Ever play that game with your kids trying to get them to guess the object that you have in mind?  Today, I’m looking at a house in our area and wondering about disaster planning.  Let’s play. What is the biggest opening in your house that when it opens up in a hurricane, can lead to the destruction of your entire house?  Correct!  The garage door.  The garage door is possibly the weakest point in your house that once breached by strong winds, will let wind and rain into your house and cause the internal structures like your ceilings and walls to fail. If you don’t believe me, consider that when Hurricane Andrew hit southern Florida, 85% of the homes there were destroyed when their garage doors failed.  Granted, Hurricane Andrew was an awesome Cat 5 hurricane, but what does it take to push your garage door in or pull it out to expose your garage to nature’s furry?

    While some of the new steel garage doors do a pretty good job with impact protection from blowing debris, they are only as good as their track supports. If your garage door is an original with your house and is made of wood with plywood panels, I would inspect it carefully. If the framing or panels are rotted, I recommend replacing the door with a new steel door.  If you think that is expensive, consider your deductible. If the track supports allow play in your garage door (you hear a lot of “clunking” when the garage door is opened or closed, or if you can move or twist the vertical tracking supports with your hand, it needs to be improved and strengthened.

    I am serious about the damage that can occur to your house if the garage door fails.  Hurricane force winds can either blow in the doors or suck it out.  Once the garage becomes open to the hurricane elements, your house will become a wind tunnel.  Even if walls don’t get blown out, if the attic insulation, the pink itchy stuff, gets blown throughout your house, it can present a major health hazard and headache.

    Remember, garage doors are designed to go up and down, not prevent the garage door from being blown in or out. Like putting your hand out a car window while doing 65 (?) mph on the interstate, wind pressure against your hand will present a significant force.  If you are a handy person, you can use galvanized brackets (like Simpson Strong-tie) and Southern yellow pine 2”x 4”’s to construct vertical bracing INSIDE and OUTSIDE of the garage door to reinforce it.  This option would cost about $100-$200 depending on the size of the door, and a couple of hours of work to construct, while installing a new garage door would costs upwards of $1500.

    For more information on this, go to any of the do-it-yourself centers like Taylors, Lowes, or Home Depot.  Excellent information is also available at http://www.floridadisaster.org under Hurricane Retrofit Guides.  Beware! There are too many fly-by-night handymen and garage door companies who will glad to sell you a steel door that is “hurricane storm rated”, BUT fail to reinforce your track brackets to prevent roller pullout.  Your panels will be intact, just located in somebody else’s yard after the hurricane.  Overall, reinforcing your garage door is one of the best things that you can do to protect your house.

    Let us hope that we will have a quiet hurricane season, but after the storms of this winter, I don’t think that will be the case.

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