Windows and hurricanes are commonly found in the same sentence when you live in the south. And when you live down here in the Tampa or Florida area like we do – hurricanes are more or less a way of life. We’re obviously all about hurricane shutters and hurricane windows, but not everyone can afford them at the moment and not everyone will be prepared.
There’s a lot you can do to prepare your windows for a hurricane, but unfortunately there are a lot more myths out there that aren’t as helpful – that can end up causing significant damage on its own. Today, we’re going to cut through some of those myths so you don’t make the same mistakes as others had made. Let’s jump right in!
Taping your windows helps prevent them from breaking
This is not correct. This will NOT prevent your window from breaking. It will, however, help your window break into larger pieces so it’s easier to clean up. While that’s all well and good, larger pieces of broken glass can actually be more dangerous because larger shards are more dangerous flying around than if they were tinier shards.
Cracking windows during a storm help stabilize pressure
This one is also false. You don’t want violent air and water blowing around your house – period. In fact, this makes the pressure problem worse as letting air INSIDE your home can cause MORE pressure on your roof and greatly increase the odds that you have real, meaningful structural damage to your home.
You only have to board up houses that are facing water
Again – this is false. Hurricanes are basically big, giant tropical cyclones. They rotate and move which means no real window is safe while these kinds of storms are occurring. In addition, any debris that is picked up by a storm will likely get swirled and rotated around – meaning it can hit windows anywhere on your home.
Leaning against windows will prevent them from breaking.
This is honestly crazy. And incredibly dangerous. For starters, you’re not strong enough to block the wind. You can’t punch it in the face or box it out. Second, especially if your windows are taped, the glass will ultimately break and you’re not going to want to be on the receiving end of that. If your window looks like it’s going to shatter -move to another room and get to as safe a place as you possibly can.
The best thing you can do is to either install storm shutters or impact resistant hurricane windows. These are built to protect your home specifically from significant weather events. Trust us – they’re worth the investment. If you’re interested in learning more about what an installation would look like, give us a call today and we’re happy to provide you with a free consultation. Now you know more about windows and hurricanes, until then – good luck!