IBHS Newsroom

IBHS releases updated resilient construction standards

Richburg, SC, Nov. 21, 2024 – The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) today released the 2025 FORTIFIED Home™, FORTIFIED Commercial™ and FORTIFIED Multifamily™ construction standards. All three standards are updated periodically to align with building codes and design standards. Since its inception in 2010, the FORTIFIED program has set the benchmark for beyond-code construction and re-roofing, designed to reduce storm damage by strengthening areas of homes, commercial buildings and multifamily properties typically vulnerable to high winds and heavy rain.

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Connie Bryant Breedlove
Managing Director, Communications
cbreedlove@ibhs.org
404-786-5275

Mary Anne Byrd
Communications Director
803-669-4216
mbyrd@ibhs.org

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Who is IBHS?

We are at the cutting edge of new science that makes homes and businesses stronger against severe weather, and we are on a mission to educate the building industry, inform the public, and effect change for all. We encourage you to connect with us and share our content.

DisasterSafety.org

The guidance developed through the ongoing research by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) lands on our DisasterSafety.org site. The site provides projects to help home and business owners protect their property from damage caused by natural disasters.

FORTIFIED.org

FORTIFIED is a nationally recognized building method that goes beyond building codes to strengthen residential and commercial buildings against specific natural hazards such as high winds and hurricanes. FORTIFIED standards are based on more than 20 years of scientific research and real-world testing by IBHS.

IBHS Visual Assets

The IBHS Research Center provides a rare glimpse into the devastating effects of natural disasters on homes and businesses when communities are evacuated and news cameras are no longer able to safely enter the area. From dramatic footage of hurricane-force wind and water impacting homes to full-scale homes subjected to ember storms, IBHS has video to help visualize the effects of extreme weather across the built environment. Several examples are below – please contact us for additional resources.

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IBHS Expert Insights

Roy E. Wright

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“The goal of climate adaptation is to take actions today to reduce losses tomorrow. Recognizing that we can’t predict specific weather events next month, much less over the next several decades, IBHS knows that putting proven building science solutions in place now will reduce disaster losses in the future. Given its important societal and economic benefits, adaptation is a sound fiscal strategy, public health objective, and humanitarian obligation.”

Roy E. Wright

Anne D. Cope, PhD, P.E.

“We’ve calculated that an unsealed roof deck allows up to 60% of the rain that hits a damaged roof to enter into the attic. A sealed roof deck can reduce water entry by as much as 95%. If all the shingles came off a 2,000-square-foot unsealed roof, up to 750 gallons of water could enter the attic for every inch of rain that falls – equivalent to 9 bathtubs full of water.”

Anne D. Cope, PhD, P.E.