Think About Protection from Windstorms

I hope to add a few thoughts in consideration of the structural integrity of houses and such as far as my knowledge allows me to.

i am writing a blog on this forum, covering this and other subjects as part of my own ideas on getting prepared, which I am certain will be of help to others.

we get some exceptional winds here on Angelsey in fact it is amongst the windiest places in the UK and in the past there were many windmills around the island , many are still standing. In every corner on every plot of land there are places where the wind will hit a roof from a prevailing direction, here it is the south and south west. Not so often from the north. Thus we can see the place where we need the greatest structural integrity on a roof. On a sheltered side, winds may not be problem but falling tiles from the opposite side may be though. I have found this out!!!

we must always assume a roof is not a new one and assuming it is tiled, there will be places where the roof has sunk a little by movement of the footings or supporting timbers or both, and also the supporting walls may have movement in them.. thus where this happens we will have tiles with small or not so small gaps and these will begin to move once the wind reaches a certain speed, and many of the gusts may get even more violent. A force seven upwards is the wind to watch out for. We get force ten here in some winters. It is no joke. Like banshees wailing outside trying to come in.

So, the first part of wind protection is know the weak points in a house roof. Either replace tiles or use mortar to barge up each tile and fill any gaps.

now another idea comes to me. if we are expecting something quite extraordinary , let us say the earhchanges become severe and we see this beginning to happen, the first thing I would do is mix a rather large load of mortar, quite strong, now every tile can be pointed up, a fairly thick bed made against each one and this will have the effect of cementing the whole roof into one homogeneous block. I would focus on lead valleys as well, make sure these are well pointed. this alone will stop any movement in the tiles and should keep the roof on a bit longer. Other measures may follow. And it can all be done in three days or less.

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nicholas fowler December 2, 2011 at 1:20pm

I hope to add a few thoughts in consideration of the structural integrity of houses and such as far as my knowledge allows me to.

i am writing a blog on this forum, covering this and other subjects as part of my own ideas on getting prepared, which I am certain will be of help to others.

we get some exceptional winds here on Angelsey in fact it is amongst the windiest places in the UK and in the past there were many windmills around the island , many are still standing. In every corner on every plot of land there are places where the wind will hit a roof from a prevailing direction, here it is the south and south west. Not so often from the north. Thus we can see the place where we need the greatest structural integrity on a roof. On a sheltered side, winds may not be problem but falling tiles from the opposite side may be though. I have found this out!!!

we must always assume a roof is not a new one and assuming it is tiled, there will be places where the roof has sunk a little by movement of the footings or supporting timbers or both, and also the supporting walls may have movement in them.. thus where this happens we will have tiles with small or not so small gaps and these will begin to move once the wind reaches a certain speed, and many of the gusts may get even more violent. A force seven upwards is the wind to watch out for. We get force ten here in some winters. It is no joke. Like banshees wailing outside trying to come in.

So, the first part of wind protection is know the weak points in a house roof. Either replace tiles or use mortar to barge up each tile and fill any gaps.

now another idea comes to me. if we are expecting something quite extraordinary , let us say the earhchanges become severe and we see this beginning to happen, the first thing I would do is mix a rather large load of mortar, quite strong, now every tile can be pointed up, a fairly thick bed made against each one and this will have the effect of cementing the whole roof into one homogeneous block. I would focus on lead valleys as well, make sure these are well pointed. this alone will stop any movement in the tiles and should keep the roof on a bit longer. Other measures may follow. And it can all be done in three days or less.

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