Hi!
A few of you probably remember me... the guy planning to build an all-concrete house in Miami. Well, I decided a little while ago that the time just wasn't right to build my house and decided to just hold on to the lot for a few more years, and take advantage of the huge bargains available in the local real estate market in the meantime.
Well, as luck would have it, I accidentally ended up buying a townhome in Pembroke Pines that's literally a concrete vault -- walls, roof, AND suspended slab between the first and second floor. It's funny, because the whole time I was looking at it, I kept thinking, "it's a damn shame they didn't just build the whole thing out of concrete," and already had plans in the back of my mind to rebuild it after the next major hurricane using SpeedFloor for the new roof. I just took for granted that the second floor was probably wood-framed, because it overhung the first floor by ~3 feet at the front and rear. When I realized how narrow the floor plate was between the first & second floor, I was pissed because I assumed the builder used 2x12 lumber and didn't even bother with a truss (ergo, no openings I could use to run wires from front to back). I was even angrier about the roof (thinking it too was lumber-framed), because it was the same story -- no access, not even a hatch into it for termite inspection.
Anyway, the home inspection was interesting. The roof inspector kept scratching his head in disbelief. He said my roof was more than 10 years old, and didn't appear to have had any repair work done to it since Hurricane Wilma. Keep in mind that Pembroke Pines and southwest Broward was "Ground Zero" for hurricane Wilma, and nearly every house within 5 miles has a visibly new roof. According to him, my roof has a few minor blisters and some missing flashing, with a total estimated repair bill of about $600-800. After a direct pass through the eyewall of a strong category 3/weak category 4 hurricane. He was STILL scratching his head when he left, and told the realtor he'd never seen anything like it.
Apparently, he didn't bother to look at the roof of my "twin" neighbor TWO units away, because he would have found almost the exact same scenario -- old pre-Wilma roof, no real damage to speak of. See, each block has 5 units. Mine is the second from the end, and has a twin that's second from the OTHER end. Our units are 2 stories outright and have flat roofs. The units in between have 2 story fronts, but sloping (wood-framed) roofs at the rear. It turns out, ALL the flat roofs (including the front part of the neighboring units) are concrete... only the sloping rears of the neighboring units were wood. And like wood roofs tend to do in major hurricanes, suffered major damage.
Mystery solved. In the inspector's defense, he didn't have a copy of the blueprints (I just got 'em
yesterday, when I made my happy discovery), and wasn't really able TO
see what was under the roofing. Let me tell you, I think everyone within a mile of Pembroke Pines City Hall heard the squeal of glee when I saw the phrase "built-up gravel surface roof w/insulation over concrete roof slab" above the diagram of MY UNIT ;)
I was a "believer" in concrete roofs before (just dig up my old postings), but I've now been elevated to the position of someone who's had a direct metaphorical conversation with God, and saw firsthand the difference a concrete roof can make in a major disaster. Just to repeat, I have a concrete roof with built-up gravel on top that's apparently had no major or significant work done to it in over a decade, never leaked (as far as I can tell), was hit straight-on by a major hurricane that massively damaged neighboring structures, and walked away from it with barely a scratch. For comparison, look at the satellite view in
Google Maps A screen capture of the area is attached at the end of this post. Notice the sea of blue roofs to the north and east? It wasn't just because the storm missed the area to the south (pan south with Google Maps to see for yourself). It's because the "blue" area is a later phase of the development, where the builder switched from flat concrete roofs to gabled wood roofs... as you can see, nearly every single one of them did badly. I'm not entirely sure, but I think most of the units in the newer phase were actually built AFTER Andrew. Oh, the irony. ;-)
Anyway, on to my main question. I'm going to buy insurance this afternoon (I'm closing next week), and I remember reading somewhere that Florida requires that insurers give a substantial, mandatory discount to customers with homes that are concrete (roof and all), but might also impose other requirements to collect the discount (probably shutters, possibly door-related, etc). Does anybody know how much the discount is, what it's officially called (since the agent will probably either play dumb, or has never actually encountered anyone who might qualify for it), and what the official requirements that need to be met to receive it are?
(note, in the pic below, my unit is next to the tennis courts, just slightly northeast of the arrow. Just by looking at the roofs, you can tell which ones had wood rear roofs and where the developer changed designs for later models)