Tips for Seniors

The first step should always be to establish a communication plan. Have one person who is a local contact and one that is an out of area contact. Long distance calls may be easier to connect when local disaster areas are impacted. If you are living in a senior living community, ask for a copy of the emergency evacuation plan communication strategy. Become familiar with local senior living or nursing homes that offer sub-acute or respite care. A loved one may temporarily need a place to stay or need skilled nursing when recovering from an injury in an event like a natural disaster.

Respite rooms are in high demand during a natural disaster so it’s best to know what your options are before there is an emergency.

Stock your home and car with disaster supplies, including the items listed below. If you can, stock up before you know a storm is coming to avoid crowds and get the items you need. You should also keep support items like wheelchairs and walkers in a designated place for easy access.

• An emergency water supply
  • Personal care products
  • Emergency food
  • A first aid kit
  • Flashlights
  • A battery-powered radio 
  • Your medical insurance information, including Medicaid/Medicare cards
  • Prescriptions and prescription cards for refills
  • Medical tags with information about healthcare needs.

Pet Safety Tips

Special considerations need to be taken when preparing an evacuation plan that involves animals. Storms disrupt everyone’s routine and pets are no different. They can react impulsively and more unexpectedly than people during an emergency.

Assembling a pet-specific preparedness kit will put your mind at ease before a disaster strikes.

• A list of pet-friendly hotels/motels in your region. Consider Airbnb’s or VRBO’s (Vacation Rentals by Owner). Check what the restrictions are such as number and physical size or species of pet. View this useful website. 
• List of boarding facilities and vet hospitals. If your pet can’t stay with you, make sure to call ahead and make a reservation. Pet insurance is also something to consider. Although it can be expensive, if your pet is severely injured or needs surgery during a disaster, insurance can save you hundreds, possibly thousands of dollars.   
• Medical records / Medication. If you board your pet, you may need to show its vaccine history. Scan them into your phone and print a hard copy.
• Collar and leash with proper ID. Make sure the information is up to date, including your cell phone number and a backup number of a friend or relative. Consider getting your pet microchipped. Make sure the registration is in your name. But REMEMBER, the average person may not have the ability to scan for a microchip but will be able to read a basic ID tag.
• Current photos of you and your pet. If you become separated, this will prove ownership and assist emergency workers and neighbors locate your pet. Have copies on your phone and printed out.

You can use a small and lightweight GPS tracker of your dog.  Glow in the dark collars and leashes are also a great idea in an emergency when power is affected.

Help children learn about and prepare for hurricane disasters

Psychologists agree that children are the most susceptible to psychological trauma associated with natural disasters and a hurricane certainly falls into this category.

Numerous studies have shown that children experience a great deal of stress because of a hurricane. They are young so they do not really understand. They are displaced, evacuated from the only place they call home, have seen their neighborhood damaged or destroyed and have lost personal belongings. In some hard-hit areas such as Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, thousands of toddlers were left homeless. It is not shocking that many develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Symptoms include recurring bad dreams and feeling anxious.

Parents and caregivers can log online at NCTSN.org (The National Child Traumatic Stress Network). This website is a good resource for the public, professionals, and others who care about children and are concerned about child traumatic stress.

Have a Kid-Friendly Preparedness Kit

Some items will depend on your own needs but here’s a starting point.

• Spare clothing pack: Pack those old, less popular clothes they don’t usually wear. When the clothes they’re wearing get dirty or wet, even their least favorite duds are better than nothing. Also, pack extra socks and underwear.
• Kid-friendly foods: For example, canned ravioli, mac & cheese, fruit roll ups, trail mix, PB&J, applesauce, baked cheese crackers, and dry cereal. Keep in mind what foods your kids like to eat at home and those they don’t. If your child doesn’t like peas at home, don’t expect him to eat them from your prep kit.
• Baby wipes: If there isn’t running water, they’re perfect to wipe down you and those that created the stench in the backseat.
• Fun & Games: Pack of cards, board games, blank paper pads with crayons, and magnetic car games. Keep them from being bored, especially on long car rides, by packing a variety of activities to get the imagination going and pass the time.
• Comfort items: Favorite stuffed animals, blankets, toys, or anything else that brings your child comfort.

Valuable links for parents and caregivers

• Hurricane Emergency: News, Safety Tips and Relief Response | Save the Children
• The ready.gov website has an educational and fun resource for kids of all ages to help prepare for a disaster. There are games, like the Disaster Master Game and Build a Kit game. The Ready Kids penguin mascot, Pedro, will walk them through it.

The post Hurricane Safety Tips appeared first on Deltec Homes.

As our climate warms, the world is experiencing stronger winds, higher storm surges and record rainfalls during the hurricane season.  Every year, hurricanes and storm-related flooding cause around $34 billion in damage to U.S. households and the areas at most at-risk, including the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the beaches along the Atlantic.

Scientists have concluded that Earth’s apparent long-term rising temperatures can impact regular weather events, such as rainfall, hurricanes, tornadoes, and droughts.  Such extreme weather has the potential to devastate and impact peoples’ lives and property across the globe on an increasingly serious scale. According to the NOAA, global temperatures rose about 1.98°F (1.1°C) from 1901 to 2020, but climate change refers to more than an increase in temperature – it also includes rises in sea levels, rises in ocean temperatures, changes in weather patterns like drought and flooding, and much more.  In fact, the average global sea level has already risen by half a foot since 1900 — nearly four of those inches since 1970. Higher sea level can push more water inland during hurricane-related storm surges.

Many hurricane experts agree that there is a direct connection between climate change and stronger hurricanes. 

Hurricanes get their energy from the ocean and through the years, human-caused climate change has trapped enormous amounts of extra heat on the planet. Most of that heat–over 90 percent–has been absorbed into the ocean. That makes the ocean warmer, and that hotter water right near the sea’s surface acts like an accelerant to storms as they form. In Florida, ocean temperatures broke 100° F this summer–nearly hot-tub water territory. That hurt coral reefs and other marine life, and primed the region for more intense storms. Since the 1970s, about twice as many storms are spinning up into Category 4 or 5 cyclones as before. It’s nearly three times as likely that an Atlantic-born tropical cyclone will wind up as a hurricane as it was three decades ago.

As we anticipate a future of more disastrous storms, building homes to withstand extreme weather events is crucial. 

Hurricane season stretches from June 1 to November 30, but the financial hardship and long-term recovery from a hurricane can last for years to come. This is why, now more than ever, it’s important to consider hurricanes as you make choices concerning your current and future homes – especially if you live in a hurricane prone area.

Deltec Homes has been building round extreme weather resistant homes over five decades.  We are renowned around the world for our hurricane-resistant homes. In that time, we have built over 5,000 homes -many of them in areas hit by the biggest storms on record – including hurricanes Katrina, Charley, and Sandy.  Deltec Homes is the world leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of hurricane-resistant residential structures.

Time after time, home after home, Deltec hurricane-resistant homes are left standing with no structural damage.

The post Growing Need for Resilient Homes That Can Withstand Extreme Weather appeared first on Deltec Homes.

Matt Oblinsky, PE, Director of Engineering for Deltec Homes
Leigha Dickens, HERS, Green Building and Sustainability Manager for Deltec Homes
Steve Linton, LEED AP, President for Deltec Homes

In the first two articles in this series, we explored the general way that high winds can damage homes as well as to explore the structural and sustainable features that can improve the design of homes in hurricane areas.  In the final part of this series, we now turn our attention to specific ways to improve the resilience of new homes and existing homes.  We conclude by sharing practical tips for how to prepare for future storms.

What measures can be taken to improve the resistance of new homes to high wind events?

As we enter the 2020 hurricane season, which is forecasted to be the 5th year in a row of above normal activity, it is important to continue to advance the practice of smart home design in hurricane-prone areas.  One clear advantage to designing a home from the ground up is the ability to take a comprehensive approach, allowing the home to work together as a resilient system.  Deltec uses the following hurricane design framework to help foster this full scale approach:  

Shape:

Aerodynamic Shape.  Consider a shape that is aerodynamic and minimizes pressure build up.  For example, in a circular design, the pressure on the home is reduced by about 30% since the wind pressure cannot build up much pressure on any one side.

Roof Pitch.  The ideal roof pitch for high wind areas is around 30 degrees (which is a 6:12 to 7:12 pitch).  This roof angle allows the wind to be deflected with minimal pressure on the home.

Hip Roofs Over Gable Roofs.  Hip roofs provide a sloping roof on all sides of the roof, which eliminates the “gable end” which can be a target for high winds.  Here is an example of the two roof styles.  Note that the Deltec panoramic-style roof is also a hip roof with multiple hips.

A gable roof is characterized by triangular ends which are vertical and are more susceptible to high wind.

On the left, a hip-roof is used over the garage.  On the right, a Deltec structure with a multi-sided hip roof is even stronger than a conventional hip roof design.

Materials:

High Strength Materials.  It makes intuitive sense that stronger materials make stronger homes.  Consider using thicker sheathing (for example, Deltec uses ⅝” plywood which is about twice as strong as industry-standard 7/16” oriented strand board).  Higher grades of lumber can also be utilized in high-stress zones of the structure, such as the “diamond grade” lumber used in Deltec’s homes.  Additionally, higher strength materials also help resist against projectile impacts.

Doors and Windows.  Keeping the envelope of your home (what separates inside from outside) intact is of critical importance during a high wind event.  Do not believe the myth that by opening the windows in your home during a hurricane that you will be better off – the exact opposite is true.  If hurricane force winds enter your home, they have an additive effect to the winds blowing outside, wreaking havoc on the structure.  The main strategy is to have a plan for covering your windows and doors.  If your home has a garage door, upgrade to a door that is rated for hurricane force winds.  For regular doors and windows, one option is to install impact-resistant units.  You can also install hurricane shutters or have a set of precut plywood sheets to cover all your openings that you can install in preparation for a storm.  

Precision Engineering:

Critical Connections. Thoughtful design and proper installation of each piece connecting the home together is absolutely critical.  This is a strategy that can be used to improve both new and existing homes.  One of the most important connections is where the roof meets the wall system.  Hurricane ties are now code required, but there are different levels of strength.  Rather than a single “leg” connection, consider upgrading to a double “leg” strap as shown below:

The left photo shows attaching a roof truss with toe nails.  The middle photo shows a typical hurricane strap.  The right photo shows a saddle type (double leg) hurricane strap on a Deltec home.

The second very critical connection is from the wall system to the foundation.  Transfering the loads from the structure down into the foundation is essential.  There are a wide variety of anchor systems used, so seek the help of a professional engineer when designing the connections for your home.

Designed to Work as a System.  Designed from the ground up to stand strong in the face of high winds, a home is best when all the components compliment each other to efficiently transfer forces to the ground. The goal of every home should be to provide a continuous path for loads to be transferred through. This well designed path should extend from the roof down through the home to the foundation and ultimately into the earth. When designing the load path, consider wall framing connections, structural header sizes and connections, and diaphragm (roof and floor) connections.

One technique to provide a system that transfers forces efficiently through the home is to use a radial roof and floor system (diaphragms). A radial system takes in large forces and distributes them evenly throughout the whole structure, reducing the forces that the individual connections have to resist.

The radial trusses in a Deltec home distribute the energy from any side of the structure throughout, allowing the design to work together as a system.

Site-Specific Design:

Elevation of Structure.  Determining the proper elevation at which to build will minimize the risk the home faces from floods. FEMA’s “Home Builder’s Guide to Coastal Construction” is a great resource for helping to determine optimal building elevation. A good recommendation is to elevate the home two feet above the base flood elevation (100-year flood).

Foundation Design.  Foundation designs for coastal areas should consider many factors to minimize the potential risk of damage. When designing a foundation for a home, one should consider flood elevation, loads from fast-moving water and breaking waves, wind loads, and potential for erosion and scour. A successful foundation system needs to consider many factors and it is highly recommended that a licensed design professional be obtained to assist in the design process.

Water Resistance.  Managing water is of critical importance.  Water can enter a home in many ways, and during a high-wind event, additional stress is put on the systems that are keeping water out.  Start with the basics: make sure your gutters and downspouts are well-designed, and remain clean and in working order.  Over time, continue to check the roof for leaks, and check the drainage around the perimeter of your home to make sure water flows away from the home.  

Water can also enter through wind-blow rain, and preventing this requires careful detailing of the weather-resistant layer of your home.  Installing an additional skirt at the window sill flashing, installing a double layer of roof underlayment, and using an unvented attic assembly are all strategies that will keep your home drier in a high-wind event.  It’s important to recognize that in hurricane events, it can be impossible to keep all water from passing through the outer protective layer of the home.  For this reason, it is important to design the envelope of the home with materials that are moisture resistant and have a high drying potential.  This is beyond the scope of this article, but for more information, click here. 

Finally, building a home that is water tight will also help create a more airtight envelope.  This is an important sustainability goal, and helps to reduce the heat gain or loss from the home.  This can be a helpful strategy to keep your home performing after a storm hits, making the home more comfortable for the occupants.  If you are interested in learning more about making a home more air tight (and ventilation strategies to complement this approach), click here.  

Bringing it all Together:

Contact us to learn more about how Deltec’s comprehensive approach can help with your project. 

What should homeowners and families do to prepare for future storms?

In addition to designing and building a home that will stand strong to hurricanes, it is also important to be prepared for when a storm hits.  Please refer to our blog entitled Preparing for a Hurricane for more details.

For more information: 

https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/fema_how-to-prepare-for-hurricane.pdf 

https://www.deltechomes.com/learn-more/hurricane-resistance/ 

www.fema.gov/home-builders-guide-coastal-construction-technical-fact-sheet-series-fema-p-499

https://fortifiedhome.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/FORTIFIED-Home-Hurricane-Standards-2019.pdf

Matt Oblinsky is a Professional Engineer and has a structural engineering degree from NC State University.  He leads Deltec’s engineering team and regularly designs homes for the highest risk hurricane areas.  Leigha Dickens is a certified HERS Rater and has a degree in physics from the University of North Carolina at Asheville.  She is the green building and sustainability manager for Deltec.  Steve Linton has a structural engineering degree from Cornell University and has been the president of Deltec Homes since 2011.

Deltec Homes is changing the way the world builds, from the status quo to The Deltec Way: where excellence comes first, where homes have a regenerative effect on our planet, and where homes reconnect us with the natural world around us. For over five decades, we have designed homes that stand against nature’s toughest storms. We are committed to building legacy homes that enrich lives and will still be standing for future generations.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to be a replacement for a qualified and licensed design professional.  Deltec Homes recommends that you consult with an engineer to assess the requirements for your particular circumstances.

The post Resilient Homes Part Three: Making Homes Stronger to Stand Up to Hurricanes appeared first on Deltec Homes.

WIND.  Protecting your home from damaging winds is an essential part of preparing your home for a storm.

• Guard your Windows and Doors. Entry points like doors and windows are one of the weakest and most vulnerable parts of your home during a major storm. Protecting windows with storm shutters or plywood greatly reduces the likelihood of hurricane force winds entering your home and causing damage. Plywood is fairly inexpensive, and when installed properly, it can hold up very well against hurricane-force winds.  
• Upgrade Your Garage Door.  Garage doors can become a critical failure point in a hurricane. Once it enters your garage, the air from hurricanes cannot escape from where it came and eventually builds up air pressure. That pressure expands and the easiest way back out of the garage may be through exterior doors, windows and eventually the roof.  
• Hurricane Ties.  Inspect your roof from the attic side to determine whether your home has hurricane ties.  If not, have them installed to ensure your roof is strongly attached to the rest of your house.  The pictures below show the typical types of roof attachment.

Secure Loose Objects. Outdoor objects surrounding your home can become deadly airborne missiles when swept up by a hurricane’s strong winds, potentially damaging any property in its path. Pick up, tie down or secure anything that could become a projectile with high winds.  Think about trimming trees to reduce any falling limbs and cleaning up things around your home and yard like potted plants, lawn furniture, outdoor seating, BBQ grills and children’s toys.

The post Improving the Hurricane Resistance of Existing Homes appeared first on Deltec Homes.

Here are four basic principles from the world of sustainable building that also improve resiliency.

1. Insulate and Seal The Envelope

This is the single most important strategy advocated by building scientists and green building experts to reduce a home’s energy use. A home with high levels of insulation, good windows, and one that is extraordinarily air-tight can have half the heating and cooling costs of same home with average features. Since heating and cooling is the largest energy expenditure of most homes, since insulation and air-sealing are very cost-effective, and since the energy consumed by residences contributes 20% of equivalent US carbon emissions, it makes sense that this strategy would rise to the top of the list of priorities for a sustainable home.

Air sealing a new Deltec Home, prior to insulation. We recommend following the Energy Star for Homes air sealing checklist during construction. Diligent air-sealing during construction can result in a home 5 times more air-tight than a typical new home.

Yet a super-insulated and air-tight home is also a more resilient home. Such a home doesn’t need as large of a heating and cooling system, and that system doesn’t need to use as much energy to keep the home at a comfortable temperature. These homes warm up or cool off more slowly, with less need on energy input. This means that during periods of extended power outages, these homes can keep their humans sheltered from extreme outdoor temperatures.

2. Use Sun Tempering and Natural Comfort Principles

The shape and orientation of a home also plays a role in how well it can maintain safe and comfortable indoor temperatures. Passive solar design principles combine with super-insulation to do this to great effect: orienting the largest portion of a home’s window glass toward the sun (and limiting glass on all other sides), using thermal storage materials in the sunny space to hold on to heat gained through the windows while shading or screening devices work to keep that heat out in summer.  The more that passive solar principle are followed, the lower the heating load of the home, yet even modest attention to these design principles can improve’s a home’s comfort. In the northern hemisphere, overhangs or awnings should shade most south-facing windows, large north-facing windows should be limited, and designers should avoid placing small rooms with large windows on the south or west to avoid acute overheating. In warmer coastal climates, passive heating may not be a concern at all, but deep overhangs, covered shade porches, Low-E coating on windows, and avoiding large expanses of west facing glass can passively minimize acute periods of stuffy overheating.

Left: Use of awnings on south-facing windows in colder climates, when designed with the area’s latitude, can allow heat from the sun into the home in winter, but keep it out in summer. Right: In warmer climates, deep overhangs and shade porches provide greater shading for all windows.

3. Design For Drying

Water destroys homes, and it can strike in ways both dramatic and subtle. Though storm surge, wind driven rain, and widespread flooding are certainly familiar concerns for those building in hurricane zones (and can be tackled by elevating the home well above the historic flood levels and using an un-vented attic to reduces opportunities for rainwater penetration), simple and robust practices against water and moisture intrusion should be a high priority in every home design. According to NOAA Climatologists, every region of the continental US is seeing dramatic increases in “big rain” events:  intense, heavy downpours that dump an increasing proportion of the region’s annual rainfall all at one time, often overwhelming natural and man-made stormwater infrastructure.

Housewrap installed behind siding, over wood sheathing,  provides a surface for liquid water to drain down out of the assembly. Adding “bumps” to the housewrap–such as with this Typar Drainablewrap used on all Deltec wall panels–further increases drainage potential.

In the face of these deluges, design principles for moisture control become more important than ever. Deep overhangs act like an umbrella for the home, directing rainwater away from the walls below. Installation of a weather-resistant barrier, commonly called housewrap, behind the siding, acts like a “Gor-Tex” rain jacket for the home, lapped to always direct liquid water away from the wood behind it while remaining breathable to allow any trapped water vapor to passively escape. Gutters, downspouts, and continuous foundation drains around the perimeter of a home further collect water and direct it away from the home.  In any climate, the layers of materials that go into any exterior wall, roof, foundation, or floor, should be considered for how they work together to keep water out while also allowing any moisture that does get in anyway to dry back out again.

The Energy Star for Homes Water Management Checklist and Guidebook detail the most fundamental moisture management principles, while the Whole Building Design Guide offers excellent detail for comprehensive water management.

4. Incorporate Regenerative Strategies, Or Plan for Their Future Integration

Regenerative buildings are defined as those that “produce all of their own energy, capture and treat all water, and are also designed and operated to have a net-positive impact on the environment, including repairing surrounding ecosystems.”  While that seems a tall order in today’s world, certainly self-sustaining homes would by nature be more resilient against disruption. I believe that regenerative systems and principles are soon to surge within sustainable building, with programs like the WELL Building Standard or the Living Building Challenge leading the way (Our own Green Built Alliance here in Asheville is soon to launch it’s own “Regenerative” green building program.)  There are already bridge strategies to help us get there.

An example:  an all-electric home, with planned-in space for future solar generation and future battery storage. Going all-electric capitalizes on the fact that the largest energy-using systems in a home: heating and cooling, water heating, cooking, clothes drying, and increasingly, transportation, have all-electric options that are considerably more energy efficient than alternatives that burn a fossil fuel. (For example, heat pumps and heat pump water heaters are more than 100% efficient, electric induction ranges offer a cooking experience like gas but consume much less energy, and the even electric vehicles are growing in popularity.) A home’s electricity use, in turn, is increasingly able to be offset by affordable on-site or neighborhood level solar generation. Meanwhile the electric grid overall is getting greener:  supplying more and more of our electricity from renewable sources, though this does still depend greatly upon where you live. The gradual decrease in the cost of batteries will soon make storing that solar energy on site more affordable, and a solar-powered home with battery backup is certainly resilient. Gains in energy monitoring and load management technology could even make highly resilient community-level scenarios possible, such as a solar micro-grids that store excess energy in heat pump water heaters and electric cars batteries, allowing the community to draw on that stored energy in times of need.

—

These are just a few examples of the link between resiliency and sustainability. At Deltec Homes, we understand that both play a role in a world with a changing climate.  This blog is part 2 of a 3- part series on resiliency.  The rest of the series:

Part 1: Making Homes Stronger

Part 3 (Coming Soon): Proactive, Preventative Measures for your Home

The post Resilient Homes Part Two: Sustainability Is Resilient appeared first on Deltec Homes.

The intensity of recent hurricanes such as Dorian, Michael, Irma, and Harvey has increased our awareness of the raw power of the forces of nature.  When combined with the measured effects of climate change on our world, and especially on our coast lines, the question of how to build a home that is resilient to these forces is one that will be with us for a long time.

This three-part series will seek to answer a central question: How can we change the way the world builds in hurricane areas?  More specifically, we will explore answers to:

Part One

• What key factors help keep a home safe in a high wind event?
• What are the most common ways that winds can damage a home?

Part Two

• How do common strategies for improving the energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of the home also greatly increase the home’s resilience?

Part Three

• What measures can be taken to improve the resistance of any home to high winds?
• What should homeowners and families do to prepare for future storms?

The goal of a well-designed home in hurricane areas is to ensure that all forces that hit the home are transferred into the ground while maintaining an unpenetrated home envelope. When designing a resilient home that will be subjected to extreme wind forces, special attention should be given to the common failure mechanisms, such as inadequate roof attachment, wind intrusion, and poor foundation design.

Roof Attachment

To start, designing a roof system that is best suited for your environment is the first line of defense.  A moderate slope roof (approximately a 6:12 pitch), with no gable ends, has been shown to perform the best.  A moderate slope roof helps reduce wind pressures acting on the system while allowing for proper waterproofing.  Eliminating gable ends removes one of the most susceptible areas during a high wind event. Therefore, the use of a hip style roof will provide a more stable shape that can be equally strong form multiple directions.

On the left, a hip-roof is used over the garage.  On the right, a Deltec structure with a multi-sided hip roof is even stronger than a conventional hip roof design.

The typical roof structure attachment method of an older home, or one that is not located in a high wind area, is simply to nail the roof trusses or rafters into the top of the walls.  Newer homes in high-wind areas now use “hurricane straps,” which are metal ties that connect the roof to the walls. Better yet, these hurricane straps can be a “saddle” type, connecting to both sides of the roof member, and can be paired with continuous metal strapping from the roof all the way into the foundation.

The left photo shows attaching a roof truss with toe nails.  The middle photo shows a typical hurricane strap. The right photo shows a saddle type (double leg) hurricane strap on a Deltec home.

Wind Intrusion

A hurricane naturally creates extreme pressures on the outside of a structure.  Some people think that by opening a few windows in their home that they can help to equalize these pressures, but in fact, the exact opposite happens.  The pressure on the leeward side of the home (the side of the home that the wind is not directly hitting) becomes twice as powerful: the wind outside the home is “sucking” the wall outward, and the wind blowing inside the home is blowing the walls outward.  For this reason, it is critical to design a building envelope (the fancy name for what separates indoors from out) that can maintain its integrity during a storm.

There are many factors in designing a strong and continuous building envelope, but some of the basic elements include using impact resistant doors and windows, and/or using shutters or boarding up doors and windows ahead of a storm.

Hurricane Shutters

Foundation Design

Keeping your home tightly connected to the ground is certainly intuitive, but can be challenging to do. Coastal foundations not only have to transfer wind forces from the house to the ground but also have to resist wave and flood forces, debris impacts, corrosive environments and not be subject to erosion and scour. It is critical to have foundations designed by professionals that can consider all these factors for the location you are building.

Whether building a new home or upgrading an existing one, make sure these critical items have been taken into account and properly designed. Creating homes that stand against some of the strongest forces in nature requires care and precision, and attention to the smallest of details.  At the end of the day, we all want safety for our family, our property, and our communities. Building a home the right way, the first time, allows us to leave a legacy for future generations.

For more information on building homes to stand up to hurricanes:

• Home Builder’s Guide to Coastal Construction – Technical Fact Sheet Series 
• IBHS Fortified Homes – Hurricane Standards

Matt Oblinsky is a Professional Engineer and has a structural engineering degree from NC State University.  He leads Deltec’s engineering team and regularly designs homes for the highest risk hurricane areas. Steve Linton has a structural engineering degree from Cornell University and has been the president of Deltec Homes since 2011.

Deltec Homes is changing the way the world builds, from the status quo to The Deltec Way: where excellence comes first, where homes have a regenerative effect on our planet, and where homes reconnect us with the natural world around us. For over five decades, we have designed homes that stand against nature’s toughest storms. We are committed to building legacy homes that enrich lives and will still be standing for future generations.

Resilient Homes Part Two: The Intersection of Sustainability and Resilience

• Air-seal and insulate the envelope
• use sun tempered and natural comfort principles
• Design for drying
• Incorporate regenerative technologies, or plan for their future use

Resilient Homes Part Three: Proactive, Preventative Measures for Your Home

• Protect all openings (windows, doors, esp garage doors)
• Roof tie down (can be retrofitted)
• Continuous load path to foundation
• Elevate home from water – whole other issue
• If designing new, consider shape:
  • No gables (hips)
  • Square over rectangular, multi-faceted over square
• Wind pressure effects

The post Resilient Homes Part One: Making Homes Stronger to Stand Up to Hurricanes appeared first on Deltec Homes.

In recent decades, Deltec’s innovation in high wind areas has created homes that are exceptionally strong against hurricane-force winds.  Here are some of the amazing stories from the Bahamas and Hurricane Dorian:

Scotland Cay

This home, built in 2018, is on a barrier island just east of Great Abaco, and took a direct hit as Dorian made its first landfall.  With sustained winds of 185 mph and gusts of up to 220 mph, this home stood to an unprecedented storm for 36 hours.  Even though the home lost roofing and siding materials, the structure performed the Deltec way.  The homeowners reported, “All in all, we survived as one of the best.”

Green Turtle Cay

This home, built in 2006, is also on a barrier island just northeast of Great Abaco, and took a direct hit as Dorian made its first landfall with sustained winds of 185 mph and gusts of up to 220 mph. The homeowner reported that his house was the last home standing in his part of the island.

Elbow Cay

This 2007 home is just east of Great Abaco, where the Category 5 storm made its first landfall.  The children of the homeowners reported to us,  “This is our parent’s home in Abaco on Elbow Cay. We got to speak to them today, the Deltec did great. The doors were blown in from the tornadoes but the structure is sound and they are safe”

Elbow Cay

This home, built in the early 1990s, did not survive Hurricane Dorian. We have been in contact with the homeowners, who we’re grateful are safe and sound. We are offering our design services to design them a modern, hurricane- resistant Deltec.  Our hearts go out to everyone who has been affected by this catastrophic storm.

Why did this home not stand up to the hurricane?

Deltec homes from this era were not designed or built in the same way as today.  While this home was beautiful, it was not designed to be a hurricane resistant home.  The advances in our engineering over the last two decades have come from extensive innovations such as thicker walls, substantially stronger connections for the roof and the foundation, shear walls, and a process to ensure all homes in the Caribbean are engineered to the highest standards from the US.

It is amazing to see the performance of the innovative Deltec design against this storm of unparalleled strength.  However, our work is never done, and our engineers are constantly looking at how to make our product stronger and more resilient to the effects of climate change.  We’re more determined than ever to change the way the world builds.

Please help us support the Bahamian people by donating to our matching relief fund.  Click here for details.

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If you’re in the Asheville area and would like to contribute, please stop by any time between  8am – 5:30pm no later than October 28.  The list of most needed items is below. If you’re not in the area, but would still like to contribute, the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina is taking monetary donations through their website. For every $1 given, they’re able to donate 5 meals, so even a small amount can make a huge difference.

We’re also working on a blood drive, tentatively scheduled for December 7 from 12pm-4pm. Stay tuned for more details!

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