When most people think of the term impact resistant, they often think of their cars. If you live in the southern Florida area, though, chances are the impact in impact resistant has to do with the most dreaded occurrence in the southeastern United States–the hurricane.
If you have a home in this beautiful area of the country, you already know how dangerous hurricane season can be every year. Home and business owners who are not prepared for the possible destruction a hurricane can cause can be totally devastated when the wind, rain and flying debris come ripping through town. The best anyone can do is be as prepared as possible to withstand the onslaught of Mother Nature. Design and construction of windows and doors have come a long way since we began building homes on the southern coast. If you’re worried about how impact resistant your home might actually be, don’t worry. Here are three things you can do to secure your home against hurricanes and increase its value at the same time.
1.) Replace your current front door with an impact resistant alternative.
One of the easiest ways to begin reinforcing your home is to find an impact resistant door. Steel doors are the best option, and they come in a variety of designs. Find the one that’s right for you, and you’ll feel better about the next storm right away. Oh, and by the way, in terms of return on investment, this is the best of all the other home improvements you’ll make. A new steel door will give you a long term return of 98% of your investment. Protection and a high return. What could be better.
2.) Replace your windows with impact resistant, energy efficient models.
Hurricane winds are no joke. The force with which they can hammer your home can be terrifying. Today’s impact resistant windows, however, have been tested to withstand category 5 wind conditions. Those are winds that can get up to 200 miles per hour. This alone is worth the replacement. There are other reasons to replace your windows, though. In addition to the protection, new windows that are Energy Star-qualified can reduce your energy bills anywhere form 7 to 15%. Replacement windows can yield you a 78% ROI. Are you starting to see the eye of the storm, yet? But wait, there’s more!
3.) Add solar shades and awnings to save you money.
Something as seemingly simple as adding awnings may not be ann improvement you were thinking about making. But window awnings an reduce solar heat gain during the hottest months, saving you money on air conditioning bills. If your window face south, you will reduce the heat gain by up to 65% and by up to 77% on your windows facing west. Solar shades on windows and sliding glass doors can reduce your utility costs a great deal. It’s well worth the expense in order to save so much in the long run.
Hurricane season used to be a time to fear. No one was ever sure how they would make it through if a storm struck too harshly. Today, there are still no guarantees, but the technology in the construction of windows, doors and awnings can keep us safer than ever before and save us money at the same time. That’s a great deal!