If there’s a message that William York wants to convey more than anything else, it’s the importance that homeowners in hurricane-prone areas protect themselves by using tested and approved products properly installed.

“The use of non-approved products provides a false sense of security for the homeowner,” York states. “There’s a certain level of confidence that one should be able to have when you’re using a product that is tested and approved by one of the state-approved organizations. When people put products that aren’t tested and approved over their windows and they think they’ve got a level of protection [that’s not really there], that can be really bad.”

Now heading W.H.York Consulting, Inc., York has worked in hurricane protection since 1996: evaluating products, determining methods to reduce hurricane damage, training inspectors and insurance agents on mitigation, calculating cost comparison data before and after the landmark 2001 Florida Building Code and consulting on wind damage mitigation.
Even a cursory look over his résumé reveals the extent to which he is involved. York is a Florida State Certified Building Contractor, State Certified Residential Construction Mitigation Inspector, State Certified Hurricane Evacuation Shelter Inspector and Certified Wind Damage Mitigation Inspector and Trainer. He has led many training sessions and has authored numerous reports covering reduced wind vulnerability, building inspection for hurricane preparedness and on the Florida Building Code.

“I got into the world of hurricane protection about 12 years ago when we were first starting to do inspections for homeowners so they might get discounts for shutters, which has been offered by insurance companies, and became a strong supporter of the idea of tested and approved shutter products or opening protection products and have certainly stressed that in hundreds of classes that I’ve taught—tested, approved and properly installed,” says York. “If there’s anything that I think that I have done for the industry it’s to help promote proper installation, not only by the installer but by the homeowner. If the homeowner doesn’t put the right number of wing nuts and bolts and so forth in place even though the installer has the anchors there, if the homeowner doesn’t do it right what good does it do?”

CURRENT TESTING
Most recently, York has been working with the University of Florida on hurricane shutter and impact-rated product evaluation. Specifically, they are studying the relationship between opening protection and roofing materials.

The test protocol involves two test missiles, he explains. One is a large missile (nine pounds); the other is a small missile (four-and-a-half pounds). “What we know from hurricanes is that storms don’t just throw around four-and-a-half and nine-pound missiles,” says York. “We know that roof tiles are a big source of missile material that goes through windows and impacts shutters and there is no testing that is done. The same thing with roof shingles; shingles become a huge source of wind-borne debris and, again, there is no real testing with those products.”

York notes the testing now being done uses clay and concrete tiles, typical in southern building. “They’ve made a tile-throwing machine and they’ve made a shingle-throwing machine. This testing is relatively new. It’s probably been a month (in early June) that the equipment has been functioning. They’re hoping to see what kind of performance we get out of not only existing Florida Building Code or Miami-Dade County product, but some of the older stuff. We’ve secured some old (pre-code) aluminum shutters from a house in Palm Beach County and we’ve taken those up to the university for evaluation.”
York adds that several shutter and impact-rated window manufacturers who are members of the International Hurricane Protection Association (IHPA) have contributed products to the University of Florida for testing and evaluation. “We’ve gotten excellent support from IHPA,” he says.

The evaluation is just being done and there are no meaningful results yet. “The good news and the bad news is that there are many different kinds of tiles and when the Florida Building Code went into effect in March of ’02, there were some new requirements for breaking strength of the tile. There’s been a lot of work since, particularly, Hurricane Charley and, subsequently, also since Wilma on tile attachments because we found that tiles on certain locations on the roof came off pretty frequently, so then there’s been a number of improvements in the recommended installation instructions and the use of adhesive . . . proper installation is critical.”

MAKING A DIFFERENCE
York’s involvement in hurricane protection has led him to work with just about every group or association that has a connection to it. For example, he provides technical support and training for the Florida Association of Insurance Agents. He has taught classes at their conventions the last two years on building codes and mitigation, with the aim of making sure they understand industry terminology and what homeowners can do to protect themselves. “Particularly with regard to opening protection, to be sure they understand the improved, tested products,” he emphasizes.

York also has done a considerable amount of work with the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) and its Blueprint for Safety program. He teaches classes and has rewritten some of its materials. He also works with the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) doing similar things—rewriting its programs and training people on its Fortified . . . for safer living program.

All of these efforts, by so many groups of professionals, he says are definitely making a difference. “Absolutely. There’s no question that the performance of buildings that were evaluated after Hurricane Charley showed a tremendous improvement in their structural stability after 1996 because the codes changed in 1995. Subsequent changes in 2002, when the 2001 building code was adopted, indicate that the increases in performance were even better,” York states. “The limited amount of data that they have indicates that the drop in severity of claims and the drop in frequency of claims was significantly lower than historical records show.”

For York, the biggest questions right now have to do with determining and setting the proper exposure category for a given site. Open terrain, he explains, can allow higher pressures and stronger direct winds to develop on a structure, whereas in a suburban terrain a lot of homes and buildings are clustered and offer some protection from the wind. It can mean a 20 to 30 percent difference in design pressures used to determine the type and amount of hurricane protection required. York worries that areas are categorized at a lesser exposure risk than they really need.

IT WORKS
Understandably, most of York’s work has been done in Florida, the epicenter of hurricane protection. Yet, his work often takes him beyond the state’s boundaries. He has taught safe home programs to inspectors and contractors in South Carolina, and has taught many classes for IBHS to designers and inspectors in Louisiana.

“Florida does lead the way, and Florida often is held up as the gold standard,” says York, “but we have to recognize that other coastal states have adopted the international family of codes. Louisiana adopted the International Building Code (IBC) after Hurricane Katrina went through, and Mississippi and Alabama are in the process . . .” York points out that Louisiana, in fact, has gone from having no building codes for residential structures to having one of the strictest.

Still, Florida is unique in several ways, from its building code to product approval procedures to insurance programs. “Most of what is sold in Florida is tested and approved using Florida’s system, either Miami-Dade product approval or Florida Building Code,” York says. “Florida is unique in having a mandated [insurance] discount program for mitigation,” he continues, “and those discounts can be pretty significant. Opening protection and hip roof shape are the two biggest mitigation features that the insurance companies provide discounts for. Those discounts vary tremendously between the various insurance companies, but there is some real indication that a fully mitigated home has lower losses. We need to be taking responsibility for ourselves and not say it’s the insurance companies’ purview to fix my house, I’d rather protect it so that it doesn’t get damaged in the first place. And we know how to do that, and we know it works.”