With climate change threatening more hurricanes and destructive weather, we decided to bite the bullet and invest in some polycarbon hurricane barriers from the All Island Rollshutter Company who were recommended during the AARP Hurricane Preparedness workshop we attended in June.
Some people (not many) will put up plywood sheets before a storm. However, It's hard to store so much heavy plywood and harder to install, the older we get. I believe these polycarbon barriers are only good for up to a category 2 hurricane. Beyond that, it's anybody's guess. We can't protect the 2nd floor because it's too difficult to reach those windows.
Our first job was to make room in our small tool closet for those panels. I'd organized the tool closet for Art about 10 years ago, but he'd since added a lot more things to it. (He doesn't like to throw things out since he says you can never tell when he might need that particular screw or bolt or hinge or whatever).
I tossed out old paint, old plastic sheets, old caulk, some very old tools, etc. I let him keep his screws and bolts and whatnot.
We also had to have a canvas type fabric for those areas where the stiff polycarbon sheets were not possible because we just didn't have a place to store them.
These canvas type (Astroguard) fabric seemed thin but Art said they are really heavy.
The workers told us that the polycarbon sheets aren’t very difficult for us to put up but the fabric will be somewhat time consuming (and a bit difficult) for us.
The polycarbon panels were measured carefully and screwed in.
Art practiced putting up one panel to make sure he could do it.
And yes, with some adjustment and clearing out we could fit the polycarbon panels at the back of the closet and the hurricane fabric was stored on a couple of shelves.
Unfortunately, we have quite a bit of patch-up work to do. I'll need to get some concrete caulk to fill in spaces. We're also going to have to call them back because they forgot to put some fastening screw holes for one of the fabric panels.
Still, it gives us a little peace of mind. We could shelter in place more easily although the 2nd floor has to be sacrificed.
I'm just hoping this is all just insurance that we won't have to use.
POSTSCRIPT: Art and I tried to put up one of those Astroguard fabric barriers and it was EXTREMELY, ridiculously difficult!!! Just trying to pull the fabric to be able to screw it in took us way too long with me getting a black and blue on one finger. The polycarbon panels wasn't hard, but the fabric was near impossible! Arrrghhh!
Some people (not many) will put up plywood sheets before a storm. However, It's hard to store so much heavy plywood and harder to install, the older we get. I believe these polycarbon barriers are only good for up to a category 2 hurricane. Beyond that, it's anybody's guess. We can't protect the 2nd floor because it's too difficult to reach those windows.
Our first job was to make room in our small tool closet for those panels. I'd organized the tool closet for Art about 10 years ago, but he'd since added a lot more things to it. (He doesn't like to throw things out since he says you can never tell when he might need that particular screw or bolt or hinge or whatever).
I tossed out old paint, old plastic sheets, old caulk, some very old tools, etc. I let him keep his screws and bolts and whatnot.
We also had to have a canvas type fabric for those areas where the stiff polycarbon sheets were not possible because we just didn't have a place to store them.
These canvas type (Astroguard) fabric seemed thin but Art said they are really heavy.
The workers told us that the polycarbon sheets aren’t very difficult for us to put up but the fabric will be somewhat time consuming (and a bit difficult) for us.
The polycarbon panels were measured carefully and screwed in.
Art practiced putting up one panel to make sure he could do it.
And yes, with some adjustment and clearing out we could fit the polycarbon panels at the back of the closet and the hurricane fabric was stored on a couple of shelves.
Unfortunately, we have quite a bit of patch-up work to do. I'll need to get some concrete caulk to fill in spaces. We're also going to have to call them back because they forgot to put some fastening screw holes for one of the fabric panels.
Still, it gives us a little peace of mind. We could shelter in place more easily although the 2nd floor has to be sacrificed.
I'm just hoping this is all just insurance that we won't have to use.
POSTSCRIPT: Art and I tried to put up one of those Astroguard fabric barriers and it was EXTREMELY, ridiculously difficult!!! Just trying to pull the fabric to be able to screw it in took us way too long with me getting a black and blue on one finger. The polycarbon panels wasn't hard, but the fabric was near impossible! Arrrghhh!
When my younger son and his wife lived in Florida, they had some hurricane curtains installed on their home. Still it went through two category four hurricanes in the two years they lived in their brand new home. They sold it and moved to the Nashville area and built another new home there.
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't have to use them, but if you do, I hope it works.
ReplyDeleteYou are wise to practice. You many need to enlist some younger men to assist, if anyone is available during hurricane prep. Glad you are prepared.
ReplyDeleteI sure hope we start taking all this climate change seriously enough to do something about it. It seems too much like we are in the process of destroying the planet from lack of interest or from willful ignorance.
ReplyDeleteOk, I'm confused. (In Kansas, we just let tornadoes do their thing.) Seems like the thin curtains could be kept on a roll above the window, similar to indoor roller shades to block the sun. Do you have to install the roll of the shade too before a hurricane? The panels look easier to handle than thick plywood.
ReplyDeleteSeems kind of goofy, but what about trying to save the top floor by putting hurricane panels or even wood on the INSIDE of the upstairs windows? Wouldn't that help a bit? Or edged with rubber tube gaskets to try and keep out the hurricane rains and water?
Maybe I shouldn't give Art another project.
Hope it all helps. Seems like an interesting industry to provide such fixtures for hurricane preparation. Linda in Kansas
It is a frightening part of life, hurricanes. I hope it all works out.
ReplyDeleteBeing in the middle of the continent, the storms just wear themselves out, hurricanes have been infrequent, but not unheard of here.
All the best.
Hope this all works out as Jenn said.
ReplyDeleteBummers about your finger! Here's hoping that you will never need to use the gear.
ReplyDeleteLowes has a concrete caulk by Sascho. That's the best one.
ReplyDeleteGood for you for being prepared long before an emergency.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite understand the fabric, but then hurricanes are not the natural disaster we prepare for. Here it's earthquakes.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness. Now that you are fully prepared, I hope you don't ever have to use that stuff. But you will manage, I'm sure, if the time comes when you do.
ReplyDelete