Florida crackers

uncle Alan

uncle Alan

Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
1,830
Been thinking about getting the galvinized hurricane shutters. The ones that are most attractive are stackable,narrow panels with lexan inserts. They are put in troughs & secured by wingnuts. Weight & stacking in a small space are appealing but they want over 4 grand. Whew !
Our windows are heavy doublepaned. Anyone have experience with them unprotected during a 'cane ?
Understand that vinyl film isn't much more than hype.

Help with any data will help me & others that have a need to know.



Uncle [ Day-um heavy plywood ] Alan :confused:
 
We have two kinds, the galvanised and the aluminum. In my experience of taking the darn things up and down the aluminum is noticeably lighter (a good thing!) and it seems to stay cleaner/better looking than the others... By what I'm seeing in just a few years I would say the aluminum is going to last alot longer.

hmm.. I'll take a pic tommorrow when theres light so you can see for yourself.
 
Moving to G&G.
 
Had them up for hurricane Andrew. Next morning, there were a bunch of big dents from flying roof tiles. Fixing all the damage they prevented would have cost a lot more than the shutters. If I had to get them again now, I would go with aluminum for the weight saving.
 
Could'nt resist this thread, so here is my .02 worth... Many years ago (1960's)when my father moved us down here to this fine state, we were introduced to hurricanes. Folks boarded up with plywood to protect windows and other vulnerable areas around they're homes. This worked well and the results were clear...

Fast forward to September, 2004 when my neighborhood was visited by the twin bitches, Frances(cat-2) and Jeane(cat-3) within three weeks of eachother. The results of which I am still repairing and cleaning up from... But, no broken windows thanks to my 5/8 plywood shingles.

My point is, plywood works. In my case, I purchased the plywood in 1998 after I built my home. I cut each piece to fit each particular window and marked them as such. Sanded and treated each with clear coat, and drilled holes for the tapcons. They are stored in my shed and have dried out thoroughly over the years making them easy to handle... 4K for shutters??.. :eek:.. 'I don't think so Tim' :barf:... But, then again I am a carpenter by trade so what do I know?! :cool:
 
My uncle used to run the family business (in Florida, not Calgary), which was a window/door/siding kind of operation. He sold corrugated Lexan panels for window covers. The "dips" were ... I guess about 2 inches wide and deep in a trapezoidal pattern, and I think they mounted with wingnuts. I'm sure they were more expensive than plywood, BUT they have the advantage of letting light in, and since there are those grooves, you can open your windows behind them and let some fresh air in when your power goes off. I remember that during Erin and Opal the worst part was the heat afterwards.

$.02
 
I live on the FL Gulf coast, in an area that was visited by three storms last year. After one of them, the one that hit our area the hardest, I was out driving around the following day.

I happened to drive through an industrial area, and past a company that specializes in making the aluminum version of these shutters, downspouts, and so on. They have two huge plate glass windows on the front of their building, where the offices are.

Those windows were protected by, you guessed it, heavy cut-to-fit sheets of plywood. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me, because the shot would have been priceless.
 
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