Read more: Local, Disaster, Resitant, Homes, The Institute for Business and Home Safety, Hurricane
The Institute for Business and Home Safety broke ground Wednesday in Chester County on a lab for testing building materials. The lab will work on items like windows, doors and walls, to make them resistant to natural disasters, including hurricanes and wildfires.
While the new facility will lead to better homes in the future, many disaster resistant homes already exist in Horry County. They're built to standards above and beyond the typical home.
We haven't been threatened so far this hurricane season, but if a storm were to come up off the coast, some homes would be better able to resist the wind and water.
They're called fortified homes and emergency management officials would like to see more of them on the Grand Strand.
What makes a home fortified isn't always visible. But from a sturdier garage door to thicker walls to heavier windows, the home we visited will withstand much higher winds and seismic activity than a typical home.
"The walls and the windows and doors are built to withstand the wind so that they don't break out and allow the water in, because when they allow the water in that's when you get so much damage," said Berkley White, Classic Home Building.
White says the home can resist winds up to 150 miles per hour. He says building a home to fortified standards costs about 7 to 10 percent more than other homes, but the homeowner can save up to 75 percent on insurance costs per year.
White's company has built more than 40 of these homes on the Grand Strand, and he thinks the demand for fortified homes is growing.
"Now you're seeing the insurance companies and the consumers starting to drive that and therefore the contractors are having to research it more."
Emergency planners say would like to see more disaster resistant homes.
They say many people believe fortified homes only offer better protection against hurricanes, but that's not the case.
"It does all types of things. We've had tornadoes here, we've had wildfires, we have straight lines winds that happen quite often and it also makes your home worth more value, it's a selling point," said Alicia Bastian, Horry County Emergency Planner.
Bastian is excited about having this new testing facility in South Carolina.
She says it's a great opportunity to see which building products work best in protecting homes.
