High-Wind-Resistant Shingles Achieving strength and affordability with top-of-the-line technology

Click here to visit the PATH website.  PDF Click here for a larger view. A licensed builder for nine years, Kristin Beall is third in a line of builders. Her grandfather, Charlie Johnson, founded Charlie Johnson Builder in central Florida in 1958. The company builds 100 homes a year ranging in price from $200,000 to $1,000,000. The PATH project is a model home. "If you're going to be putting high-quality shingles on a home anyway," Beall says, "it just makes sense to use ones that are impact- and wind-resistant." "Buying a home is a lot like buying a car," says Kristin Beall. "You don't want to wait until you have an accident to put your family in a safe car. It's the same way with a home. You want the peace of mind of knowing that your home is going to perform well in a storm." After witnessing the devastation caused by three major hurricanes in central Florida in 2004, Kristin Beall began to investigate ways to build homes that could withstand the effects of high winds and heavy rain for the least amount of money. "It's a lot harder to build a $200,000 home than a $1,000,000 home with all the materials required for storm resistance that go beyond code," says Beall. "I spent six months conducting research to find the best products that I could for the best prices, making sure that they'd be safe and affordable for working families." "Unfortunately, most homeowner insurance plans feature a percent deductible. When you have a house that costs $150,000 or $175,000, you're looking at a $3,000 deductible. A lot of people don't have that kind of money sitting around waiting for a hurricane claim. I'm trying to build homes that aren't badly damaged by storms in the first place." Placement of shingles for maximum wind resistance. Illustration courtesy of PATH Trading up to Safety Beall partnered with the Institute for Building and Home Safety's Fortified — for Safer Living program, which specifies criteria to increase a home's resistance to natural disaster, to create the Storm Safe Homes project. The first homes to be built under the project will be Beall's community in the Oaks at Summer Glen in Eustis, Fla. Each home will be built to exceed local building codes, and each will include high-wind-resistant shingles, which can withstand 130-mile-per-hour winds and resist damage from flying debris and hail. High-end shingles on homes built for affordability? Beall makes it work. She compensates for the cost of the shingles by skipping the fancy extras for the interior. This puts her homes within reach of less affluent buyers while protecting profitability. "My philosophy is that you can add granite countertops and change your lighting fixtures, but you can't rebuild the body of a house," Beall says. "That's why I'm putting money and energy into building a really strong envelope."   1 | 2 | 3  NEXT RELATED ARTICLES: Storm Sellers: Hurricane-Resistant Building Attracts Buyers