AAA Services of Central Florida

State offers grants to protect homes from hurricanes

Beefing up your home against storm damage can be pricey, but help is available through a new state grant program.

The state started a program in august to help people harden their homes against hurricanes, but knowing what to retrofit is not as simple as it sounds.

"A lot of times, a 50-year-old house can withstand a hurricane a lot better than one built 10 years ago," said Bill Mason of Homeowners Insurance Inspection Services, A Sarasota companies that does wind inspections for insurance companies.

Building codes are stricter now, Mason said, but workmanship was so much better in the past. An older home might lack items like hurricane straps, but its rafters were built closer together, making a roof better able to withstand hurricane forces, he said.

To understand such details, the state's My safe Florida Home program will offer free inspections that will tell where a home's inspection weaknesses lie, and also give estimates on what reinforcements will cost and discounts insurers will give once the work is done.

The program will then match up to 5,000 what a homeowners spend for strengthening roof decking, improving a roof's waterproofing, enhancing the strength of roofing material, bracing gable ends, reinforcing doors, especially garage doors.

Most people know they need to cover their windows with shutters sturdy enough to repel wind-borne debris. If windows are broken during a storm, pressure from wind can pop off the roof, which is why present codes require new homes to have roofs tied tightly to walls. Such connections can be added to a home, but it's not easy.

It's generally not cost-effective unless you're doing a major renovation and you have the wall exposed." said Tim Reinhold of the Institute for Business and Home Safety, an insurance industry research group. When you start talking about getting into the structure, that' disruptive.

Joe Logar of AAA Services of Central Florida, a contractor that does retrofit work, said his crew installed hurricane straps after another contractor had completed a garage less than two years ago. He said just for that 440-square-foot area which was not part of the regular living space, it took more than 80 man hours and cost 6,000. To do the same job on a home would be much more expensive and annoying.