Hurricane Garage Doors

The Earth has taken an enormous amount of strain especially in the past two years; the effect being terrible episodes of natural disasters such as hurricanes along the Southeastern United States. These hurricanes have ruptured the lives of many in the countries, states, townships and local buildings that were affected and millions of dollars have been spent in repairing the damage produced by the high winds the hurricanes produce. As a result stronger building codes have been directed at strengthening the foundations, structures and components that are associated with this construction.

Strengthen the Weakest Point

Did you know that your garage door can be the weakest and main opening of your home to a hurricane?

The Federal Alliance for Safe Homes have proven that over 80% of residential hurricane wind damage starts with wind entry through garage doors. If your garage door is lost and blown away the intense fury of the hurricane will enter your house and in all likelihood tear off your roof, which is the next weakest opening, and destroy your home.

Building code officials, builders, insurance companies and homeowners are becoming more and more aware of the necessity for structures to withstand high winds resulting from natural disasters such as hurricanes, tropical storms and other weather related occurrences. By introducing the International Building Code in most areas of the United States, wind load is no longer an issue exclusively in Florida and other hurricane prone areas.

Associate professor of civil and coastal engineering at the Florida in Gainesville, Kurt Gurley, has stated that older garage doors were not specifically engineered to handle the wind pressure. Also, a bigger garage door means a higher pressure, making a double-car garage door more susceptible to damage.

Through thorough testing and evaluation, the necessary reinforcement requirements that meet and exceed the wind velocities and pressures ranging from 85 mph to 170 mph, has been determined. The product is a system created from a superb quality of aircraft-grade aluminum that attaches to the inside of the garage door. When properly installed, the reinforcement structure strengthens and provides support for the door. The test also proved that new garage doors built to meet the requirements were able to sustain the storm while older garage doors failed

Getting it Right

The performance of hurricane garage doors depends on the actual design of the structure, but it is crucially dependent upon accurate installation. If not installed accurately it will compromise the performance of the entire system altogether.

Some hurricane garage doors are designed to meet the wind load rating that is required for a specific area only, however it doesn’t mean that the door carries a Miami-Dade County certification. Miami-Dade requires the door to meet a wind load of 165 mph as well as successfully pass a missile-impact test. Sounds scary? A missile-impact test is conducted when a 2X4 is shot out of a cannon twice at the garage door and it should still be able to operate fully afterwards. So if ever you were in doubt about this innovation, that should be more than a reassurance to you. The Miami-Dade certification also guarantees that you will save on your homeowners insurance over a ten year period.

Replace verses Reinforce

Older, traditional garage doors can be replaced with Hurricane Garage Doors and it would be cost-effective. The structure that meets the wind load standards can be retrofit into the existing garage door unit, but a complete replacement is recommended.

One of the prime reasons is that Hurricane Garage Doors usually require much heavier vertical stiles and extra horizontal reinforcement. This means that the units’ springing weight would have to be adjusted, which will then require the springs; the track; the track attachments; the hinges and the rollers to also be upgraded to correctly transmit the loads from the door to the building.

Why do you need hurricane garage doors?

The hurricanes in the last decade have been linked to global warming. News broadcasts have proven that the Earth is under severe strain due to global warming. With that in mind, it is a smart investment for everyone to upgrade to a “Hurricane Garage Door” because you never know exactly where a hurricane will strike next.
You want to be safe; you want your family and your home to be safe. If your area is next on the hurricane hit list, you’d want to know that you can just dust yourself off and rebuild your life again, not your house.