It could happen here

Although Hurricane Andrew exposed the vulnerability of gable roofs, many homes outside South Florida still don't meet wind-load standards.

By COLLINS CONNER

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 27, 1999

If you live in a new home with a gable roof, especially if it has a vaulted ceiling, you have an extra reason to dread hurricane season: That grand gable may fail at wind speeds significantly lower than it should

A five-month investigation by the Times shows that in house after house, from subdivision models to custom-built homes, gable wall designs fail to meet the Standard Building Code.

The error is so common that it likely exists in tens of thousands of homes statewide. Fixing them all would cost $1-billion.

The problem isn't new.

Since the 1960s, every major storm has demonstrated that gables can be weaklings in the wind.

A federal damage assessment found that "homes with gable roofs suffered significantly higher levels of damage'' than other homes in Hurricane Andrew -- the 1992 storm that was supposed to be the state's wake-up call.

For Dade and Broward counties, it was. They fixed the flawed design when they toughened the South Florida Building Code after Andrew.

Outside South Florida, contractors were given two options: either follow a state-adopted manual on how to construct a wind-resistant house or get an engineer or architect to certify their plans meet code.

That was another big problem in Andrew: Thousands of houses weren't built or designed to code, which increased the storm's losses by 40 percent.

Using the manual or having plans certified was supposed to ensure the gable flaw was fixed and that the house met code.

But in the vast majority of cases, that didn't happen, the Times investigation shows.

Few builders used the how-to manual. Most often, they hired engineers or architects to sign off on their plans. Yet the gable problem did not get fixed. And local building departments, the last safety net to ensure homes are soundly constructed, didn't catch the flaws either.

Based on its own review of the Times research, the Florida Board of Professional Engineers, which licenses and disciplines engineers for the state, last week sent a warning about the gable problem to the state's 25,000 engineers and 900 building code administrators.

"This problem has huge ramifications for the safety of Florida homeowners,'' said Dennis Barton, executive director of the FBPE.

Among those homeowners are Susan and Peter Kludt, who saved for seven years to build an $85,000 home on their land in rural Hillsborough County. A study commissioned by the Times showed their house doesn't meet code.

"We're paying professionals to do this for us, from the engineer who drew up the plans to the (county) inspector,'' Mrs. Kludt said. "I just don't know what to do now.''

There's not a good solution to her dilemma. Repairing the homes would be difficult and expensive.

But it could be more costly to leave them as they are, especially in an area like Tampa, which hasn't had a direct hit by even a Category 1 storm in more than half a century.

"Great disasters don't occur where hurricanes are most frequent,'' said Joseph E. Minor of Texas, an internationally recognized wind-engineering expert. "If someplace gets hurricanes often enough, the building quality is quite good.

"Where the vulnerable cities are and where the great disasters occur is where storms are less frequent.

"And Tampa, in my view, is a place where we could have a great disaster."

Weakened walls

The long, lonely fight Insurance companies will still pay Repairs can cost thousands What you can do about your own house The experts How the Times study was done Letter from Lennar Homes Summary of engineer, builder responses

Two days after Hurricane Andrew smashed Dade County, Peter Billing made his way through the debris, cataloging the damage to help the National Association of Home Builders Research Center figure out what kind of homes survived Andrew's awful winds.

Clearly, not homes with gable roofs.

Under Andrew's force, gables collapsed inward, toppling roof trusses like dominos, or they flopped out, dangling upside down by their hurricane straps. Thousands of gable roofs were severely damaged.

"The first thing I said when I went down,'' Billing recalled, "was, 'Why would anyone ever build a house with a gable roof?' "

Why? Because they're attractive. They also are less expensive because they use fewer trusses and less roofing material than hip roofs, Florida's other popular roof style.

A hip roof covers the house like a hat. Gable roofs have two sides, connected by a tall wall that is peaked like the letter "A.''

Gable walls are typically built in two sections, the bottom rectangle constructed of masonry and the upper triangle made of wood. That two-part construction presents the engineering challenge.

Metal straps join the two parts so high winds won't lift the wood off the concrete. But when winds push or pull against the wall, the straps act like a hinge.

Imagine a hinged wall laid horizontally, as though it were a floor with a basement below it. Now imagine a car driving on top of it. How could the straps possibly hold the wall under such pressure?

Windload experts say that kind of force bears against a wall in a hurricane.

After Andrew, builders were given two ways to address the problem. They could follow the how-to manual's specific construction techniques. Or they could hire an architect or engineer to design a bracing system to transfer the force of the wind from the wall to the foundation and to fortify the gable wall against hurricane-force winds.

To see if the problem had been solved, the Times commissioned professional engineer Nick Bradford of Tampa to study 31 sets of blueprints for gable-roofed homes that had been built since 1992 in nine coastal counties.

Four met code. Two of those were built in South Florida under its tougher, all-masonry-wall standard; the third had a small, well-reinforced gable end. The fourth was specifically designed by engineer J.C. Russello to overcome the gable wall's inherent weakness.

As a further check, other engineers examined the remaining 27 house plans. The gable wall on one of those did in fact meet code.

And the other 26? The faulty gable-wall design showed up in each, from one-of-a-kind homes built by local contractors to tract homes reproduced repeatedly by three of the biggest builders in the state.

It showed up in U.S. Home's Victoria II house plans used throughout the company's new Heritage Pines development in Pasco County.

It showed up in three Pulte Home Corp. designs used hundreds of times in Pasco, Brevard and Duval counties.

It showed up in homes being built in the Ryland Group's new Wellington Community in Hernando County.

It showed up in custom homes in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

The Standard Building Code is the rule book that spells out minimum building standards for contractors. Used in all Florida counties except Miami-Dade and Broward, the code says most homes must be designed to withstand 100-mph winds. Along the coast, the design capacity is 110 mph. At the state's northeast tip, it's 90 mph.

The code's 100-mph requirement is based on a worst-case scenario -- as though the wind is blowing directly on a home, unobstructed by trees, cars and other homes. So, in actuality, a home designed to the 100-mph requirement will withstand much higher winds.

But the Times analysis showed homes with design capacities in the 50-, 60- and 70-mph range.

That doesn't mean walls will collapse in winds of those speeds. It does mean, though, they could fail in much lower winds than if they had been designed to code. In those lower winds, the wall's masonry section could develop cracks, greatly weakening it, and the A-shaped top section could pop out.

Once that happens, wind and water can get inside and destroy a house.

Gable walls aren't the only worry, according to Charles Everly, a Sarasota expert. New homes outside of South Florida often lack strong windows and doors, he said.

All of these potential problems likely exist in homes built before Andrew, but the Times study includes only homes built after the storm.

Industry reaction

Bradford's analysis was reviewed by eight wind-load experts and engineers, including James Owen Power, the consultant for the Florida Board of Professional Engineers.

Several said they would have used slightly different formulas, which might have altered the design capacity by a few miles per hour. All eight reviewers concurred with Bradford's conclusions. Although later, one reviewer agreed with Lennar that one set of its house plans met code.

The Florida Engineering Society, the trade association for engineers, criticized the study's "simplistic approach." And the Florida Home Builders Association said the research reached a "pre-determined conclusion."

Many engineers, architects and builders whose home designs were found deficient in the analysis vigorously disputed the findings.

But when the Times asked them to provide the mathematical calculations showing their designs met the Standard Building Code's requirements, all but two declined.

Those two provided calculations for six homes; all of the homes failed to meet code, according to the experts who reviewed the plans and calculations. However, Lennar Homes countered with an expert's opinion that one set of its plans did meet code.

Several builders said they added bracing and used construction techniques not shown on the plans. But Barton, the Engineering Board director, said builders are required to follow the blueprint; it's the official record of the construction.

When an architect or engineer seals the blueprint, he or she is certifying that the design meets code. If a builder deviates from the sealed plans, the builder and the county inspectors who approve the undocumented alterations can be disciplined by their licensing boards.

Several builders and engineers said their designs relied on "sound engineering practices." They said the Times analysis did not consider the strength of the entire home, but focused instead on a single wall.

At the request of the Home Builders Association and the Engineering Society, the Times arranged a meeting on June 9 during which Bradford explained his methodology.

"You've got one engineer who says they don't meet code," said engineer Roger L. Jeffery, who represented the engineers' trade association. "You're allowed different ways of analyzing" the strength of a wall.

But, according to Barton, "There is a right answer. It's like an umpire's call. Our guy (Power, the Engineering Board's consultant) is the umpire. He called it. And they're out."

If the board's expert says the plans don't meet code, that is grounds to bring the engineer before the licensing board, which can discipline the engineer, Barton said.

Spreading the word

After Andrew, Dade County strengthened the gable by getting rid of the gable wall's hinge. On a concrete-block house constructed in South Florida, builders must extend the masonry wall all the way to the roof (see photo, this page).

That's also a solution given in the step-by-step home-construction manual, called SSTD-10, written by the Southern Building Code Congress International, the association that created the Standard Building Code.

For a gable-roofed house with a flat ceiling, the manual illustrates how to construct a system of bracing and bolting to beef up the wall and create a path to carry the wind to the foundation. If the house has a cathedral or vaulted ceiling, according to the manual, the masonry wall must extend to the roof.

"That information has been out there a long time. Especially after Andrew, people were made aware of gable-end failures," said Eric Stafford of the Building Code Congress. "If they're doing any type of building, they should know about that."

Power, the consultant to the state Engineering Board, said that after Andrew "there was all sorts of information in the general literature about the problems."

"Plywood people, concrete people, truss people, the American Society of Civil Engineering, the University of Miami, all put out information," he said. "And this problem was addressed by most of them."

In 1994, seminars on wind-resistant construction were offered to contractors, engineers, architects and building officials.

Hillsborough architect Pete Alfonso said he knew about the gable wall's recommended design. But when he incorporated the design into plans he drew, a contractor questioned it.

Alfonso said he called a truss manufacturer, who said an all-masonry gable wall wasn't needed.

Then, Alfonso said, "I looked at other plans and basically said, ÔEverybody's doing the same thing.' " He dropped the all-masonry wall design.

Since Andrew, many design professionals have put some kind of gable-end bracing in their house plans. That helps only when the wind is pushing, not pulling on the gable. Still, it's a big improvement over the way homes were designed before Andrew.

But Bradford, Power and other experts said the plans they reviewed in the Times sampling left out crucial connections that help move the wind to the home's foundation.

Power thinks many design professionals outside of South Florida just kept using their old methods with a few modifications.

W.R. Cover, a 64-year-old Lakeland engineer, told the Times he has used the same gable-bracing detail for years. He used it in sealing the plans for a home recently built by Mitch Underwood in Citrus County.

Cover said he read the reports after Andrew. He even attended one of the 1994 seminars.

Still, "I didn't change the way I designed the ends," he said.

Cover said he has been building houses since the 1950s and thinks his time-honored methods are sound. According to the Times study, the Citrus design Cover approved didn't meet code. Cover said he would provide the calculations proving the house met code. He didn't.

Power, the Engineering Board consultant, said houses have changed since the 1950s. They're more elaborate. The ceilings are higher. The gables are wider. In the Times analysis, one stretched 54 feet.

A design that works for a 20-foot gable won't work for a 50-foot gable, Power said.

Designs on the cheap

Builders usually buy a set of house plans from a drafting company, then take the plans to an engineer or architect, whose job is to provide construction details illustrating how to build the home so it will meet code.

The engineer or architect then seals the design, attesting that it meets the Standard Building Code's requirements.

Builders say they rely on that seal.

"We're not engineers here," said Hillsborough builder Kevin Hebert. "We're just building contractors. We build the way they (engineers or architects) design them.

"As long as we build it to the design, that's all we can do."

It's difficult for an engineer to take an existing design and "make it work," according to Peter Sparks, a Clemson University wind-engineering expert. The engineer should be involved in the design from the beginning, Sparks said.

Sparks and some engineers who don't do residential design say builders get what they pay for.

"It's one of these things that happens when you don't have a set fee, when they squeeze the fee down so there's not enough money . . . to do it properly," Sparks said.

It's likely there is little, if any, formal engineering in most houses, according to Minor, the Texas expert.

"Nobody sits down and performs those (wind-load) calculations," Minor said. "They put together a house design using good judgment.

"I've followed this problem since 1970. I have 30 years invested in it. And it has been apparent from the beginning to me that we were misrepresenting what we were doing. . . .

"There's a general recognition that houses are not engineered. . . . But the code and plans would have you believe they're engineered."

Even before Andrew, Dade County required an engineer's or architect's seal on house plans, which obviously didn't produce uniformly safer homes.

The building industry is highly competitive, said Jaime Eisen, an engineer and senior plans examiner for the Miami-Dade building department. "The builder will get the engineer that will give him the cheapest design."

It's not easy to engineer a house. Unlike an office, a house isn't a tall box. It has decorative twists and turns, lots of windows, big glass doors.

The engineering can take eight to 10 hours.

Yet, engineer Frank Cleaton Jr. said that when he worked for Maronda Homes, he okayed scores of blueprints each week.

They were tract houses, he said, so the same basic plan was reproduced numerous times. Cleaton sealed a Maronda plan that failed in the Times study. Cleaton referred further questions to Maronda, which did not respond to two letters from the newspaper.

Cover, the Lakeland engineer, makes the 74-mile trip to Inverness twice a week to seal house plans for four builders. He said he typically seals three sets per trip.

Cover said he charges $75 per seal. That means he would have been paid $450 for a job that has been described by other engineers as 60 hours of work.

It can cost $850 to design just the gable-end walls, according to engineer Carlos Odell of Tampa.

"People don't want to pay $850 for a gable end. They want to pay 300 bucks for the whole thing," Odell said. "Every time I try to put together a proposal to do a design, the builder says, ÔOh, this is way too much money. We can't afford this. We have to go somewhere else.' "

John M. Harrington, one of the engineers who reviewed the Times study, said residential builders squawk at his fee. "I have builders telling me, ÔWhy should I pay you $1,000 to add $2,000 (in wind-resistance features) to the cost of my house,' " Harrington said. "Then they don't hire me."

Jimmy Schilling, an engineer who reviewed 17 sets of plans for the Times, said the big builders are not just trying to reduce engineering fees. They want designs that are the least expensive to build.

"If you can save a buck on every step of the house construction, all the better," Schilling said. "It's a false economy."

The engineers and architects whose designs were found deficient in the Times study say they performed the necessary tasks to properly seal the plans. Not one acknowledged a problem in his design.

The Florida Engineering Society, the trade group for engineers, cautioned the newspaper against causing "unwarranted concern and anxiety to the general public."

What about the safety net?

Engineers, architects and builders stress their plans are approved by county or city building officials.

Local building department workers are tested on their knowledge of the code and certified by the state's Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

So why didn't they catch the problem?

Most building officials contacted by the Times said their workers don't have the expertise to challenge an engineer's or architect's design.

"Neither the plans examiner nor the building inspectors are professional engineers," said Tim Moore, Pasco County's building official. "Our duty is to enforce the building code. But one tool is to rely on a professional who is certified in the practice of his trade. . . . We relied on the information provided to us by the engineer."

When building officials do question a blueprint, they can catch grief, said Eisen, the Miami-Dade plans examiner, who reviewed the Times study.

"It was very difficult to go against the architects and engineers who were presenting those plans," he said. "There was very much pressure from the industry."

The building industry has so much clout in Citrus County, contractors on the construction advisory board came before the County Commission last year to recommend which building department workers should get raises and how much they should get.

In recent months, as the state's building code commission has worked to create a uniform building code, the home-building lobby has fought any effort to toughen the current code or allow the spread of the strict South Florida code to other counties.

For Pinellas County, engineer Ollie Olsen wrote a special construction manual because the one used statewide is considered by many builders to be too hard for anyone but an engineer to understand.

In Pinellas, house plans don't need a design professional's seal if the builder follows Olsen's manual.

But two such plans that were in the Times study were so incomplete, Olsen himself was amazed they got through the county department.

One of the builders, J.M. Hoyt, asked Olsen to examine a house he was constructing. It was not one of the houses in the Times study, but was of similar design, Hoyt said. (The house in the study was already built; it's hard to examine underlying construction once the home is finished.) Olsen determined the similar house was sound, although he recommended that Hoyt add metal straps and nails to the gable bracing to bring the home up to code.

Olsen was strongly critical of the Times analysis and called the gable-end problem a "relatively minor item."

"Hurricane Andrew precipitated a massive Ôknee-jerk' reaction, which caused all of this concern over gable ends," he wrote in a letter to the newspaper. He said the problems in Andrew were created by the lack of roof nailing, not a weakness in gable design.

Todd Feldman of H.E. Feldman & Son, the other Pinellas builder in the Times analysis, said he consulted with Olsen's staff after learning of the newspaper's analysis.

"I realize the drawings that we submitted to the building department weren't very detailed," Feldman said, "But it didn't show on the drawings how things were actually done."

Feldman said he had constructed the home to code.

However, because of what he has learned since the Times questioned his plans, Feldman said, he is changing the gable-wall bracing on a large house he is building.

That house "has a major hinge point," Feldman said. "We're dealing with it different because I know now what I have to do."

In Hillsborough County, builder Ariel Quintela said he thought his designer's plans met code -- after all, they had been okayed by the county.

Yet, in the Times study, the design, which was not stamped by an engineer, fell short. "I think you were correct in what the code was saying," Quintela said. "No one knew about it. The county was accepting standard building plans as they have been accepting them for years and the inspectors were passing it. . . .

"I have to redo my plans."

Hillsborough plans examiner Al DiCola said he and other examiners check plans like Quintela's against plans that have been sealed by an engineer.

"I guess I did miss a few," DiCola said. "I can tell you the next ones will be enforced real well."

He referred other questions to his superiors, but they didn't return three telephone calls from the Times.

What's next

Last month, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation invited Power, the Engineering Board consultant, to describe the gable-end problem to a committee of the Architect, Engineer and the Building Code Administrators licensing boards.

G.W. Harrell, DBPR's chief attorney, said he wants the committee to initiate a study replicating the Times analysis to find out "how prevalent the problem is in Florida" and to come up with some solutions.

Harrell didn't know how long such a study would take.

The Florida Board of Professional Engineers will "systematically go about reviewing" the engineered house plans cited in the Times study, said Barton, the board's director.

If the board finds those homes don't meet code, it could discipline the engineer who sealed the plans with penalties ranging from reprimand to license revocation.

"If a person signs and seals a document, with the statement that, ÔThis design I'm providing meets the code' and it doesn't meet the code, it's pretty well black and white," said Barton.

"I'm a pretty black and white guy. Do you see wiggle room? I don't see wiggle room here."

Ñ Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

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