These are some thoughts on securing a house during the earthchanges, but there are many variations and I only give some food for thought, you must decide what is right for you .
Now, a house is basically the same whatever its construction methods, it has foundations even if these are posts in the ground, or decking. Concrete is most common though. And this may be on clay, sand or bedrock. All these have different characteristics in an earthquake. Sand is most liable to liquefaction, rock may crack and move and take the foundations with it, clay also will crack more so if it is bone dry, and hard as rock. If the clay is damp or even wet, it may be more forgiving when the temblors begin. But don't depend on it.
What we must consider are the main load bearing points in a house. Thus where the load is maximum on say a dividing wall, or either end of a valley, if this part of the house or foundations moves to any degree, the consequences will be far far greater than if it is some little wall holding the flat roof of a kitchen.
I would therefore advise looking around your home, go into the loft space, especially, looking at the way the joists are laid, and how the perlings are set. Now if the perlings rest on a central wall, or even at the end of a valley, and this part of the house moves e.g. the foundations rise or fall, , we must expect these perlings to move also, and the consequence will be extreme for the whole house. So, mark where these load bearing points are, where the perlings rest on the walls. If a wall goes on the gable, or sides, away from main load bearing points,the wall plate holding the joist may well stay in place also, so, assuming this happens it will be easier to shore up this part of the house. These are the considerations you should have.
Now let us assume the roof has partially or even totally blown away. What will happen when it rains ? Any answers please? You will of course get wet. Very very wet, and miserable. This can be dealt with before it happens quite easily --well there is some effort and some expense involved but this is the plan
Now, assuming it is only hurricane force winds affecting you and the earthquakes are not that severe or at least have been coped with. Before this happens then, I would get some three quarter sheathing ply or similar, waterproof, and of construction quality. This should be placed all over the roof space spanning the joists. How you do this I have no idea, but read on. Now, I assume your loft space is covered in fiberglass insulation. Lay the plywood over the top of this. Now one further method is to place a wagon tarpaulin, maybe several over the top of this plywood. Make sure they all overlap and the overlaps are generous. Now finally, get hold of some galvanized or plastic coated corrugated sheets, or similar. Place these over the plywood, making sure again the overlaps are generous. Then finally, we can secure all this using rawl bolts to the walls. How you do this depends on how the house is constructed. How you get all this into the loft space is up to you also. But the method is sound. So, if the roof blows off and you are without power and cut off, from civilization, at least you can be warm and dry. And repair the roof later when things calm down.
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if they are happening there is a cause. the cause must be energetic , as it is a heating phenomena. so, we must look for an energy input into the earths magma . also we could do with a gravitational profile of the earth and see how and where it is fluctuating this would be another clue. now taken together, these will tell us where the energy influx originates. now take this with similar data from the rest of the solar system and the sun and we are some way to deciding what is disturbing the earths magma. it is process of triangulation. more could be said on this.
am I suffering from dyslexia? however hard to type I still make errors, maybe the old eyes are failing? maybe a new pair of glasses maybe....more lutein in the diet even....still plan for the worst, and enjoy each day
have you seen the latest earthquakes , on USGS? absolutely no sign of let up , the Nazca plate off south America is taking a right old battering, now a big one in the Mediterranean near Greece, . Plus a sprinkling on the US west coast. One theory is proton/microwave flux heating up the magma, but another and I think John Dinardo believes this that we are under an extra gravitational pull. both may be true.
if the earhchanges are as thye say, let alone worse, thne any methids we sus tk get through the will b remedial at very best. my own roof though retiled recently will be no exception. hurricane stay on course and roofs get in their way. I was more concerned about the US and other large places though here in Wales we do get force 10 gales occasionally and it s they that do the real damage. have a loose tile and it may end up net door with few of its friends. ..
I would look though at how ones house is built and see the load bearing points as these will carry the rest of the house if the ground moves here. still let us hope it is all a, load of baloney and next year is just the same as this and hereon after. yet plan just in case ......
this is the benefit of having a large country. also I expect timber is cheaper where you are, and very little if any is imported. aren't many of your houses made of timber or at least timber frame? they are excellent for insulation though the upkeep and maintenance may be more expensive than bricks and mortar. if your budget is small or even non existent and mine is the latter after buying two tires for the car....can you believe over $400 for two Bridgestone tires???? well the important thing is to get the priorities sorted out.
now if events are as bad as Ed dames and others, John Denardo, expect thme tk be, I will posibly take tk the open road, maye the scottish hills. i hope to posy some thoughts on knowing ones neighbours and neghbourhood lster on. again start small and keeo sml, is easiest nd chespst.
You can find expensive, well built, brand new materials at many auctions in my area but you gotta research it and go look at it first day before auction.
You need to look and find those things you need, don't go for cheap bargains. you have a far far bigger country out there than this little piece of rock in the North Atlantic. I bet we would fit inside your state!!! we have car boot sales and garage sales but I have never seen building materials there, clothes toys all that stuff. in the end it all depends wat you want to do. for me if the roof blows of now it has been remade, I will follow the tiles down the road--- and keep walking no doubt. with arthritus there is not a great deal I can do, but I have no worries its still a big world out there.
A place one can find building materials at reduced costs is to look for auctions which specifically carry mostly building materials. There is one in my state that one can find really good deals (near Leola, PA).
i have a bit of time left before bedtime so thought a quick cost analysis may be done here on securing the loft space . this is purely guess work on my part as I have no idea of prices in the States but it is an exercise for me and I would be interested to know how accurate or not I am in this.
now, assuming your house is small like mine, let us say, forty feet by fifty, a typical size perhaps. now assuming you use the method I said, of one layer of plywood one layer of wagon tarpaulins, then one layer of corrugated sheets, galvanized is best, let me attempt to guess what it would cost.
now based on this estimate of size it will take about sixty two sheets at 8 foot by four foot each, to cover the ceiling. now let s assume each sheet cost thirty dollars, and of course you are buying in large quantity, I estimate it will cost about $1800 now wagon tarpaulins are not essential you can bypass this but it would add extra waterproofing in case of leaks. so, no tarps, now , estimating the corrugated sheets at say forty dollars each we are talking about four thousand dollars to secure the roof space of the house. now add to this the rawl bolts, maybe the cost of a power tool, and I hope you get free help from a friend, and help them accordingly, you have about four thousand two hundred dollars to shell out
However a new roof will cost maybe ten thousand dollars to have built, maybe more, so basically it will be half the price of a new roof, in order to keep yourself and your family secure against repeated hurricanes and storms. Now not many have this kind of budget nor are willing to spend like this. However if you are on the inside say in NASA or homeland security, FEMA, NSA or CIA, maybe have friends there, then you may well appreciate the urgency of the times. This realization for most people will be the deciding factor to spending this kind of money and making their home more secure. It is all a matter of how the mind is oriented.
now I mentioned in the post above about securing a basement. The cost may be comparable or maybe a bit less depending on what materials you use. I will make a separate blog entry on making a safe room in or below the main house. Let me know if my above estimate is correct.
one last thought. Bear in mind when the winds come assuming we go through a planet x scenario such as happened eleven thousand years ago, God help us if this be the case!!!!!!!!!!! then, bear this in mind. However sound the roof is now , nothing on Gods earth will keep those tiles in place and as one tile lifts so the whole lot will lift and in a day or two the roof will be stripped bare. I have been forced to have a new roof on my own house at a cost of around eight thousand dollars, but I had to do it. I had no choice. If we , here in Wales have winds such as many pundits say my own roof will vanish and all the neighbors. A hurricane is not choosy what houses it damages. I live all alone so have no problem with this, i can always take to the open road, and may do so. A family is not so lucky and does not have these options unless everything is destroyed. Then we have an urban exodus. This may happen also, Lord help us. This is what the FEMA camps are for I believe. But, if your roof , at ceiling height, is secure and tied down to the walls, there is no such problem. Again you must set your priorities. And your budget.
i had thought of saying something on basements. we call them cellars . many older houses have cellars which once served as coal bunkers, they had a grid outside that was lifted up and the coal merchant tipped the bags of coal down the chute into the cellar where also they served as wash rooms where they used the old dolly tubs, made of corrugated zinc for washing or scrubbing clothes. ask your wife has she has heard of dolly blue for whitening clothes!!!!!!--yes, Jim the good old days. I remember it well, but they were fading away as I was growing up mercifully.
back to basements, I would give serious thought to having a few maybe quite a few screw jacks, we call them acrow props here, but these can be used to strengthen the ceiling of the basement which may be the floor of the kitchen. I would use four , by six or eight girders, each supporting maybe six or eight joists. if the house is not too large six maybe eight or even ten screw jacks will go a long way. now if the basement is secure like this it will be an excellent, indeed superb place to hide from the solar flares, in fact I will say a lot more maybe in the morning on this subject how to make a safe room. I have lots of ideas. and a good sleep will help!!!
Good advice. I have also been thinking that if you use a thicker metal in the attic you will also be safe from small meteors. I have had dreams of meteors comming down in droves, but select areas. In my house the basement has a beam stretching 80 feet and the joist rest on the beam from both sides of the house. This will be a problem if the house rocks from side to side as the joist will slip off. My solution was to block the house from sliding. I will post pictures later today. Perhaps some of you will remember my post from the other site.