YOUR FAMILY DESERVES A STRONG HOME.

If you're building a new home or replacing your roof, use the FORTIFIED construction method to strengthen your home against severe weather.

Typical construction leaves your home vulnerable

We have spent decades studying the damage caused by hurricanes, tornados, and other severe weather events, and have identified common weaknesses in typically built homes. Then we spent years finding the best solutions by testing them in the only full-scale research center in the world. Now, you can use our science to defend your home, simply by asking your contractor to follow the FORTIFIED construction method.

What is FORTIFIED?

FORTIFIED is a better way to build, re-roof, or retrofit your home to protect against severe weather.

FORTIFIED is a voluntary construction and re-roofing program designed to strengthen homes and commercial buildings against specific types of severe weather such as high winds, hail, hurricanes and even tornadoes.

FORTIFIED Home offers three ways to strengthen and protect your new or existing home.

FORTIFIED'S 3 Tiers of Protection
We offer the Fortified Roof!

Roofing or Re-Roofing

Focuses on strengthening the roof to help keep it attached to your home during high winds and keep water out if roof covering (such as shingles or tiles) get blown off in a storm.

Best for Existing Homes

Builds on the requirements of FORTIFIED Roof to also help protect vulnerable areas such as windows and doors as well as attached structures such as carports.

Best for New Homes

Builds on requirements of FORTIFIED Roof and FORTIFIED Silver to provide the best protection available against severe weather.

Benefits of a FORTIFIED Roof

	ROOF	Silver	Gold
Stronger Edges > X Stronger Edges Roof damage often begins when wind gets underneath the roof edge and begins ripping it away from the home. To help protect this vulnerable area, FORTIFIED requires specific materials and installation methods including a wider drip edge and a fully adhered starter strip that when used together create a stronger system.
Sealed Roof Deck > X Sealed Roof Deck If wind rips off your roof coveringsuch as shingles, metal panels or tilesthis exposes the wood beneath and allows water to pass through the gaps and enter your home. FORTIFIED requires roofs to be sealed to prevent this type of water damage.
Better Attachment > X Better Attachment Instead of common smooth nails, FORTIFIED requires ring-shank nails installed in an enhanced pattern to help keep the roof deck attached to your home in high winds. In fact, using ring-shank nails nearly doubles the strength of your roof against the forces of winds.
Impact Resistant Shingles > X Impact Resistant Shingles FORTIFIED requires shingles tested by IBHS to best withstand hail up to 2 inches in diameter. When used together, these small but important details make a huge impact on the strength of your roof and better protect your home against severe weather.
Pressure Rated Garage Doors > X Pressure Rated Garage Doors Keeping winds and pressure from entering your home is critical for its survival in a storm. Both can easily come through a failed garage door, and once this happens, its common to see blown-out walls and collapsed roofs. FORTIFIED prevents this scenario by requiring garage doors rated to withstand high pressures.
Impact Protection For Windows and Doors > X Impact Protection For Windows and Doors Tests conclusively show plywood over the windows is not sufficient to defend your home from storm pressures or from debris tossed by hurricane winds. To keep winds from entering your home and potentially causing catastrophic damage, FORTIFIED requires window and door protection that is tested to protect against pressure and impact.
Additional Bracing at Gable Ends > X Additional Bracing at Gable Ends Post-disaster studies show that typical construction plans often leave the large areas of a gable with little to no support. By requiring additional bracing, FORTIFIED stops high winds from collapsing this section of a home.
Properly Secured Attached Structures and Porches > X Properly Secured Attached Structures and Porches High winds can flow under the roof of a carport or porch, and if the structure is not properly anchored, it can not only lift up like a kiteit can take part of your house with it. FORTIFIED requires strong anchors and proper connection to your home to prevent this type of damage.
Well Anchored Chimneys > X Well Anchored Chimneys Typical construction often ignores the way a decorative chimney is attached to a house. Unfortunately, high winds often tear these features from the home, leaving a hole in the roof and allowing rain to easily enter, which typically leads to significant interior damage. FORTIFIED requires proper attachments to prevent this damage.
Stronger Wall Sheathing > X Stronger Wall Sheathing No matter what direction the wind is coming from, your walls will take the brunt of it. If they fail, wind and rain will ravage your home. This is why FORTIFIED requires exterior walls to be thick enough and attached with strong enough nails to withstand winds up to 130 mph.
Continuous Load Path > X Continuous Load Path In most areas of the country, typical construction relies on gravityand the weight of your hometo keep it in one piece when high winds threaten. Sadly, storm after storm, we see proof that this is not enough. FORTIFIED requires an engineered continuous load path. This is a specific plan that specifies how your roof should be fixed to your walls, and how your walls should be anchored to your foundation. Creating a singular, solid structure is the key to FORTIFIEDs system for maximum protection.

Be sure your family is prepared for the next storm.

Peace of Mind Backed By Research

To understand how severe weather damages homes, IBHS conducts extensive field research of real homes after real storms to identify areas of the home that are vulnerable. The results from decades of this work were used to create the FORTIFIED program and are incorporated into every requirement of the FORTIFIED standards.

Using this data, IBHS tests different methods for reducing damage in a research facility in South Carolina. There, they subject full-size homes to realistic storm conditions including wind-driven rain, hail, and winds up to 130 mph.

The results from decades of this work were used to create the FORTIFIED program and are incorporated into every requirement of the FORTIFIED standards.