Hurricanes are a common problem when you live in Florida. Yes you can get warnings for a hurricane, which is nice compared to the short amount of warning you get when a tornado is coming your way. However, the amount of time you have to prepare is not enough time to replace all of the windows in your house to windows that can withstand the storm. That is why it's ideal to start planning as soon as possible.
With hurricanes come a variety of myths that people have come up with to try and prevent having to update or board up their windows. The top 4 myths about windows during the hurricane season are:
This technique will not help prevent your windows from breaking. It will just have the window break into larger pieces. Having the window break into larger pieces could actually be more dangerous because the larger shards could be more dangerous flying around then if the window shattered into a ton of tiny shards.
This is a myth because you do not want that violent air blowing around in your house. If you let the air in it can actually cause more pressure on your roof and walls causing damage to the entire infrastructure. The odds of anything exploding due to the pressure are minimal because there are other ways for air to seep in and out of your house, due to the fact that no house is sealed up completely.
Hurricanes are tropical cyclones meaning they spin and rotate to move. That means that no window is safe during a storm. The debris blowing around and spinning with the storm is just as likely to hit a window facing the water as it is to hit a window not facing the water.
This is also a myth because if a wind is strong enough to break your window, your strength or body is defiantly not going to be strong enough to stop the wind. Like mentioned previously if that window is taped be careful because now when it shatters you are likely to be hit by one of those larger pieces of glass and so you should probably avoid the windows that look like they are going to shatter.
There are a variety of ways to help protect your windows from a storm that are not myths. Some of the most efficient ways are:
Storm shutters are a great way to protect your home from damaging winds and flying debris. They are also very easy to close up and you don’t have the hassle of cutting and measuring all of the plywood before every hurricane and trying to remember which piece of wood goes to which window.
Impact resistant windows are great for a variety of reasons. If you have to replace some windows in your house or are planning on building a sunroom in Florida you might want to consider using this type of glass. The reason why is it has double the strength than your average window. Another positive attribute about these windows are that it meets all of the energy efficient requirements from the US Department of Energy, it meets all of the Florida codes and is commercially rated for residential use.
All in all, if you live in Florida your house is likely to experience the harsh winds and debris of a hurricane. Don’t try to take a short cut when it comes to boarding up your windows and making your house secure because that could lead to bigger troubles and expenses farther down the road. If your window breaks during a hurricane because it is not made to withstand the storms then you will have all of that wind and water blowing into your house messing up all of your belongings and the pressure would build up and mess with your infrastructure. Sometimes it is ok to cut corners but when it comes to your house, do you really want to risk it?
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