The house that survived a Category 5 Hurricane

Almost every European watching this: "Because it was built with concrete like normal people, instead of building it out of paper."

the biggest problem is that the only way to ensure that your house is even built to its design specifications is to do it yourself. if the rebuilding effort has proven anything, its that most construction companies around here do not have quality workers that can be relied upon to do their job right and not take shortcuts. our family got lucky. a few years back, we'd upgraded all the windows in our house to some much higher quality windows. during the process, the company that was replacing our windows discovered that the original construction had not been done properly. the original workers hadnt even screwed the frames in place. the original windows were already supposed to be impact and wind resistant and the house was supposedly originally rated for 130mph, so we were mostly upgrading for the improved thermal qualities of these new windows. but the original window frames were apparently only being held in place by glue and the house's siding and insulation, not even close to being up to code. and there was no way to tell until they were actually taking them out. I think, like us, and mostly for the insurance discounts, most of our neighbors had also had other types of retrofitting done to better secure the roof and improve the wind resistance ratings, but many of the other houses in the neighborhood that had the same construction and design, with the original windows still in, ended up having their windows blow out, not because of the windows themselves breaking, but because of the frames coming loose. thanks to our new windows being properly installed, none of ours blew in, and our only damage was losing our fence, having most of our siding and shingles ripped off, and some minor structural roof damage where a tree fell on it. we had to gut the back rooms due to moisture damage from where the tree fell, but the house and all of its windows ultimately held up and, compared to our neighbors, our repairs have been relatively minor. during the still ongoing repairs, many of our neighbors have had to have several different roofing companies come out to replace the original shoddy repair work done by other companies after the storm. we seem to have gotten lucky so far on our roof repair, but we are currently in a legal battle to have another company come out to do our siding after the first company did shoddy work that is coming apart already, and also to have the first company pay for repairs to things that they broke while doing the siding, like our water softener that one of their workers apparently decided to stand on.

`Full hip roof, concrete wall, storm windows...

I can imagine how much money could be saved if all the houses were built this way in these high storm areas.

Concrete and steel. That's it.

These regular houses get blown to pieces while shipping container houses remain unscratched with only broken windows.

ok, now I just have to win the lottery so I can build my Hurricane House

All houses should be contructed like this. Just in case anything. But that would cost extra money to buy a house like that.

I would love to build a home like this on the beach one day it’ll come to pass🙏🏾

I think insurance companies are FINALLY smartening up. The should change building code in to REQUIRE these building methods in shoreline areas.

Most homes in Mexico beach are very old, code is so different now. This was one of the newest homes built leading up to the hurricane

All of coastal Carolina , Louisiana , Florida ocean side. Gulf side.. Should be built that way ..🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️l know l know..

The windows alone are probably worth more then my house

this man deserves to have his home rebuild funded by tax dollars.... his no-expense-spared approach has set an amazing example for others to follow. his investment will save millions of dollars and innumerable heartaches in the future. kudos to you sir, what a man!!!

In the Philippines. Most houses are made in concrete.

I live on the Texas coast and it amazes me how many houses don't have piles and are built very weak.

2:55 how deep are the poles put into the ground?

answer: concrete.

Build it right or build it twice 🤷🏻‍♂️

New codes are sufficient. Look at other homes built on the east end of Mexico beach. The home shown devastated had an engineered foundation required by FEMA but the upper structure was built under the Southern Standard Building Code and not engineered.