We recently received a letter asking if our Southern Cottages House Plans are designed to "Fortified" standards. In order to answer this question we first need to understand what "Fortified" standards are.
Fortified Home is a program of the Insurance Institute for
Business and Home Safety. According to the
Fortified Home website, the Fortified program is explained
in this way:
FORTIFIED
Home™ is a set of engineering and building
standards designed to help strengthen new and existing homes through
system-specific building upgrades to minimum building code requirements that
will reduce damage from specific natural hazards.
FORTIFIED
Home™ is a third-party certification program specifying design and construction
standards to increase a home’s resilience and deliver superior performance
during tropical storms and hurricanes. The FORTIFIED Home™ program has
three levels of designation – Bronze, Silver and Gold – that build upon each
other.
In other words, Fortified Home is a certification program
designed to strengthen your home in preparation for certain natural disasters
(hurricanes, tropical storms, hailstorms, high winds and wind-driven rain
associated with thunderstorms), which thereby helps you to get discounts on
your home insurance. This is done by a certified evaluator coming to your
home or a home that's being built to review the construction, making
recommendations and then you or your contractor implementing them. Your house then gets a designation which you
give to your insurance provider.
I have not been involved in this program, nor am I aware if any
of our customers have gone through this certification process.
What I can tell you from a quick look is that the Fortified Home standards appear to include
things that are in building codes and are therefore included in our plans. For example, the “continuous load path” –
tying your roof to the walls, which are tied to the floor, which is tied to the
foundation – is included in our house plans because it is a building code requirement.
I took a more in-depth look at one Fortified Home requirement that
I think will help give a better explanation of what the Fortified Home
standards appear to do. The “sealed roof
deck” Fortified Home standard specifies how the roof underlayment is installed
to seal the roof deck against moisture. Part
of this standard explains how to layer and overlap the underlayment, which
appears to match what is in the building code.
However, this next part is what makes a difference between meeting the
minimum requirements of the building code and meeting the minimum requirements
of the Fortified Home standard. This
explanation involves a lot of ASTM numbers, but bear with me. (ASTM is the American Society for Testing and
Materials, which sets international technical standards for a wide range of
materials and products). I will color
code the different ASTM numbers to help make the comparisons easier to see. Pay attention to the “Type” numbers.
The
2012 North Carolina Residential Building Code* says, “Unless otherwise noted,
required underlayment shall conform to ASTM D226 Type I, ASTM D4869 Type I, or ASTM
D6757.”
The
Fortified Home standard says “… ASTM D226 Type II or ASTM D4869 Type III or Type IV underlayment
shall be installed… ASTM D4869 Type I or
Type II will NOT be accepted.”
Upon first glance this appears to be in conflict with the
Residential Building Code. So here is
the explanation: ASTM D226 Type I and ASTM D4869 Type I are
for #15 felt, which is the minimum standard needed to comply with the building
code. ASTM D226 Type II and ASTM D4869 Type III or Type IV are for
#30 felt, which is thicker than #15 and will give more protection.
After reviewing this information I have come to two
conclusions. One, it appears that at
least some of the Fortified Home standards provide more than the minimum building
code requirements. Two, since a certified
evaluator is coming to the house to see how things were installed, it appears that
the Fortified Home program verifies if your contractor is building and
installing certain things the way they should in order to meet with the program requirements.
The Fortified Home program is split up into three
standards: Hurricane Standards, High
Wind & Hail Standards, and High Wind Standards. If you live in an area subject to these
natural disasters, you’re willing to pay for the Fortified Home evaluator and
fix things based on the recommendations so you can to save money on your home
insurance, then the Fortified Home program is for you.
To wrap up and answer the customer question asked, our Southern
Cottages House Plans have not been designed to meet Fortified Home
standards. But that doesn't mean they won't. We have specified products that we have found to be of
good quality through years of experience. With our construction plans and specification manual it
would be easy for your contractor to look over what has been designed and
specified and “upgrade” something if needed.
Southern Cottages house plans were designed to meet coastal
conditions and codes in the state of North Carolina at the time they were
designed. Houses on piling foundations were designed to meet coastal and flood
plain and high wind zone construction in the State of North Carolina at the
time they were designed. Because codes and requirements can change and may vary
from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, we cannot warrant compliance with any
specific code or regulation. Your plans may need to be modified to comply with
local building conditions, energy codes, seismic and soil conditions, snow
loads, zoning regulations and other ordinances or requirements. We recommend
the use of the services of a local architect or residential design professional
to verify compliance with local codes and requirements in your area.
One final thought - if you would like an example of the strength that our plans are designed for,
please read this blog post about one of our Island Cottage plans that survived hurricane Sandy - and weathered it well. It includes a letter from the
owner of that home.
Let us help you create a building to serve your needs at www.mcleodarchitect.com.
