On Sat, 03 Nov 2012 10:20:22 -0400, Jim Elbrecht
wrote:

On Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:31:35 -0700, Oren wrote:

On Fri, 2 Nov 2012 17:15:19 -0700 (PDT), Red
wrote:

When Andrew hit Homestead, FL back in '92 many of the least damaged
homes were those built by Habitat for Humanity. They found out that
the volunteers, not knowing what they were doing, drove a lot more
nails in each joint than a normal contractor would use. Unintentional
hurricane proofing.

Are you sure?! I lived in Dade County (Homestead/Redlands/Kendall)
before Andrew. I had already moved north in '86. I just don't recall
habitat homes in the areas. The better homes in Homestead were built
in the '50s or '60s.

http://www.miamihabitat.org/miami-habitat-history

Begun in '89- Andrew was '92.

They don't say it was accidental that their homes survived;
"In 1992, Hurricane Andrew, a massive category-5 hurricane, roared
through South Florida, becoming the costliest disaster in US history
to date. The 165mph winds proved to be no match for the 27 well-built
Habitat homes in South Dade at the time: none sustained any structural
damage."

This page quotes them as saying;
http://activerain.com/blogsview/2133...ter-than-many-
"Habitat attributes the sturdiness of their homes to the
organization's practice of going beyond the stated building code by
using extra studs and braces, plywood instead of weaker substitutes,
and hand-driven nails instead of staples in their construction.
Accordingly, one of the changes in the new building code since the
hurricane was to require nails in all new construction."

Jim

Thanks. I see only 66 habitat home have been built in Homestead. One
in Florida City.

http://www.miamihabitat.org/where-we-build

Liberty City, er, uh, um (Pork-N-Beans) had 289.