Finally - Hurricane Shutters!

[dossy]

It only took us about 25 years.....
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Thanks for looking!

 

[Mike Buckley]

A fun series.

It's the kind of product that you hate to have to spend money on, but it's also the kind of product that you're glad you bought if you really need it. During about a ten-year period when I was a child living in Florida, about three or four hurricanes including the eye of one passed over the house I was living in. Lots more threatened to do so.

 

[jbird]

Congrats on the shutters. At some point we are going to replace our windows with storm rated windows. While I have plywood cut, numbered and ready to go for the next storm, I would rather have passive protection in place. I also want to get an installed natural gas powered generator. I am more concerned about loosing power for extended periods than anything else.

 

[dossy]

A fun series.

It's the kind of product that you hate to have to spend money on, but it's also the kind of product that you're glad you bought if you really need it. During about a ten-year period when I was a child living in Florida, about three or four hurricanes including the eye of one passed over the house I was living in. Lots more threatened to do so.

Thanks Mike! I've been here since 1971. I know those feelings all too well! In Boston a storm meant staying home a few days and shoveling a lot. Here it means your house blows away!

Congrats on the shutters. At some point we are going to replace our windows with storm rated windows. While I have plywood cut, numbered and ready to go for the next storm, I would rather have passive protection in place. I also want to get an installed natural gas powered generator. I am more concerned about loosing power for extended periods than anything else.

Thanks! The numbered plywood has been our system for years. Our neighbors helped us the last few years with the second floor. It just got to be too much (us not being kids anymore). Then my neighbor knocked on our door with this lovely guy who just did his windows. It was a done deal!

 

[Mitchell]

I feel good about this. Once Dossy installs hurricane shutters, we are assured to not have any major storms hit the state for the next 10 years!

 

[dossy]

I feel good about this. Once Dossy installs hurricane shutters, we are assured to not have any major storms hit the state for the next 10 years!

That's exactly why I carry an umbrella when I walk the dog. If I drag it along, it never rains. The one time I get lazy......downpour! Maybe my shutters will keep us all safe!

 

[Bart]

I have to say I'm very glad I never heard of this before
In your area, that seems like an indispensable part of a house.
A great reportage, Dossy!

I'm also one of those people that prepare for rain in order to avoid it.
Seems to work most of the time and especially in the opposite sense: forgetting = rain

 

[dossy]

I have to say I'm very glad I never heard of this before
In your area, that seems like an indispensable part of a house.
A great reportage, Dossy!

I'm also one of those people that prepare for rain in order to avoid it.
Seems to work most of the time and especially in the opposite sense: forgetting = rain

Thanks Bart! We are of the same mind (not that we're superstitious or anything!). I just hope I never have to find if they work or not!

 

[Mike Buckley]

I just hope I never have to find if they work or not!

The only way they wouldn't work is if they were installed so improperly that they fall off and I can't imagine that happening. My mother's house went through Miami's worst hurricane and her hurricane shutters worked just fine. Windows in the houses surrounding hers that didn't have shutters, which was most of them, were wrecked.

 

[dossy]

The only way they wouldn't work is if they were installed so improperly that they fall off and I can't imagine that happening. My mother's house went through Miami's worst hurricane and her hurricane shutters worked just fine. Windows in the houses surrounding hers that didn't have shutters, which was most of them, were wrecked.

Comforting words, Mike! Did your mom go through Andrew?

 

[Commodorefirst]

Worked on my parents house about 10 years ago. Worth money!

 

[Mitchell]

These work great for flying debris during high winds which can certainly damage windows. Unfortunately, they do nothing for flooding which is the major cause of property damage due to these storms. My home is at 12 ft. Like much of Florida, we are at far greater risk of flooding from hurricanes.

 

[Mike Buckley]

Did your mom go through Andrew?

Her house went through the hurricane but she was on a cruise with her sister in Alaska. Rather than go home to a wrecked city, she lived with my brother in Connecticut about two months. She never saw the house post-hurricane until she then finally returned home.

 

[SRHEdD]

We're finishing building a new home where they are included, stacked nicely in the garage with a photo of each wall of the exterior and number-coded shutters. All windows on the front of the home are hurricane rated and don't have shutters, the sides and rear have shutters. At our previous home, we didn't cover every window by default, the side between houses was only covered if a serious storm struck directly, the rear slider was well under cover. If it sounds like we don't take storms seriously, it is more that the house is a clostrophobic pitch-black cave with all the shutters up, we watch the storms intently for those last shutters to go up. Ours are steel, but we're seeing semi-transparent fiberglass(?) and electric roll shutters here now.

 

[Clix Pix]

When my parents had a condo in Fort Myers, Florida quite a few years ago, one of the first things they did was to have a hurricane shutter thingy put on their balcony over the sliding-glass door and when storms threatened, my mother, who was terrified of thunderstorms, would insist that my father get the hurricane shutter into place, which indeed made the place very dark. He hated it but my mother felt safer for some reason, so to keep peace in the family he succumbed to darkness every time there was even a flash of lightning or a rumble of thunder.....

 

[dossy]

These work great for flying debris during high winds which can certainly damage windows. Unfortunately, they do nothing for flooding which is the major cause of property damage due to these storms. My home is at 12 ft. Like much of Florida, we are at far greater risk of flooding from hurricanes.

A couple of years ago my cousin got a condo in Cocoa Beach which is my dream get-a-way! I was ready to sell our house and move there. Then I realized the river is her back yard, and the ocean is a couple of blocks from the front side. Too much water for my comfort zone. But it's still a great visit!

Her house went through the hurricane but she was on a cruise with her sister in Alaska. Rather than go home to a wrecked city, she lived with my brother in Connecticut about two months. She never saw the house post-hurricane until she then finally returned home.

We were in North Miami when the hurricane hit. It was supposed to come directly to us. Many people left for the south. At the last minute, it went south. You never know with these things.

We're finishing building a new home where they are included, stacked nicely in the garage with a photo of each wall of the exterior and number-coded shutters. All windows on the front of the home are hurricane rated and don't have shutters, the sides and rear have shutters. At our previous home, we didn't cover every window by default, the side between houses was only covered if a serious storm struck directly, the rear slider was well under cover. If it sounds like we don't take storms seriously, it is more that the house is a clostrophobic pitch-black cave with all the shutters up, we watch the storms intently for those last shutters to go up. Ours are steel, but we're seeing semi-transparent fiberglass(?) and electric roll shutters here now.

Fortunately we have four very high windows in our front room that we're putting in hurricane windows instead of shutters. They are much more costly than the shutters. If I had it to do over, I would have added one more hurricane window to the small window in the kitchen for added light. But we will still be getting some light in the front.

When my parents had a condo in Fort Myers, Florida quite a few years ago, one of the first things they did was to have a hurricane shutter thingy put on their balcony over the sliding-glass door and when storms threatened, my mother, who was terrified of thunderstorms, would insist that my father get the hurricane shutter into place, which indeed made the place very dark. He hated it but my mother felt safer for some reason, so to keep peace in the family he succumbed to darkness every time there was even a flash of lightning or a rumble of thunder.....

It's amazing what you do to keep the peace. He's a good man!

 

[Dayo]

Nice reportage.
Never seen one of those. Do you have a pic of how they look when folded back?

 

[SRHEdD]

With two teenage boys, we can put ours up in a little more than an hour. Then we help neighbors. Ours stack neatly upright, large to small in the corner of the garage.

 

[dossy]

Nice reportage.
Never seen one of those. Do you have a pic of how they look when folded back?

Thanks Dayo! Here are the open shutters on two top windows. They just make a small frame.

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With two teenage boys, we can put ours up in a little more than an hour. Then we help neighbors. Ours stack neatly upright, large to small in the corner of the garage.

We need to be your neighbor! Our grandkids are teenagers (and unfortunately don't live near us). It was time to make life a little easier. BTW, Viera is beautiful.

 

[chubasco]

Excellent series, Dossy, I like your tile roof, too, reminds me of a house I rented in Sasebo, Japan.