Hurricane-rated construction: What Florida homeowners should ask their builder

Florida’s building code is among the most stringent in the country when it comes to wind resistance — a direct result of what the state learned from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the active seasons that followed. Any home built to current Florida code is built to a higher standard than homes constructed even fifteen years ago.

But “built to code” is a floor, not a ceiling. There’s meaningful variation in how builders approach wind mitigation, what materials they specify, and how they think about construction details that affect how a home performs in a major storm. If you’re building in Florida — especially on the Space Coast, where Atlantic weather systems are a real and recurring consideration — these are the questions worth asking before you commit to a builder.

What wind speed is the home designed for?

Florida is divided into wind speed zones, and the required design wind speed varies by location. Homes in coastal areas like Brevard County are typically designed for higher wind loads than inland properties. Your builder should be able to tell you the design wind speed for your specific lot and how the structural design accounts for it.

This number matters because it determines the engineering behind the framing connections, the roof-to-wall attachments, and the window and door specifications. A home designed for 150 mph winds is built differently than one designed for 120 mph, and the difference shows up in details that aren’t visible once the walls are closed.

What kind of windows and doors are standard?

In Florida’s high-velocity hurricane zones, impact-resistant windows and doors are required by code. Outside those zones, you may have the option of either impact glass or the combination of standard windows plus hurricane shutters. Each approach has tradeoffs.

Impact windows and doors offer protection without any action required on your part — there’s no scramble to put up shutters when a storm is approaching. They also tend to reduce outside noise, improve energy efficiency, and often lower homeowner’s insurance premiums. The upfront cost is higher, but the ongoing value is real.

If shutters are the standard offering, ask specifically what type: accordion shutters, panel shutters, or roll-down systems. Accordion and roll-down shutters are more convenient to deploy than removable panels, which matters a lot when you have 48 hours of notice before a storm and a full house to prepare.

How is the roof attached?

The roof is the most vulnerable part of any home in a hurricane. How it’s attached to the walls — specifically the type of connector used at the roof-to-wall joint — has a significant effect on whether it stays put in high winds.

Single wraps, double wraps, and hurricane clips all exceed minimum code requirements to varying degrees. Hip roofs — where all four sides slope downward — perform better aerodynamically than gable roofs in high-wind conditions. A builder who can speak specifically to their roof attachment details and why they’ve made those choices is a builder who has thought carefully about this rather than just meeting the minimum.

Also ask about the roof decking attachment. The spacing of nails in the roof sheathing affects how well the decking holds under uplift pressure. Closer nail spacing costs almost nothing extra during construction and meaningfully improves performance.

What’s the garage door rated for?

Garage doors are one of the most common points of failure in wind events. A garage door that fails in a hurricane allows pressure to build inside the structure rapidly, which can contribute to roof failure. Florida code requires garage doors in wind-borne debris regions to meet specific impact and wind load ratings, but the specific rating of the door in your home is worth confirming.

If you’re in a wind-borne debris region — which includes most of coastal Brevard County — your garage door needs to be either impact-rated or protected by a horizontal bracing system. A standard door with a wind brace kit is code-compliant but not equivalent to a purpose-built impact-rated door. Know what you’re getting.

What does the wind mitigation report look like?

After construction is complete, a licensed inspector can produce a wind mitigation report that documents the specific hurricane-resistant features of your home. Insurance companies use this report to calculate discounts on your homeowner’s policy, and the savings can be substantial — sometimes several hundred dollars a year.

Ask your builder what features your home will qualify for on a wind mitigation report. A builder who knows their product well should be able to walk through this with you — roof shape, roof covering, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connections, opening protection. The stronger those features, the better your insurance picture.

How has the builder’s work held up in past storms?

This is the question most buyers don’t think to ask, and it’s one of the most revealing. Brevard County has experienced significant tropical weather events in recent years. A builder who has been operating in this market for any length of time has homes that have been through those storms. Ask how those homes performed. Ask if you can talk to clients whose homes were built in the last five to ten years about their experience.

A builder who is confident in how they build will welcome that question. One who deflects or pivots to code compliance language without addressing actual storm performance is worth pressing further.

Building in Florida means building for Florida

Hurricane preparedness isn’t a special feature — it’s a baseline expectation for any home built on the Space Coast. The questions above aren’t meant to alarm you or make the process feel more complicated than it is. They’re meant to help you have an informed conversation with your builder and understand what you’re actually getting.

A home built well for this climate is one you can live in with confidence, year-round, through whatever the Atlantic sends our way. That’s not something to leave to chance or assume is handled — it’s something to understand specifically before you build.

Want to know how we approach wind mitigation on every home we build?

We’re happy to walk through the specifics — what we build to, why we make the choices we do, and what your wind mitigation report is likely to look like. Get in touch to start the conversation.