In Florida this is done by what's called the "CBS" or Concrete Block
System. My own house in Boca Raton (where I lived from 1985-95) was
built using CBS about 1975. The floor is a poured concrete slab. Every
8 feet are poured concrete pillars fastened to the floor with re-bar.
The pillars support a concrete lintel also fastened with re-bar. Steel
straps are embedded in the lintel when its poured and these straps are
folded over the tops of the roof trusses to bind the roof to the lintels
to the pillars to the floor.
I had additional protections for the windows and doors but, on August
23, 1992 at about 5am the house was assaulted by hurricane Andrew with
continuous winds of about 125 mph (based on a radar plot) for about 1/2
hour with lesser winds both before and after. It and my family are
still quite well.
Chuck Norcutt
On 4/16/2012 6:45 PM, Ken Norton wrote:
> As there are a lot of 100+ year old houses here, I wouldn't think that you
> need to make every house into a bunker. But there are ways to make a house
> MUCH stronger with things like clips that secure the roofs to the walls and
> the walls to the foundation. The places that were build like cardboard
> boxes were shredded. The higher quality construction just had moderate
> damage.
--
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