Hurricane? Crom laughs at the four winds...

[Sado]

I would guess that Florida does have hurricane codes they have to build with. More likely however its a city to city thing, with each city having different ordinances for building homes. Thats the way we do it in Texas, and I live in Corpus Christi, where we've been dodging the bullet for the past 20+ years, as the hurricanes keep just missing us. (Corpus Christi is long overdue for the monster to smash into it again.)

That's how we do it here too. A lot of the less well-constructed homes are in unincorporated areas where building codes aren't as strict. But we have trailer parks in the cities too.

But really there's no such thing as a home that can resist a hurricane, the best you can do is minimize the damage and hope you get lucky. As your concrete home you mentioned, well it does well against the wind, but is exspensive to construct, and if its on the coast and there's a huge tidal surge, well a building can't stand if its foundation is missing.

That's why we leave it up to individual homeowners to decide what's best for themselves. If I want to sacrifice strength for cost, I'd be a dumb@$$ but thats my choice.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I was just wondering: in a state which seems to be subject to hurricanes almost every year, how is it still allowed to build homes not designed to resist hurricanes? (Full concrete may not be that aesthetic, but it's solid.)

I believe the current codes only really handle up to a Class 3 hurricane. A lot of the older homes probably were made before even those.

In a lot of ways, folks figure it's cheaper to rebuild a house a couple times then to pay triple the cost to begin with. In the wake of Andrew, while some people indeed built better, I'm sure a lot of them also just wanted something built QUICKLY, to live in.

Charlie is a good illustration of the problem with weather, it's unpredictable. They got the strength & landing site wrong in their projections, and their "possible" zone is usually ignored. Those in charge don't want to evacuate people until they're sure, because too many false warnings convince people there's no danger.

 

[Angcuru]

Freedom? HAH!

Its called a bustling Construction Buisness.

ACTUALLY, it WAS a bustling period of homebuilding a few years back, where they wanted to build as many houses as possible, as fast as possible. That means not up to code, which means 1x1 roof framing instead of the standard 2x10, which means bye-bye roof if you get anything more than a strong breeze in the general area.

Seriously, I do this stuff for a living, and the construction materials I saw in the remains were....terrible at best. Sub-standard shingling, single-pane non-shuttered windows, abysmal roofframe. It was like the used brads instead of ten-pennies to do the framing on these things. (translation: using nails 10% the required size)

I can see a whole lot of contractor-directed lawsuits post-cleanup, as even if the homeowner wants the house made out of matchsticks, by LAW the builders have to use materials of a certain strength/grade.

 

[Vocenoctum]

ACTUALLY, it WAS a bustling period of homebuilding a few years back, where they wanted to build as many houses as possible, as fast as possible. That means not up to code, which means 1x1 roof framing instead of the standard 2x10, which means bye-bye roof if you get anything more than a strong breeze in the general area.

Seriously, I do this stuff for a living, and the construction materials I saw in the remains were....terrible at best. Sub-standard shingling, single-pane non-shuttered windows, abysmal roofframe. It was like the used brads instead of ten-pennies to do the framing on these things. (translation: using nails 10% the required size)

I can see a whole lot of contractor-directed lawsuits post-cleanup, as even if the homeowner wants the house made out of matchsticks, by LAW the builders have to use materials of a certain strength/grade.

New thing in my bosses neighborhood are these two story houses with grandiose, cathedral like entry's. Big arched windows that reach all the way to the second story for the entry.
Gotta wonder about the structural integrity.

 

[Angcuru]

New thing in my bosses neighborhood are these two story houses with grandiose, cathedral like entry's. Big arched windows that reach all the way to the second story for the entry.
Gotta wonder about the structural integrity.

Well, those things are usually double-paned argon-filled hardened industrial-grade glass. Sturdy as hell, but still brittle. It can usually take a thrown rock no problem. A 2x4 flying through the air at 150 MPH, on the other hand....