Use Flexible Connections on Gas and Water Lines

Because most gas and water lines are rigid, they can be torn from their connection points during an earthquake. The results could include not only serious damage to your house but also injury to you and members of your family. A broken gas line is especially serious because of the potential for a fire or even an explosion. One way to prevent broken gas and water lines is to have flexible connection pipes installed between appliances and their supply lines.

Secure Metal Siding and Metal Roofs

Metal siding and roofing in high-wind areas should be securely attached to the frame of the building with exposed fasteners such as screws or bolts or with concealed clips.

Secure Composition Shingle Roofs

When composition shingles are not securely attached, they can be damaged or torn away by high winds. When this happens, the interior of the building becomes vulnerable to rainwater infiltration. If your composition shingle roof is being repaired or replaced, your roof designer or roofing contractor should make sure that the requirements outlined in this brochure have been met.

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Secure Built-Up and Single-Ply Roofs

Whenever your built-up or single-ply roof (common on commercial buildings) is repaired or replaced, your roof designer or roofing contractor should ensure that the flashing and coping are made of a corrosion-resistant metal, such as aluminum, and securely attached to the building with screws, concrete spikes, or a continuous cleat.

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Replace Roofing with Fire-Resistant Materials

If the roof of your house is covered with a product that does not have a Class A fire-resistance rating, such as untreated wood shakes or organic-reinforced asphalt shingles, you should consider replacing them. When wildfires and brush fires spread to houses, it is often because burning branches, leaves, and other debris buoyed by the heated air and carried by the wind fall on roofs.

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Remove Vegetation and Combustible Materials

You should clear the area around your house if the area immediately surrounding it contains trees, shrubs, and other vegetation; yard debris; or other materials that burn easily. Otherwise, your house will be at an increased risk of damage during wildfires and forest fires.

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Remove Trees and Potential Windborne Missiles

If the area immediately surrounding your house contains trees, outbuildings, trash cans, yard debris, or other materials that can be moved by the wind, your house will be more likely to be damaged during a hurricane or tornado.

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Reinforce or Replace Garage Doors

High winds from hurricanes and tornadoes can damage garage doors or even blow them in. If wind enters a garage, it can cause dangerous and expensive structural damage. Reinforcing your garage door helps you protect not only your garage, but its contents as well.

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Reinforce Double Entry Doors

Double entry doors are convenient, but because they span a wider opening than a single door, they are usually not as strong as a single door and are therefore more susceptible to wind damage. If your doors fail under wind pressure they will allow wind to enter your house, where it can cause more damage and possibly injure you or members of your family.

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Raise or Floodproof HVAC Equipment

Raising the heating, ventilating, and cooling equipment in your house so that it is above the flood level, or surrounding it with a flood wall, is a good way to limit flood damage. These are things that only a licensed contractor should do.

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