What is a Wind Mitigation Inspection?
On average, hurricanes cause 20.5 BILLION dollars of damage per event.
In the fallout of Hurricane Irma, and more recently Hurricane Ian, more and more people are seeing their homeowners insurance premiums skyrocket. Even worse, as insurance carriers are leaving the state, homeowners are getting dropped from their policies and are left scrambling to find a company that will cover insure their home at a reasonable rate. Commonly, their insurance agent will request an updated wind mitigation inspection report that they will use to determine what discounts you may be eligible for in order to secure them the cheapest rate.
In short, a wind mitigation is an assessment of your homes resistance to a windstorm. Depending on what Florida Building Code your home was built under, there could be any combination of construction methods used that could determine what discounted rates you are eligible for, if any.
We’ll cover the major features a licensed inspector will look at during their inspection:
Roof Geometry:
Believe it or not, even the shape of your roof can determine your rates when shopping for insurance. There are all sorts of roof shapes that are chosen by builders and homeowners alike, and a lot of it comes down to personal preference. Hip roofs, ‘shed’ roofs, flat roofs, and various types of gable roofs are all commonly built here in Naples and Southwest Florida, but each one offers a different level of protection versus a hurricane. The most favorable roof shape will be of a ‘hip’ design- meaning that your roof was designed by an engineer to deflect hurricane force winds in such a way to keep the exterior pressure pushing down on your truss system and onto the walls, with the hope of reducing the chance of the storm damaging or completely removing your roof.
Roof Tie-Downs:
Over the years, construction design on homes in Naples has evolved and put a major emphasis on hurricane safety. Many homes built in Southwest Florida have evolved from using toe-nails to attach truss systems onto the wooden top plates, to using ‘clips’ to anchor the trusses to the concrete framing of the home, to currently using single or double wraps to anchor your roof down to the concrete frame. Which tie-down is used, combined with what type of fasteners the roofer had used to attach the roof decking to your truss system, will play a huge role in how your insurance rates are calculated.
Opening Protection:
The last major feature I’ll be discussing is probably the most important: impact rated opening protection for your windows. This one is also the most scrutinized by your insurance company. To receive ANY discounts on your windstorm premiums for this category you must have EVERY ‘glazed opening’ protected. There is no partial credit for this category. Glazed opening means any part of your home that has glass or plastic or otherwise “transparent” features. Windows, entry doors, sliding doors, and even garage doors must all have the same level of protection. Luckily for homeowners, you can mix and match different types of opening protection all you want so long as every opening is protected and each type is the same level of protection. The magic words you’ll be looking at when determining what kind of hurricane protection you want, is “9 Pound Large Missile Impact Rated”. So long as every opening to your home has protection of this level of protection, your home will qualify for “Class A” opening protection which is the highest rating for a residential home, and you should see some tremendous savings on your windstorm premiums.
If you are unsure if a product will qualify as “Class A” opening protection, the Florida Building Code Product Approval Portal will tell you what level of protection it is so long as you have the FPB Product Approval Number for your product.
