Underwriters Laboratories, known mostly for testing survivability under extreme stress on equipment used in homes, has branched out to testing for extremes placed on the homes themselves.
Northbrook-based UL’s Building Envelope Performance Test Lab last month began testing windows and other building elements graded to withstand some of the strongest winds and hardest-driving rain driven by hurricanes, tornadoes and other dangerous weather phenomena, company officials said. At a grand opening on May 3, the firm demonstrated some of the equipment it has recently tested.
In one trial, a two-by-four fired from a compressed air gun struck a steel-louvered wall at 36 miles per hour. The wall, designed to protect a generator used for electricity during emergencies, sustained a little dent.
In another test, water was hurled at 65 miles per hour at a shack fronted by a three-ply laminated plastic wall. The window-wall, about three-quarters of an inch thick, held up with nary a visible leak, while television news people tried to describe the moment from inside, despite the din of water pounding on the surface.
Illinois may not yet be a big market for wind-resistant products, as the state, though plagued by tornadoes, remains behind most hurricane-prone states in updating and enforcing building codes to require wind-blown resistant building products, UL engineer Wayne Breighner said.
Preparing for tornadoes, which can be sudden killers, and hurricanes, which can usually be seen coming days before, is different, he said.
“With a tornado, you don’t care if you lose your roof,” he said. “You just want to save your life. With a hurricane, you’re trying to save your assets, and your house.”
Some of the new materials are being used to make tornado “safe rooms” similar to the water-pounded shack in the 63,000 square-foot UL building. Others are being used on buildings in the southeastern United States, and UL is beginning to test their strength against the elements and how they perform in combination with other building materials. Beigner said that as skyscrapers rise, concerns about the weight of protective materials increases, while manufacturers must also keep aesthetics in mind.
Also on hand was former Federal Emergency Management Agency head Robert Paulison, now a UL director. Paulison succeeded the embattled FEMA chief Michael Brown after criticism of Brown’s handling of disaster relief after Hurricane Katrina.
Paulison had said that there are at least two ways to satisfy codes – and concerns – regarding hurricane protection of home windows. One is the heavy steel hurricane shutters that he once used on his own Davie, Fla., home, and the other is the collection of storm-resistant windows he replaced them with – at $28,000.
The windows are expensive, he said, but they let in light, even when a storm has knocked out electricity.
“With the shutters, it’s dark as a tomb” inside, he said.
Twitter: @IrvLeavitt