As hurricane season in Louisiana began June 1, 2014, homeowners will begin preparations, however minimal, to get ready for any occurrence of a storm this summer and fall.  Most locals take a proactive approach when readying their homes for the storm season by following tips about securing things such as roofs, soffit, windows, hurricane shutters, outdoor installations like awnings, and exterior doors.  There are many important hurricane preparedness tips which are listed below for those people that currently own their own homes.  In addition to these tips, we would also like to offer some advice on how to be a proactive home buyer when building your new or new, custom home.  At Bedico Creek Preserve, our builders have been in business in St. Tammany Parish for many years. Many of our qualified builders are constantly building up their education and expertise as to the latest technologies, trends, and efficiencies of building your new home.  However, it can’t hurt to educate yourself as a home buyer in order to build the most hurricane resistant home as possible “from the ground up.”  Read the hurricane preventative / preparedness tips below along with our recommendations for new home construction to learn more about securing your home for the storm season.

Roofs

Believe it or not, an investment of $5 will get you far before any storms come your way during the hurricane season.  Especially in the deep, coastal South of Louisiana, your home will experience temperatures and heat indexes of close to and over 100 degrees.  Because of this, the shingles and ridge tiles on your roof may loosen or “pop,” allowing moisture onto the surface panels of your roof, causing rot and eventually cracking.  In order to prevent this, you can hire someone (preferably an experienced roofer) or take on the DIY project of checking your roofing shingles.  With your $5, you can purchase a tube of roof cement and secure any loose or popped shingles.  While you are up there, you will want to take a look at the ridge tiles of your roof.  Make sure that your ridge tile was attached to a ridge board which was actually attached to your roof.  Otherwise, if the person who installed your roof only used mortar, the ridge tile could become airborne during a storm allowing water to seep in to the highest part of your home.  Another tip to secure your roof is to make sure that your roof has hurricane straps.  Homes built before 2012 were not required by code to have them, though most builders in Southeast Louisiana have been using them for decades.  If for some reason, you home does not have hurricane straps, it is recommended that you hire an engineer to create a design for your structure in order to install them.  It could mean the difference between a roof and no roof in large wind hurricanes such as Category 3 – 5 storms.

Tips for New Home Buyers:
1.    Make sure that hurricane straps are installed appropriately on your new home.  Typically, your floorplan has to have an engineer’s approval before your builder can get a building permit, so the installation of your hurricane straps should be properly engineered.
2.    If your builder is installing and asphalt shingle roof, choose shingles with high Class G or H wind rating, and also, you may want your builder to use a synthetic roof underlayment rather than the normal roof felt. Before roof felt, roofers used tar to coat the underlay of a roof.  Now, the synthetic material is proving to be an advance in roofing technology.
3.    Make sure that your roof is being installed by a qualified, licensed roofer.  Too many nail holes in the shingles can actually void a manufacturer’s warranty.  Also, you want to be sure that the roofer uses a dedicated starter strip for each layer of shingles.

Exterior Installments

Even though soffit and fascia are typically installed elements on the outside of your home, this material can shift and decay as your home gets older.  You will want to inspect your soffit to ensure that it is securely attached to the fascia, so that the wind doesn’t catch it and lift or push it up in a storm.  For wood soffit, you only need to make sure that where the wood joins that it is tight.  If it is not, you can caulk any open spaces.  For vinyl soffit, you can either glue it or nail it tightly to ensure that it doesn’t move.

With the hot Louisiana summers, many homeowners install awnings on the exterior of their homes, not only for an outdoor entertainment space but also to cut down on the amount of sunlight that comes into the windows of the home.  When a hurricane is “on the way,” it is important to make sure that the awning is secure enough to endure the blustering wind and not tear off of your house to either slam into your house or rip off the side of your home.  If you have a cloth awning, some companies allow those awnings to be taken off of the frame and rolled up for security during a storm.

Tips for New Home Buyers:
1.    Make sure for a new home soffit installation that your builder installs as many vents as are allowed by building code.  The more aeration of your roof / attic area, the less the cost of the electricity it will take to cool your new home.
2.    If you have the budget, it is probably better for you to have your builder build you a permanent outdoor covering, such as a covered back porch tied into your actual roof.  There are awnings that are graded for high amounts of wind, but the more that your home is structurally sound and “tied together,” the less chance there is of your back porch awning flying off of your home.

Windows & Doors

The rule of thumb when dealing with a hurricane is the tighter that you are secured, the better chance your home has to withstand the battering forces of wind and rain.  Since windows and doors “break up” the security of long, continuous walls surrounding the interior of your home, these are your “weakest links” so to speak when defending your home against a hurricane.  Make sure that the framework surrounding your windows and doors is secure and not rotting or cracked.  With the extreme heat temperatures in Louisiana, you can see cracking in window caulking, so you should maintain this and keep it up to date in order to keep moisture out of your home.  Also, if you are able to afford custom hurricane shutters for your home, these are recommended highly to protect your windows and even your doors.  Hurricane shutters come in all styles and materials and can be custom designed to fit the openings in your home.

If you are trying to match the style of your home, shutter types should be selected based on the house’s age and style: batten shutters for homes from the early 19th century, panel shutters for mid-19th century homes and louvered shutters for everything from the late 19th century on. Check with the Historic District Landmarks Commission to be sure the shutter type you select fits your home’s style.

Exterior doors are typically made of a stronger material, in general, to deter break-in’s and to last for the life of the home.  Exterior doors that have large panels of glass or French doors need to have more security applied to them during a storm, so that they don’t “break in” or blow open with hurricane-force winds.  Either installing 6” bolts which can slide up into the door frame or down into the floor or installing a bar across the interior of the door to slide into channels beside the doors will also work.

Tips for New Home Buyers:
1.    Get your builder to install energy-efficient, double-paned windows in your new home.  Not only are they more secure against hurricanes, but they also cut down on the cost of your electric bill by make your home more insulated.
2.    When ordering materials during a job, the more “bulk” a builder orders at a time will cut down on his overall cost.  If your builder is already working with a millwork company on cabinets, mouldings, doors, or custom built-in’s, ordering hurricane shutters from the same company to be installed on your new home during construction can cut down on the overall cost of all of these products.
3.    Make sure your builder installs a metal exterior door.  Metal doors are still ornately designed and stylish, but they are also stronger against break-in’s and hurricanes.

For more in-depth information on these tips and other hurricane preparedness tips, Click Here for the Source of the Information.