Travis Johnson
Member
- Messages
- 2,369
As a lot of people know, I live on a pretty big hill with a wide open exposure to the North. When the wind blows just right...which is most of the time...my house takes a ferocious beating. Last night we got another snowstorm, but with a dozen other warnings from the National Weather Service such as "Winter Storm Warning", "Gale Storm Warning", "Coastal Flood Warning"; a "High Wind Warning" came with it.
Now heights, blizzards, hurricanes and complex machining operations don't scare me much, but snakes and wind storms do for some reason. Since I've covered snakes many times on here, today I'll just stick to wind storms. I don't like them, nor will I. The worst part of it is, my new house arrangement.
Before my house had the gable ends facing the prevailing wind. Sure I could hear empty boxes blowing across the attic during high winds, and hear the whistle of wind blowing over the trusses too, but that was it. The house would creak and buffet some, but it was no big deal. Well with my new addition jutting off the old part of the house at a 90º angle, the side of the house gets slammed with wind. There is nothing in the way for miles, so it gets really hit hard. Not to mention a 8 foot by 40 foot straight wall makes a pretty big sail forthe wind to "catch" on!
Today we got 50 knot winds gusting against it, and this morning you could feel the house take the brunt. The toothpicks they called trusses are firmly secured to the outside walls, and then the inside walls are nailed to the bottom cord of the truss. Since my headboard lays up against the inside wall. You could feel the walls move with every wind gust. You could hear the wind rattling the wiring that is overhead in the attic, and whistling as it rushed through the tiny holes of the vent along the soffits. It was enough to wake me up at 2 AM and not let me get back to sleep. Its funny how being in a nice cozy bed you can think of all kinds of nasty things like the roof blowing off, Alyson tumbling into the next county, and how you really meant to get insurance on the new addition.
Yep, mother nature is certainly testing my nails of my new addition today. I got the day off soI might just call up my insurance company and add some insurance to the new addition. Funny how the wind makes you think of these things!
Now heights, blizzards, hurricanes and complex machining operations don't scare me much, but snakes and wind storms do for some reason. Since I've covered snakes many times on here, today I'll just stick to wind storms. I don't like them, nor will I. The worst part of it is, my new house arrangement.
Before my house had the gable ends facing the prevailing wind. Sure I could hear empty boxes blowing across the attic during high winds, and hear the whistle of wind blowing over the trusses too, but that was it. The house would creak and buffet some, but it was no big deal. Well with my new addition jutting off the old part of the house at a 90º angle, the side of the house gets slammed with wind. There is nothing in the way for miles, so it gets really hit hard. Not to mention a 8 foot by 40 foot straight wall makes a pretty big sail forthe wind to "catch" on!
Today we got 50 knot winds gusting against it, and this morning you could feel the house take the brunt. The toothpicks they called trusses are firmly secured to the outside walls, and then the inside walls are nailed to the bottom cord of the truss. Since my headboard lays up against the inside wall. You could feel the walls move with every wind gust. You could hear the wind rattling the wiring that is overhead in the attic, and whistling as it rushed through the tiny holes of the vent along the soffits. It was enough to wake me up at 2 AM and not let me get back to sleep. Its funny how being in a nice cozy bed you can think of all kinds of nasty things like the roof blowing off, Alyson tumbling into the next county, and how you really meant to get insurance on the new addition.
Yep, mother nature is certainly testing my nails of my new addition today. I got the day off soI might just call up my insurance company and add some insurance to the new addition. Funny how the wind makes you think of these things!
Last edited: