feature added to Beall’s homes—and showcased in The Renewed American Home—is a natural gas-powered generator. The generator can keep lights and appliances working during a power outage. Additionally, in case of water intrusion, it will allow homeowners to run fans to quickly dry out wet areas and help prevent mold growth.

Even the Florida Green Building Coalition, an organization focused on environmentally friendly construction, addresses disaster mitigation in its residential home standards. Why? Because anytime a storm destroys a home, the debris will be hauled off to landfills and replacement materials must be manufactured, says Roy Bonnell, the coalition’s executive director.

So, to ease the burden on homeowners and the environment, it makes sense to build a more durable home that can survive a natural disaster, Bonnell notes.

Here are a few more strategies for stormproofing a home:

Install exterior doors that swing out, not in, for greater wind resistance.

Use hurricane straps, which secure the home’s roof to its walls, to prevent roof failure.

Design homes with hip roofs to reduce the amount of surface area that wind can grab and lift.

Choose permanent or removable window shutters.

Install impact-resistant windows.

Mainly, experts say, don’t count on luck. Although predictions of a busy hurricane season in 2006 were inaccurate, the previous two years demonstrated that Central Florida—which had been lucky for more than 40 years—isn’t immune to nature’s fury.?

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