The South Carolina- based Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) has announced that the roof of the St. Jude Dream Home, being built in Eads, TN, will incorporate its FORITIFED for Safer Living safety standards.
FORTIFIED for Safer Living is a residential construction program developed for new home. It offers guidelines and standards that will aid homebuilders and homeowners construct a safer, stronger home with better resistance towards fire and water damage, tornado, flood, wildfire, freezing weather, earthquakeand hails.
The St Jude Dream Home is a 3700 sq.ft. home located in Tennessee, which is one of the eight states in the US located in a seismic zone most prone to earthquakes.
The roof, built to the specifications of FORITIFED for Safer Living, will feature an impact resistant roof to minimize damage from hail and high winds; roof straps to improve the uplift resistance; roof sheathing; roof perimeter blocking to transfer the earthquake and wind loads to the walls and a sealed roof deck designed to minimize water damage in the event that the roof covering blows away.
The FORTIFIED program manager, Fred Malik stated that risk reduction can be achieved by upgrading the roof system. The roof, even if partially compromised in the event of a storm, poses a threat to the entire house as water starts seeping in. Malik explained that by building the roof in compliance with the IBHS criteria, the new roof can be made more resilient and strong as compared to traditional roofs.
Source: http://www.disastersafety.org/