Hurricane Safety: How to make your home stronger against the next storm

When evacuation orders are given it doesn’t matter how strong your home is; you should heed the warning.

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However, there are ways you can make sure you have a home to come back to, one design expert said. It’ll take some investment, but it’s worth it.

Mike Kleinschmidt, the principal of Design Cooperative, whose firm was behind a home on Neptune Beach, Florida, showed WJAX-TV what makes the home unique.

“In this case, it’s all concrete,” said Kleinschmidt.

From the roof to the floors and the walls, Kleinschmidt said it was like creating a bunker.

“You could certainly build this house out of wood, but you’re not going to get the same sort of sense of security,” said Kleinschmidt.

Building an all-concrete home doesn’t come cheap, here is what you can do now to make sure your existing home can survive a storm.

“Go in and look at the weak points of your house and try to fortify those points,” said Kleinschmidt.

He said weak points are generally any openings, like doors and windows.

“You could put in missile-impact windows, you can put in stronger doors,” said Kleinschmidt.

If your house was built before the current building codes, you should take it a step further.

“You want to make sure your trusses are tied down securely to the wall,” said Kleinschmidt.

Missile-impact windows can also run you in the thousands of dollars, but Kleinschimidt said that if that’s not in your budget, it’s worth updating older windows with newer ones that meet current code requirements.

Cox Media Group