Reducing Uplift Reduces Roof Damage and Associated Insurance Costs

Background

75% of landfalling hurricanes have maximum sustained wind speed less than 110 mph (CAT 2 or below).  At these wind speeds, there is a low risk of damage to buildings from projectiles.  As such, the overwhelming cause of losses is from roofing damage and ensuing water intrusion. 

Even in major hurricanes (CAT 3 & above), there can still be large areas where maximum winds are below 110 mph.  In the smaller area footprints where wind speeds are higher than 110 mph, roofing uplift is still significantly reduced but damage from projectiles and other structural failures contribute a gradually increasing share of total losses. 

Insurance Costs

Insurance companies rely on Catastrophe modeling as a primary tool to estimate wind losses and develop policy premiums.  Engineering and claims studies from past hurricanes are also used to gain further insight into the primary causes of damage across all wind speeds.  Using flat roofs as an example: over 70% of reported damage starts with roofing failures along roof edges. 

Reducing roof uplift across all winds speeds minimizes the most frequent cause of damage in areas where the most frequent wind speeds occur and still reduces the incidence of roofing damage in regions with damage from other causes as well.  When these factors are incorporated in catastrophe models there can be significant reduction in total estimated wind losses which corresponds with a reduced likelihood of paying insurance deductibles.

In evaluating the impact of AeroEdge^®, RMS (Risk Management Solutions), a market leader of catastrophe loss modeling for insurance companies, estimates that the reduction in estimated wind storm losses in wind prone coastal areas could be between 20% and 40%. 

To learn how you can install AeroEdge^® to mitigate hurricane wind damage or to learn more about potential insurance savings:

e-mail us or call (203) 222-6025.