Boarding - Gable Ends on a Roof??

[Ixolib]

I have a hip roof over the majority of the house with soffett vents all around the eaves. But, there is one gable end facing south that serves as ventilation for the entire attic.

Question is this: Should I board the gable vent (it's relatively large) to block any wind into the attic, or should I leave it open? Everything else - all doors and windows - gets boarded when a storm is immanent.

Things that make 'ya go hmmmmm.....

[GalvestonDuck]

Looks to me like it should be covered, not left open. Hopefully something here will help:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/disaster/factsh ... icanes.pdf

• If you live on a barrier island or in a coastal area, install your window panels and gable vent covers securely. A poorly installed cover can cause more damage than no cover at all.

http://www.blueprintforsafety.org/windn ... new05.html

Gable End Vents
Complete building envelope protection includes covering gable end vents which often are an overlooked opening that needs protection from wind pressure and debris impact. Shutter systems should include gable vent coverings.

Not quite related to covering, but still possibly relevant:
http://216.109.117.135/search/cache?p=c ... 1&.intl=us

For a vented attic, a hurricane-rated ridge vent combined with soffit vents is preferred. Never combine a ridge vent with a power vent, turbine or gable vent since that could lead to reverse airflow and water intrusion.

And here's one of those cases where it bites to still have Win98: http://core.ecu.edu/engl/henzeb/vrddfigs.doc (I can't open it to tell you if there's any good info or not, but it was a hit in the search engine.

[Ixolib]

Thanks, Duck, for all the info. It helped greatly. After looking everything over, I now believe I will surely cover my gable - along with everything else - should the need arise.

Thanks again...

[GalvestonDuck]

My pleasure...glad I could help.

[Stormtrack]

It would be very difficult to plug up all the vents in my attic. I have gable vents on both ends, about 16 small soffit vents and a power vent that I added right in the middle. It's just too hot in the south not to have vents.Some people have ridge vents which would really be difficult to cover. It seems to me that as long as you have other openings for pressure to escape that blows in through a vent that you should be all right. Any comments?

[vbhoutex]

It would be very difficult to plug up all the vents in my attic. I have gable vents on both ends, about 16 small soffit vents and a power vent that I added right in the middle. It's just too hot in the south not to have vents.Some people have ridge vents which would really be difficult to cover. It seems to me that as long as you have other openings for pressure to escape that blows in through a vent that you should be all right. Any comments?

The problem with leaving gable vents uncovered is that it can provide a large opening for winds to get in and lift the roof where the smaller vents don't provide as much of a chance for this to happen. Hopefully, of course, if one is along the coast the roof is tied down properly with straps, but even if I knew I had that I would still cover a gable vent(which I don't have).

[Ixolib]

Interestingly enough, it seems my efforts in boarding for Katrina - including the gable end - came back to haunt me...

Not really, but State Farm says they "would" have covered some of the water damage if I'd have had broken windows or rain water through the roof. Well, the boards did their job and NOTHING in terms of wind or rain infiltrated the house. But about 3 feet of surge did, and SF isn't covering any of that damage, and it's now into the teens of thousands of $$!!

I believe next time I'll just forego the boarding process, take my irreplaceable stuff with me, and let nature do what it will. At least that way, I'll get paid for my "hurricane damage" without question - whether its from surge or from wind or from rain.

In my opinion, the boarding process is only valuable if you are going to shelter in your home DURING a storm (which we did with Katrina, so it served its purpose well in that case). Otherwise, it is a practice that protects your insurance company from having to pay damages on your policy - and this is especially evident if you get surge damage but have no flood insurance, which we didn't.

Of course, had there been no surge, then my whole viewpoint would be quite different.

As a side note on this issue, my nephew lives/lived on Point Cadet in Biloxi. While his house was still standing after Katrina, it had floated off its foundation, was then completely submerged with storm surge, and now sits at a very strange angle to the horizontal - irreparable. But, State Farm is going to pay him for ALL his losses INSIDE the home because he had broken windows which they surmise happened "before" the surge arrived. He also had no flood insurance because - like me - he used the "Camille Benchmark" as his reasoning.

Using that supposed benchmark is coming back to haunt many of us here in coastal Mississippi...

[vbhoutex]

Some very interesting points there Ixolib. Definitely things to think about. I do not live in a surge zone or a flood plain, but have had flood insurance for several years now. Plainly put by an insurance agent here in Houston(think Allison, Severe thunderstorms with torrential rains, etc.)-"If you live in Houston and do not have flood insurance, you are stupid.". And I have already used it once when water did get into the house from a cloudburst of 4" in less than 2 hours. In fact I am sending in the payment to renew my flood insurance today.

[Ixolib]

Some very interesting points there Ixolib. Definitely things to think about. I do not live in a surge zone or a flood plain, but have had flood insurance for several years now. Plainly put by an insurance agent here in Houston(think Allison, Severe thunderstorms with torrential rains, etc.)-"If you live in Houston and do not have flood insurance, you are stupid.". And I have already used it once when water did get into the house from a cloudburst of 4" in less than 2 hours. In fact I am sending in the payment to renew my flood insurance today.

I too do not/did not live in a surge zone or flood plain. In fact, being 30 feet above MSL, this area always drains quite well on its own into Biloxi Back Bay - even when it rains heavily. That's why I continue to persist that this was not a rain event. It was, pure and simple, a wind event that pushed that water in here. Hence, no one here in my neighborhood had flood insurance. But you can bet we'll have it now!! And I hear it's relatively cheap, right??

Since Camille, my often-stated viewpoint was exactly what you said about not living in a flood zone. In fact, there are many threads in the S2K archives where you can see me proudly announcing that now-disproven opinion. I've learned that that phrase now holds little meaning, and I'll forever caution people to consider the "what ifs" much more intently.

As a side note, speaking of Allison, the last time I saw any water at all "pool up" in my neighborhood was in that storm. She was a real B****, no doubt - even all the way over here on the MS Coast!!

[vbhoutex]

Yes it is cheap. I don't know what it would be in your area, but I pay a little over $250 a year for $150k coverage on the house and $60k on the contents.

And yes Allison was the ultimate Bword for many, many areas. "but she was just a little tropical storm".

[Ixolib]

...And yes Allison was the ultimate Bword for many, many areas. "but she was just a little tropical storm".

I heard dat!! Isn't it funny (sorta) how so many refer to Allison as "just a little TS"? She put a lot of supposed stronger storms to shame...

That's pretty amazing coverage for ~$250 a year. As I sit here now - post-Katrina - I kick myself for not EVER considering it before. Wasn't even a fleeting thought, and I've refinanced about three times since 1990 and NO ONE even mentioned the "F" word - not the mortgage company, not the tax office, not the insurance company - no one!! But, "before" surely seems now like a whole other world, and in fact it is. Things have definitely changed in a big way - mindsets included.

[Dionne]

Your gable is the weakest portion of your roof. We have started using "cut lines" in the plywood on gable ends. This allows the gable overhang to blow off without opening the sheathing into the interior of your roof system. It works. In some high wind prone areas this is now code.

[MGC]

I didn't board up either house I own. One is in Pass Christian and the other in Diamondhead. Didn't flood at either house but I had minimal wind damage if you exclude the three trees that fell on the Diamondhead house. I think boarding up is a waste of time unless it is required by contract with your insurance. Windows are much stronger than you think and the wind is lower that close to the ground.....MGC

[PTPatrick]

interstingly enough...Allison flooded me in Tallahasse, FL...from Houston all the way to Tallahassee. IT was a B

[kranki]

I paid flood and wind on my house during Hurricane Georges in the Florida Keys. The house sustained about $30k worth of damage and the insurance companies only issued $2k for it, but acknowledged that the damage was $30k. Their reasoning was that the 4th or 5th owner (I was the 7th) had made an improvement greater than 50% of the then property value violating one of FEMA's rules even though it was permitted by the local county. They had no problem taking my money for 4 years prior to Georges for their premiums and did not offer to refund it.

Due to my own limitations at the time, I did not take them to task and maybe it would not have been successful given the FEMA rules. All that I can say is that if you are capable of self-insuring (ie no mortgage (meaning that I am old)) and you have a relatively new home built to the latest codes, then I would self-insure which is what I do today. If you rent or own an older home, then I would pay the appropriate insurances. The newer Florida Dade County codes are very good at saving insurance/loss costs on the house structure itself and my house has sustained minimal damage in the last 5 years.

Dennis, Katrina, Rita and last but not least Wilma are costing me a lot in damages, but none of that would have been covered by flood or wind, because FEMA does not cover any ground level stuff in the Florida Keys on newer homes. So, landscaping/seawall damage is not covered. Only get to write it off on my taxes.

By the way, my boat insurance paid very quickly after Georges and for the full amount. Lots of people with flooded cars after Wilma in the Keys indicated that their insurance company dealt with them fairly as well.

Last but not least, Forbes recently ran an article saying that the insurance companies expect the hurricane seasons for the next 5 years to be bad and are hoping to hike rates significantly based on those estimates if I remember it correctly.

[Ixolib]

I didn't board up either house I own. One is in Pass Christian and the other in Diamondhead. Didn't flood at either house but I had minimal wind damage if you exclude the three trees that fell on the Diamondhead house. I think boarding up is a waste of time unless it is required by contract with your insurance. Windows are much stronger than you think and the wind is lower that close to the ground.....MGC

Well, for Katrina, I had everything boarded and still lost my a$$. State Farm would not/will not pay for the surge damage. In fact, they did not cover ANYTHING below four feet - my entire workshop and tools included. But if I would have had broken windows, they would have paid for everything. So, in hindsight, it appears all my labor to protect my windows ended up only protecting the insurance company. My loss far exceeds what SF paid on the wind damage - which was actually quite minimal, all things considered.

So... Will I board again - NOPE!! I would have (or could have) ended up much better off financially without them. As turns out, I'm about 20K in the hole... Because pre-Katrina I was not in a flood zone, my only hope now is that somehow the CDBG comes through for those of us with significant damage, but yet, still not destroyed.

[CajunMama]

so you will not protect your property and when rates go up i will have to pay for your repairs? I board up for any hurricane no matter what the category and knowing i try to protect my property i can sleep with a clear conscious.

[Ixolib]

so you will not protect your property and when rates go up i will have to pay for your repairs? I board up for any hurricane no matter what the category and knowing i try to protect my property i can sleep with a clear conscious.

I used to think the same way... But I can assure you it's not my losses that are impacting our rates. It's things like $10,000 pool enclosures in Miami/Dade counties and high-dollar and opulent waterfront property all across the Atlantic and Gulf that's taking its toll.

Comparatively speaking, my losses are insignificant when compared to those who choose to build at the water's edge and then end up with claims totaling tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Then, we can add on to that the loss of their yachts that they failed to move to protected waters and the amount increases significantly. Those costs are what's going to impact our future rates. Rest assured, if Katrina had hit a more affluent area than the LA/MS coastline, the losses in dollars would have easily doubled what they are for this storm. And, if Rita had gone into Houston as predicted, the same applies there. As a comparison, you could buy ten (or more!!) houses in the Lower 9th Ward for what it would cost to replace one waterfront home elsewhere. Generally, the same applies to to property further inland like mine. My house here may be worth ~$100,000. But, this same house in the more affluent areas of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts would set you back about 250-300K. Put it on the beach, and it's approaching the millions!!

While the rich folks who build their finery on the beach are certainly paying higher premiums, you can bet they recoup that money ten-fold when their mansions are destroyed. And who's paying for that? Well, we are. My <20K loss would be equal to one pool enclosure + the palm trees that surround one patio!!

My conscious took a back seat on August 29 when it became apparent that I was screwed. State Farm was very sympathetic, but the check revealed the reality. Unfortunately, I now view such things with much more disdain than I did in the past...

[CajunMama]

There are many more smaller loss claims filed than multimillion dollar claims. Those smaller claims are what brings the total claims up so much.

[Dionne]

Just out of curiousity......when boarding up a home prior to a landfall hurricane.....what kind of boards should be used to protect from falling old growth loblolly pines? Ya know those big old trees that literally cut a home in half.

Tapping and boarding windows and doors for hurricanes like Katrina is a fools errand. If it makes you feel more secure.....go for it.

Concrete and steel buildings were totaled. You think a piece of 7/16 wafer board over a window is really going to make a difference?

Forget your property. EVACUATE.