IBHS News Releases

Tampa – The Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) is leading an effort to provide updated, simplified guidelines to facilitate reconstruction following Hurricane Katrina.

“Guidelines for Hurricane Resistant Residential Construction” is a manual with a straightforward approach to designing and building single family homes with the wind-resistant requirements of the International Residential Code (IRC).

The manual updates the International Code Council’s SSTD 10 (1999 edition) to expand its use to coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that have higher design wind speeds than those used in the existing SSTD 10, and to incorporate current research on issues such as roof sheathing attachment, rafter anchorage and anchorage of shutters in masonry.

“We are providing a more contemporary set of prescriptive guidelines while minimizing conflicts between the old SSTD 10 and consensus documents currently recognized within the IRC family of codes,” said Tim Reinhold, IBHS vice president of engineering.  “By using this simplified approach, we hope to help speed reconstruction while improving wind resistance.”

Copies of the guide are being sent to building officials and builders in the affected areas.  The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is coordinating distribution and adding its rebuilding publications as well as other technical guides to enhance the collection of materials.

This manual was printed thanks to generous contributions from the American Architectural Manufacturers Association, National Concrete Masonry Association, Simpson Strong-Tie Company and Solutia.