![]() ![]() And every time there is a tornado in a non-tornado zone such as happened in southern Ontario last week, the houses are deconstructed leaving piles of studs and shredded plywood. The principles appear to apply only to ground floors the house itself is conventional construction where walls are meant to protect, not flee.īecause of our northern climate, all our woodframe houses sit on basements that act like concrete boats: they resist frost heaving but in a flood fill up with water immediately. Breakaway walls are bylaws in many areas, and there is a FEMA manual that outlines specifications. The house is instantly piloteed, water and wind rush right under it. ![]() This structural detachment of structure and skin is very helpful in extreme weather: in hurricane-prone coastlines houses have breakaway walls which are ground level enclosed areas for parking or storage, where the enclosing walls will actually break away from the structure when hit by high winds and water. Had it broken-away as designed, there likely wouldn’t have been any damage to the livable area of this building.Damage from Hurrican Ivan, 2004, in the southeastern USA where breakaway walls are necessary and mandated. A large obstruction can be seen behind the wall, preventing it from breaking-away. The window was smashed and flood waters rushed inside. When this wall failed to break-away, the wave action was deflected upwards. If designed properly, the following photograph shows how a ground floor enclosure with breakaway walls would/should look after a ravaging storm. Wooden lattice will break more readily when struck by floating debris. It won’t break, and will collect a large amount of debris causing the wave action force to be transmitted to the entire building.
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