:: rawblogXport ::

:: Monday, June 14, 2004 ::

Helping houses resist tornadoes By John Stamper, Lexington Herald-Leader, KY
About $30, for example, would have bought home builder Schneider Designs Inc. enough 50-cent metal fasteners to attach the Mishio house's roof trusses to its load-bearing exterior walls.

Instead, construction workers used nails driven at an angle, a so-called toe-nail connection. Nails are fine under Kentucky's residential building code, but some experts say they're inadequate.

'That's an irresponsible way to build a house,' said Jason Smart, a structural engineer with the Institute for Business and Home Safety, a Tampa-based advocacy group backed by insurance companies. 'Using toe-nail connections is not a valid option.'

Toe nails provide little resistance against the upward sucking pressure of a tornado, he said. As nail after nail pops out, entire roofs become large sails that simply fly away, leaving nothing to protect people huddling below.

In contrast, metal roof-to-wall connectors, commonly called hurricane clips, are fastened with nails driven perpendicular to the truss, making the connection more resistant to uplifting winds.

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