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 June
2004 Issue | Browse
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FIU Research Leads to New Roofing Standard that will Improve Resistance to Hurricane Winds by 130 Percent The Florida Building Code Commission has approved a recommendation by Florida International University researchers to modify the Florida Building Code’s roof sheathing nailing standards for housing construction in the High Velocity Hurricane Zone. The approved modification is an 8d Ring-Shank nail that will replace the previous standard, a combination of 8d/10d Common Bright nails, said International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC) Deputy Director Ricardo Alvarez. The research revealed that the new nailing standard improves the resistance of roofs to hurricane-induced wind-uplift by a factor of up to 130 percent without increasing the cost of construction. The new nails will go into roofs starting in January 2005 and are expected to strengthen 350,000 new homes (close to 1 million residents) in South Florida alone over the next 10 years. Under the current standard, roofs in South Florida are built to resist the winds of a mid-Category 3 hurricane. Tests conducted by the IHRC have demonstrated that roofs built to the new standard can effectively resist uplift forces from strong Category 4 hurricanes. With funding from the Florida Department of Community Affairs -- Residential Construction Mitigation Program (RCMP), Alvarez’s Laboratory for Structural Mitigation has been researching the role of design criteria, construction methods and techniques in hurricane-loss reduction for housing in Florida since July 2000. “This modification of the Florida Building Code is a direct result of research the IHRC conducted under the RCMP – a true measure of the effectiveness of the RCMP in producing hurricane loss mitigation,” said Alvarez. Eduardo Camet, president of MH Homes and vice chairman of the IHRC Board of Trustees, was equally enthusiastic about the code change. “This is an excellent example of how research at the IHRC can produce practical application for the benefit of vulnerable communities everywhere,” said Camet. “This is the type of research that must be supported by the state and federal governments and by the private sector.” For more information on the 8d Ring-Shank nails,
contact Alvarez at |
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