House Wrape That Should Save Lives

[big rockpile]

I was watching a show called Smash Lab.They was working on ways to keep Stuctures safer.They came up with Wrapping with Carbon Fiber.

They took a Trailer,wrapped it with Carbon Fiber cloth,tied it down,hit it with 200MPH winds,shot 2x4's at it.The Trailer broke loose from its Tie Downs,rolled but held together.

I was very impressed

big rockpile

[okiemom]

We saw that too. Is that carbon wrap to be like Klevlar (sp?) It really did do a good job of not letting it rip apart. The weakest part were the tie downs. i guess it wouldn't help w/ tornados as there is no warning to tie down a trailer like there is for a hurricane. I wonder what it would be like for a permanent installation.

[Ninn]

Wonder if that would work for moving older mobile homes out of parks and on to their own lots?

Anyone see that flame resistant gel that the california firefighters invented? Would love to see that as standard equipment on a mobile home.

[Ohio dreamer]

My DH just downloaded that one last night (no, they aren't available on the internet to the best of my knowledge...we have a different source). He came bouncing up the steps trying to explain this to me. And now people here are talking about it....sounds like maybe we should sit down in front of the computer tonight and watch some TV...sounds like a show my 9yr old would love, too.

[Ken Scharabok]

Question would be cost vs benefits. As mentioned, one shouldn't be in a mobile home of any nature in 200 mph winds. Say the carbon fiber wrap cost $5 square foot. For a 16' x 80' mobile home cost would be in the area of $13,000. What about a 2" x 4" through a window? Do you want bullet-proof glass also?

[Cygnet]

I'm in an area where we routinely have 70-80mph winds, pretty much every summer. Microbursts, not tornados. I would cheerfully have paid several thousand dollars extra for a little added protection.

However, I will say that we got hit by a bad microburst last summer. One very small, brand new singlewide with nobody in it (it was being used as an office at a large commercial farm) rolled and went splat. I suspect it wasn't tied down and it was out in the middle of an open field. Otherwise, very little damage to any local mobiles.

No damage to my house, at all. It's a doublewide and nice and sturdy with 2X6 walls. It didn't even shudder much. Most of my neighbors came through just fine too. There were a few awnings lost, and some chicken coops flattened, but I saw very very little damage to homes. Not even shingles lost on the newer homes.

The brand new site-built homes up the road several miles? Stucco+2X4 construction (most mobiles around here are 2X6, I think), built with cheap labor, with all the corners cut, and with lots of elaborate rooflines? They lost sections of their roofs, roof tiles, chunks of stucco, had broken windows from flying debris, lost garage doors, etc. Pretty major damage. Most have spanish tile roofs and the TILES came off and turned into projectiles that broke things.

After seeing that, I had a lot more respect for the structural integrity of newer mobile homes.

So carbon-wrap would be nice, but perhaps it's more important to have good construction to begin with.

[Ken Scharabok]

I grew up in Florida and was thus familiar with what are called hurricane clips down there. Essentially a Z plate, with half offset. One part is nailed to roof trusses. Other is nailed to wall header. Can greatly strength a roof from being lifted off the header. Eventually found some locally and put them on several of my shed buildings.

[gccrook]

Let's just say that if you could afford to wrap your mobile home with carbon fiber, you would not be living in a mobile home. You could accomplish much of what they did with sheet metal straps that would be much cheaper. We do not make houses hurricane proof because we want to keep building the same old thing the same old way to maximize profit.

[Ken Scharabok]

Seems like there has been some controversy about mobilehome strapping fairly recently. As I recall, something about if a mobilehome is blown apart the straps going over the top can act as blades.

I do know the part which screws into the ground is VERY difficult to remove. Where my singlewide is now, it sits over the previous one. We ended up digging around the tops and then cutting them off.

[gccrook]

Sorry about the confusion. You are correct about external straps. Wouldn't want them.

I was thinking of reinforcing the joints of the structure with sheet metal straps. Buildings come apart in a couple of ways, but the most common is that wind gets inside or under something and begins to beat on it until it come loose. If you can keep the wind from getting into the house, and keep the edges from moving in the wind, it will go a long way toward keeping the house together. Most common house construction today relies on nails, which are great in shear, but not too great in tension. Sheet metal straps tying certain structure together will work in shear, and provide greater resistance to the wind buffeting.