How do you think this works?

[LuvOrlando]

Saw this as an ad in Nextdoor, have absolutely no idea what the seatbelt like straps are gonna do, any ideas?


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[Genie+]

Keep your house from flying away al a Wizard of Oz fashion?

 

[AppleDumpling]

Hold the roof on in a hurricane?

 

[kanerf]

Remove lots of money from your wallet?

 

[fla4fun]

I have heard of needing tie downs for manufactured homes, but didn’t know they looked like that. I was under the assumption the tie downs were permanent and largely invisible if you didn’t know to look for them. They should have some force behind them as well. You couldn’t use the garage on that house without undoing the straps, and undoing them might be dangerous.

 

[sam_gordon]

I have heard of needing tie downs for manufactured homes, but didn’t know they looked like that. I was under the assumption the tie downs were permanent and largely invisible if you didn’t know to look for them. They should have some force behind them as well. You couldn’t use the garage on that house without undoing the straps, and undoing them might be dangerous.

I'm assuming they're put on shortly before a hurricane arrives (like boarding up windows). Further assuming these would be used on houses that don't have "hurricane ties" https://www.iko.com/blog/what-are-hurricane-ties-and-how-do-you-install-them/ on the house structure already.

 

[LuvOrlando]

So this might be a way to tie down the house itself so it doesn't blow off the grass????? That is placing an awful lot of faith in those ties.

 

[sam_gordon]

So this might be a way to tie down the house itself so it doesn't blow off the grass????? That is placing an awful lot of faith in those ties.

The ROOF.

 

[LuvOrlando]

My roof is made of shingles, when Sandy hit we lost hundreds of shingles, can an entire roof just lift off from a house like the top of a can of tuna?

 

[Clifton Tesh]

My roof is made of shingles, when Sandy hit we lost hundreds of shingles, can an entire roof just lift off from a house like the top of a can of tuna?

Yes, yes it can.

 

[Clifton Tesh]

Houses are not securely attached to the gound or it's foundation.

The frame of a house is attached to the foundation with anchors. (This is just one example of the anchors, it won't let me post pictures of other types for some reason)

These anchors can easily be ripped out by the wind forces that hurricanes and tornados create.

A system like this is not going to help if your house is directly hit by the storm but it will help it withstand damages caused by the high winds the storm creates

 

[_19disnA]

In parts of the country subject to hurricane force winds, construction standards for newly built homes includes a type of 'tie-down' that provides additional roof support. It is built into the rafters and you can only see it from inside the roof. Those strap-like devices shown in that picture by the OP are probably fairly useless and likely would fail either where they are attached to the house or the concrete driveway. My guess is these aren't sufficiently strong to accomplish that task. They are too far apart and seem to only have minimal strength where attached. I suspect the fabric would tear and/or the attaching points fail in hurricane force winds. Right idea but insufficient engineering went into their design.

Found some pictures here...............local building codes are designed around the maximum forces expected in that area.

 

[Clifton Tesh]

In parts of the country subject to hurricane force winds, construction standards for newly built homes includes a type of 'tie-down' that provides additional roof support. It is built into the rafters and you can only see it from inside the roof. Those strap-like devices shown in that picture by the OP are probably fairly useless and likely would fail either where they are attached to the house or the concrete driveway.

They system in the picture looks like the system that they use on modular homes. If you want to strap down the roof on a regular home, you've got to do it right...

 

[LuvOrlando]

They system in the picture looks like the system that they use on modular homes. If you want to strap down the roof on a regular home, you've got to do it right...View attachment 884909

Whoa, people don't try to ride out a storm in a building that needs to be protected like this I hope.

 

[_19disnA]

While something is better than nothing, those piles of loose sand in the lawn make it appear some sort of temporary anchors were screwed into the ground. I doubt those will withstand any significant amount of wind. Hurricane force winds generate a HUGE amount of energy.

 

[Clifton Tesh]

Whoa, people don't try to ride out a storm in a building that needs to be protected like this I hope.

The buildings don't need to be protected like that, necessarily.

Fear sells these systems. As @_19disnA has stated, houses that are built in hurricane/tornado prone areas use "strong ties" (also known as hurricane ties) to help them withstand the winds.

Now, if a house was built before the 1960's, it may not have strong ties but I do know a lot of those houses were required to be retrofit.

 

[NannyBeBe]

My husband asked his doctor her opinion about the Balance of Nature vitamins. Her answer: Someone is making a lot of money.
I feel the same about these products.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I also live in a very hurricane-prone area (Gulf of M...er-America?). Haven't seen those yet, and can't imagine how they'd help.