Florida Building Codes??
 

Florida Building Codes. Basically, are there any?

On the news they showed this building blown apart. By the looks of it, it was made (from the inside out) of sheetrock, foam board and stucco.

Of course a hurricane of that magnitude is going to cause all kinds of destruction to car ports, mail boxes and trees - but how can buildings be built to such low standards??

I think the inspector's name was Gotti.

Depends on when/where the building was built. They mentioned on the news that the new double-wide trailers which were built to new hurricane standards sustained just as much damage as the older models.

I think your doomed unless you live in a concrete box in conditions like this.

I moved out of Florida in 1995. I know that new construction standards at that time were very high. The standards changed after Andrew and they will change again for sure after this storm. You can't make people rebuild their houses becuase they do not meet a new standard.

Hurricanes have been hitting that part of the world for a long time..

Good thing Florida is a swing state, from now til election day all kinds of tax dollars are going to be thrown at that place.

Not that I dont feel bad for these folks..

Yes there are Building codes. No, most buildings will not do so well when faced with 144 m.ph. winds. Many of the buildings that have been shown on the news are testimonial to that. My cousins house was demolished during Andrew and it was a solid poured concrete structure that had its roof sheered off then all the windows blew and the rest well it blew away too. Cost would be too prohibitive to build structures to withstand such winds and people just wont pay it. Believe me, as someone who has lived through 7 hurricanes now, the devastating force of a direct hit by hurricane is superior to many buildings in the US. All I can say with this last one is thank God it did not hit Tampa direct or you would be reading about A LOT more lives lost and A LOT more destruction.

You'd think that architectural Darwinism would have taken hold by now, and most houses would be low-drag brick structures. Maybe they think jesus will save them, or maybe people like rebuilding every few years. Ya know, "keepin' it fresh"

No problem building a house that would handle a Cat 4. It would be built out of Ferro cement and look like a satalite dish upside down. All the windows would have Steel shutters. But would anyone buy one that is the question.

Houses handle Cat 4 hurricanes commonly. Construction in Fla is crap. Remenber when Andrew blew roofs off only to find out that there was nothing, thats right nothing, holding the roof down other than gravity. Rafters were not even toe-nailed in place, just resting there. Fla has a long tradition of corruption in land/ construction that apparently continues to this day.

FLA actually has very stringent building codes(at least on the commercial/industrial side). The tests for obtaining a contractors' license in FL is one of the more difficult I have encountered. Many of the sites where we work are in "hurricane zones" and the specs and QC procedures are no joke--minor deviations result in re-doing the work.

Mule, I don't wanna split hairs here but I am not aware of that many Cat4 storms hitting the US and not doing some serious damage to the structures in its path. I do agree that the building codes in FL used to be a lot less stringent and even more so in Homestead Florida in the late 80's early 90's (as was all of FL during that period because of the population boom and unreputable builders, which can be found even today). But building codes be damned, 140-145 mile per hour winds are going to do a lot more than knock over mail boxes so forth. Simply put, the average house in the US is not designed to do so well with 145 mph winds ripping it apart. But thats just my uneducated 2cents.

Out here in AZ we do not have hurricanes, but we do have "microbursts" that can rip a house apart. Our house is a 40 YO 9" thick brick house. But, the roof rafters were only toenailed in. So, I retrofitted by installing "hurricane ties" that are steel plates that meld the roof structure to the walls. When I build any structure, I avoid nails.

My credo:

Never use a nail where you can use a screw

Never use a screw where you can use a bolt

Never use a bolt where you can weld (permanent structures only!!)

With trailers, much of the problem is the lack of a good foundation AND not being sufficiently tied down to the ground.

Ok so today I heard that over by Orlando an guys 3 ton combine was hurled a mile by the winds here last week. Not many structures I know that could withstand that kind of wind. Also keep in mind that this incident was inland and at that point the winds were only around 100 or so MPH. Guys in was mighty scarey around here last week. For the Cali people, imagine KNOWING a 5 earthquake was coming in a few hours and there was not a damn thing you could do about it and not enough time to save all your belongings. I was swinging on deciding whether to move back to Ohio or not. I think this may have pushed me over the top. I hate snow and cold but at least a blizzard doesn't destroy your entire life in a few seconds.

As a civil engineer in Fort Myers, Fl (right where Charley hit), I can tell you that building standards are higher than ever. 90% of new houseing is constructed out of cement blocks and tile roofs. I have not seen 1 torn off roof in Fort Myers yet. I have seen a 100 or so power polls and Oak trees broke in half. Almost every business sign in torn apart. Other than that not to bad. Port Charlotte, on the other hand, is a more of a lower/middle class area filled with trailer parks and older housing. It seems thats where the major destruction occured. Sanibel Island sustained little damage even though it took a direct hit. This was due to the strict building standards required for island/beach area homes. My condo was built in 74 and redone in 2002. I had absoulty no damage except for a cosmetic fence that was ripped down. Still dont have power yet.

We experience microbursts as well here in NJ. I witnessed one puliung two hundred-foot tall trees out of my front yard and throwing them quite a distance.

To be honest when the wind gusts to 60 mph+ I start crapping my pants.

Or never use a staple when you can use a nail!

When I built my shop, I was required to install hurricane straps from the frame into the foundation at all openings and on the corners, but I thought that was overkill for inland California.

Do you use these straps from the frame to the rafters as well?

Yup. Wherever two 2 xs meet, I install a plate PLUS HUGE J-bolts into the slab, thru the plate, capped by a steel "u" shaped member that ties two adjacent wall studs to the plate. Roofing ply is screwed and glued to the rafters as well.

Wide: The straps, properly screwed in, can reduce separation due to shaking such as you might get in a moderate tremblor. Nails suck for anything but compressive loading where there is no movement.

BTW...Tile roofs....
Terry:
I wonder about their use in hurricane prone areas. They have a tendency to get blown loose and make excellent projectiles for the wind to play with. Also, if used on a trussed roof that has been constructed with "gang" nails, (plates with teeth that only go in about 3/4 inch for the rest of you guys), when there is fire, the gang nails lose their grip and the roof collapses under the extreme load of the tile. Ask a fire department if they like tile roofs.

The other issue is they're a ***** to cut thru for ventilation.

BTDT