Weatherproof Your Roof for Hurricanes
Reading Time: 3 mins
Last Updated: December 16, 2025 Published: September 4, 2019
Filed under: Durability
Depending upon where you live, hurricanes and tropical storms raise concerns for homeowners each fall when it comes to roofing.
How to Prepare for Hurricane Strength Winds
- If you find yourself in an area concerned about hurricanes this season, we suggest a thorough roof inspection by a qualified contractor. There may be loose areas or other problems on your roof which, if addressed now, can help with performance during a storm
- Also, ask your contractor to make sure that your attic ventilation is properly balanced and functioning. If air rushes into your attic and then can’t escape through well-balanced exhaust vents, your roof decking will sustain great pressure from the air inside the attic. Such stresses can dislodge the decking, leading to roof damages
- Next, secure any loose items in your yard, hopefully preventing them from becoming airborne during wind gusts. Finally, ensure that any trees near your home and roof are cut back to help avoid contact with your home. These are all steps that can help your roof achieve peak performance during hurricanes
Get Ready for Hurricanes
In recent years, the construction industry has taken a serious look at roof performance following the major hurricanes that continue to devastate Florida, Texas, and the Caribbean every season. Our company has done extensive visitation to Florida and Texas, and up the east coast, as well as consulted with numerous property owners and contractors in the Caribbean. Our goal is to assess roof performance and be able to provide our customers with ideas that will provide enhanced protection for their homes in the future.
Here are three key observations we have made, which we feel will have a significant positive impact on roof performance during extreme wind events:
- Current Building Code Compliance
While sometimes it can be aggravating to have to deal with new building codes, they do serve a purpose. We have observed much better performance from roofs and homes built according to these new requirements than from older structural designs - Airborne Debris
Your roof is only as safe as your neighbors’ roofs. Particularly in the instance of tile roofs that blow off, we have seen significant damage to roofs when materials from other roofs land on them. Similar problems can be caused by trees and limbs that blow against the house, setting off roof damages - Metal Consistently Out-Performs Other Materials
Even as it ages, metal roofs retain their wind resistance compared to other materials that weaken or become brittle over the years. We have observed many times that other materials become less resilient with age while metal retains its wind resistance. (As a side note, aluminum roofing will out-perform steel in corrosive coastal environments)
Learn more about wind resistance, and all of the factors that go into weatherproofing your roof from hurricanes and other windstorms in this article by our home improvement expert, Todd Miller.
We’re here to respond to your questions, and to provide the details and attributes of a roof that protects your home from wind.
Tags: hurricanes, storms, wind resistance
