A survey of the damage from the tornado that touched down in Ontario has revealed that small changes in building practices could have reduced claims from the storm.
“Canadian homes are well built, but roofs continue to be vulnerable to strong wind,” says Greg Kopp, leader of the forensic research team with Western University engineering's Storm Damage Assessment Team. “With small changes in building practices we can substantially reduce the risk that an EF2 tornado destroys a new home in Canada.”
Kopp and his team – supported by the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) – was on the ground to work with Environment Canada to assess the tornado damage.
The storm damage assessment, completed hours after the storm passed, found that inexpensive measures could have been done to substantially lessen the damage from the June 17 tornado.
Broker Peter DaSilva’s home was only two kilometres away from the tornado’s path, and he is very familiar with the destructive power of a tornado, and the need for better construction standards and quality.
“I remember when a tornado went through Woodbridge years ago, and it was discovered that there was a roof that was being held by a single nail,” DaSilva told Insurance Business, who is the president and CEO of Cornerstone Insurance Brokers. “Theoretically they have to put in four nails, long nails, in each corner. This is continuing issue. Construction guys need to take more care, or we need to have a better standard.”
But the problem for inspectors checking existing construction is difficult, says Da Silva, using his own home as an example. (continued.)
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“I know in my house there is about 17 inches of insulation in the attic. You can’t see anything in the corner,” he says. “Are you going to crawl across all that stuff and look in the corner to see if the nails are set in properly? It’s not going to happen.”
The team tracked the path of the storm, and documented the damage to about 100 homes, 10 of which had complete roof failures, according to ICLR.
“Along with doing what the building code requires, we need to invest just a few hundred dollars extra in each home to avoid the kind of structural damage we saw in Angus,” says Kopp. “These changes would add much less than 1 per cent to the cost of a new home.”
Some of these preventative measures that brokers could suggest to clients include use of hurricane straps, metal bands that wrap around trusses and connect to walls.
“These costs, perhaps, a dollar apiece and can largely eliminate the risk of roof failures from an EF2 tornado,” Kopp points out.
Other considerations include using longer nails in roof sheathing, like 2.5 inch, rather than the code minimum 2 inch nails, placed every 6 inches apart rather than every 12 inches.
