How to hurricane-proof your house

KEANSBURG – From the outside, Ingrid Baird's house doesn't look much different than any other new, elevated home you might find in Keansburg or any number of Shore towns being rebuilt after superstorm Sandy.

Inside its walls, however, the home is unlike any other in New Jersey.

Galvanized steel and screws, instead of timber and nails, make the frame. Baird won't have to worry about the effects of moisture on wood, bugs, mold or mildew corrupting the skeleton of her property.

The home also was made to be so robust that the builder, Blue Diamond Contracting of Jackson, is seeking a certification that would mark it as the first post-Sandy built home designed to be resistant to hurricane-force winds.

"I know I have nothing to worry about," said Baird, a sergeant with the Hudson County Sheriff's Office, who lives with her two teenage daughters.

Strengthening the ties between the roof and the frame is the principle construction tenet of Fortified. It aims to spread the force of wind throughout the structure — by enhancing the connections at various joints throughout the frame, which doesn't have to be metal to qualify as Fortified.

"It becomes one piece — all the walls are tied together with the floor and the ceiling. You literally would have to knock the whole house over," said Pat Miller, who runs Blue Diamond with her husband, Ray.

The Fortified home model was one of the key recommendations put forth in the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy crafted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"These standards would not only make building occupants safer, but also may lower insurance rates," the report concluded.

The cost would be just a "few thousand" dollars above traditional construction in New Jersey because building codes here are more strict than in other states, according to Julie Rochman, president of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. The institute developed the Fortified designation that tells insurance companies that the home is built to survive natural disasters.

"If you can have your home built to withstand a hurricane (Category) 2 or 3 storm and not cost you anymore, why wouldn't you do it?" said Ray Miller.

VIDEO: Watch side-by-side what 90-mph winds do to a standard home versus a Fortified home

Special designation

Baird's Woodside Avenue home and a house under construction in Lake Como are jockeying to be the first post-Sandy new homes to earn recognition as a Fortified home.

After "a tropical storm or hurricane (Category) 1 or (Category) 2 you should see minimal damage," Rochman said.

Protecting new and existing homes from Sandy's eventual sequel means more than just elevation, according to a research affiliate of the insurance industry.

The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety wants to seize upon the attention being lavished upon building standards to persuade homeowners to protect not just against floodwaters but also against high winds, which might be the primary threat in the next major bout with weather.

"Sandy got a lot of people's attention about the concept of resilience," said Rochman. "I think we're at the beginning of a very large conversation about how we build, how we repair, and how we finance catastrophes afterward."

Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com