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Surviving the Storm, Energy efficient framing practices for hurricane and tornado country
comments (1) April 30th, 2011 in Blogs
Michael Chandler, member
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Optimum Value Engineering (OVE) and some custom details combine to make an energy-efficient system that will weather the storm
Photo: Pencil drawings by Michael Chandler
3. Don’t assume that gravity is going to hold the bottom plate to the subfloor
During the recent storms in NC one house had four windows blown out by wind bourn debris. That was enough to pressurize the house and pop all the down-wind walls off the subfloor and into the yard totaling the home. Rather than simply nailing the bottom plate to the subfloor with 16D nails we hold the sheathing up a foot off the bottom plate and add a strip of OSB or treated ply that spans from the mud sill to the studs. We also use real anchor bolts rather than the expensive straps and put them closer than required by code. Code will allow us to skip the blocking if we run all the sheathing horizontally as shown but we usually block this and run 8’ sheathing vertically above this point. On the second floor the sheathing is run long so that when the wall is tilted up the bottom of the sheathing can be nailed to the upper top plate and rim joist below (with a ¼” gap for shrinkage of the rim joist.) Blow-outs are more commonly caused by failed garage doors on attached garages so be sure to lock the garage door with the slide bolt locks on the inside and lock the door between the garage and the house with a deadbolt and pick up lawn furniture and trash cans that can break windows when a storm is coming.
4. Stiffen the ridge and use real barge rafters
Even if you use trusses and ridge vents it is still a good idea to stiffen the roof sheathing at the ridge and to use real old fashioned barge rafters. It seems like barge rafters are a lost art these days but they really give a lot of solidity to the rake edges by tying them in to the next to last rafter or truss. Nailing the roof sheathing off to 2x4’s on the flat between the trusses is especially important on single story homes where the trees may hit the ridge first and it helps stiffen the roof by tying the two planes together. I had seven trees on my roof after a microburst touched down fifty feet from my home during Hurricane Fran but no water damage and very little structural damage other than a bit of shingle and gutter repair and some broken rafter tails. Nothing can make a home safe from a direct hit from a tornado but we can do a lot to minimize damages from a close call.
posted in: Blogs, green building, framing, hurricane, tornado, ove
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Comments (1)
How about a nice Ferro-cement Dome?
Posted: 7:17 am on May 2nd
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