Page 20 - Hawaii Renovation - Sep 9, 2018

BACK PAGE STORY | HPS CONSTRUCTION SERVICES
Experts worry: Hurricane season heading into new El Nino
TBy Gerry Peters
raditional National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration
(NOAA) El Nino advisories are focused on the equator zone, but there’s a new quasi- Northern El Nino,with warm- er-than-usual water stretching from Mexico to the Islands.
But waiting until the storm is two days away to think about protecting your house, lanai, carport or garage door is not going to work.And then there are other things, like getting your bottled water and filling your tanks, all the way to mak- ing arrangements for your pet to be taken to one of the new pet-friendly shelters.These are all factors to considerably be worried about.
Reduce the worry with HPS Construction Services, the pioneer of retrofit hurri- cane protection, which is now in its 25th year of protecting everything on your house that needs strengthening, right up to your whole house exterior.
HPS Construction presents a warranty, and, best of all they
one-day, $1,300-$1,700 in- stallation of 100-130 code rated hurricane connectors (pictured above left) — aka hurricane clips — that con- nect your roof rafters to your walls, even single walls.
Check out HPS Construction’s website’s hurricane protection page, hpsconstructionservices. com. The connectors are the same strength as current codes, weatherized with up to a 20-year anti-corrosion
are painted to blend right in with the house exterior — and ever ything is done on the exterior, meaning there’s no need to disturb your family while the work is being completed.
If you’ve gotten solar PV installed, then think about this: The solar panels are attached to the roof, but without hurricane clips (houses built before 1991), the roof structure holding the panels is not connected prop- erly to the wall’s top frame(s).
The pioneer of retrofit hurricane protection, HPS Construction Services celebrates 25 years of reducing home- owners’ worries by reinforcing their dwellings.
If you’ve had a remodel in the last few years,and invested in providing improved com- for t, utility and function, then don’t be blind to the reality that it only takes one storm, even a tropical storm, to lift part or all of your roof off the walls—say,“sayonara”(bye- bye) new interior!
Gerry Peters, left, president of HPS Construction Services, co-hosts a weekly home improvement radio show with Mike Buck.
It is probably $12,000 to is most important, of course.
$13,000 deductible plus loss of use. Read the hurricane rider fine print of your policy. But sit down first!
The HPS retrofit will pro- vide what the state insurance division, engineers and hurri- cane insurers have approved after a $630,000 two-year study for which I was an active participantandadvocateat the Legislature in 2001-2002.
Almost every hurricane insurer offers about 22 per- cent yearly credit toward your hurricane premium; we provide the letter of cer tifica- tion. However, sad to tell you that despite offering credits in many other south and south- east coastal states, State Farm does not offer the credits in Hawaii,preferringtohaveyou folks with post-1991 houses underwrite the cost of the olderhousestheyinsure.Sadly, too, is the fact that Hawaii is “out to lunch” on mandating insurer incentives being made available; 14 other state leg- islatures ignore the insurance lobby and have taken action to make insurers put more skin in the game.
But wait, hold on for this
news surprise about “our
friends,” the hurricane insur-
ers. As you might know (but
probably not), the real prob-
lem — which will emerge after
the next storm — is that few
people realize that the star ting
level of the size of the hur-
ricane losses deductible pay-
ment, to be made by home-
owners prior to the insurers
claims, is incredibly larger than
for the non-hurricane losses. money. Your peace of mind struction Services.
So I applaud your smar t decision to consider making this relatively small invest- ment to help strengthen the most vulnerable parts of your house, and help do something to tr y to prevent not only the major dislocation a storm causes, but lessen your chances of a huge out- of-pocket deductible outlay from your checkbook before you get one dollar of claim
Gerry Peters is president and general manager of HPS Con-
HPS CONSTRUCTION SERVICES
CONTACT 847-4400 WEB hpsconstructionservices.com • hurricaneprotect.com
20 • SEPTEMBER 9, 2018
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