Make a Vacation Rental’s Roof Hurricane-Resistant to Protect Income

Erin Shields
1/7/2025

Whether you’re a single-property host or property manager, the one-two punch of rising insurance premiums and more severe weather can knock out income. According to S&P Global, insurance premiums rose in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2024 by 13% versus a year ago, partly due to severe storms.

“Taking a proactive approach to roof maintenance is no longer optional; it’s essential for maintaining insurability,” says Diane Delaney, executive director of the Private Risk Management Association (PRMA), a nonprofit provider of education to agents, brokers, and carriers serving high-net-worth insurance consumers.

In the last two decades, NOAA says 10 Category 3 hurricanes hit Florida; those 10 CAT-3 storms tallied 36% of all CAT 3 hurricanes to strike the state since 1851. Hurricanes often grab headlines. But the National Weather Service also notes a rise in tornadoes. For example, since 1950, the annual cumulative average of tornadoes in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle climbed from four to nearly 17.    

Experts at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) say roof-related damage from severe weather events can cause up to 90% of the insured property damage. The damage often requires weeks if not months of cleaning or reconstruction. That, in turn, takes a vacation rental property off the market.

“Investing in Class 4 hail-resistant roofs can reduce storm damage risks, potentially lower premiums, and lead to smoother claims handling in the future,” Delaney says.

The IBHS created the Fortified Roof standard in 2010 to make properties more resistant to wind damage. As of 2024, says IBHS, there are more than 50,000 Fortified properties in 26 U.S. states. Retrofitting a vacation rental property, specifically its roof, to a level beyond typical building codes has proven to pay dividends.

“In our industry, property owners are priority one, so anything that protects their asset—like retrofitting to beyond the building code—protects the ability to rent the property,” says Odus “Boogie” Wittenburg, CEO of TravelNet Solutions, a provider of property management software for vacation rental companies.

Fighting a Storm

In 2019, researchers at the National Institute of Building Sciences issued a report titled “Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves,” stating in areas where wind speed is less than 130 mph, the Fortified roof designation “is a particularly cost-effective solution to hurricane hazard mitigation.” Specifically, for every $1.50 spent on mitigation, there was approximately $8.60 in benefits related to preventing damage to buildings, contents, and the cost of relocating.

“It’s easy to tell which homes have Fortified roofs; the ones that don’t are color-coded with blue tarps,” says Roy Wright, CEO of IBHS, to a Business Alabama reporter after Hurricane Sally in 2020.

A Voluntary Step

Experts note voluntarily going beyond conventional building codes with the Fortified re-roofing method minimizes roof damage and water intrusion for hurricane winds, up to 130 mph, EF-2 tornadoes, and 2-inch-diameter hail.

To retrofit a vacation rental property’s roof to the Fortified standard, the work requires sealed roof decks, ring-shanked nails, wider drip edges, and impact-resistant shingles on a home. For example, using ring-shank nails—which burrow tightly into the decking—and decreasing the spacing between nails (i.e., 4 inches versus the 12-inch spacing for traditional roofs) can double the amount of uplift a roof can take. The materials for a traditional roof and a Fortified roof are similar, but the latter demands more material and labor. This means a Fortified roof costs $1,000 to $5,000 more to build.

However, the discount on the insurance policy’s wind premium—in some cases up to 37% less per year than a traditional roof—will recoup the investment within 10 years. If a major event strikes within that period, the added cost of the Fortified roof will have paid for itself many times over when compared to a traditional roof that can fail and cause structural damage to a home or complete destruction.

Some states like Alabama and insurance companies such as USAA offer discounts to lower the cost of a Fortified roof. In Louisiana, for instance, the Fortify Homes grant program launched in November 2023. The program provides grants of up to $10,000 to help property owners upgrade their roofs to the Fortified roof standard. A 2023 University of Oklahoma study showed the return on investment from the Fortified designation not only led to reduced insurance premiums but also, in the event of a natural disaster, would likely eliminate paying a deductible, increased premiums for a claim, and associated costs incurred by the property owners to make repairs.

“In states where savings are not automatically provided by insurance carriers, installing a Fortified roof still offers significant benefits,” Delaney says. “In these areas, the emphasis is more on whether insurance companies are willing to insure or renew a policy based on the roof’s age or the owner’s efforts to improve storm resilience.”

The University of Oklahoma study mentioned above is also noteworthy because a Fortified roof has value for vacation rental properties in geographies far from the coast, still subject to extreme weather like tornadoes.

What Goes into Fortifying a Roof?

Roof:

• Deck sealed (e.g., ASTM 1970-compliant self-adhering bitumen flashing tape at least 4 inches wide or ice/water deck)
• Deck attachment (8D ring shank nails, min. 2 3/8-inch-long and 0.113-inch diameter) installed 6-inch o.c.
• Drip edge installed along eave edges, extends 0.5 inches below sheathing

Attic Ventilation:

• High-wind-rated, roof-mounted vents
• Soffit vents resist water
• Gable end vents properly built, resist water

Gables > 4 feet:

• Must have structural sheathing

What’s Your Return on Roof?

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, the average owner keeps a property for more than 13 years. With this as a benchmark, the following table derives data from researchers, realtors, and insurance companies. The table covers a 10-year span, which according to NOAA would include a major wind event, and roughly compares a Fortified roof versus a generic roof (i.e., built below IBHS’s code). Ten years would also provide adequate time to see a return through insurance premiums. Some real estate agents say they would put a premium on a Fortified roof, notating that on an MLS description, if the vacation property owner made them aware of it.

Return on Roof over 10-Year Period

Home with $150,000 replacement cost, 2,000-square-foot roof	Un-FORTIFIED Roof	FORTIFIED Roof
Construction Cost	$8,960	$10,960
FORTIFIED Evaluator Fee (plus renewal fee at year 5)		$1,000
Insurance premium 10 years	$20,000	$14,000*
Insurance deductible	$3,000	$3,000
Lost revenue while rebuilding the roof for 30 days, property average daily rate $290 (Source: AirDNA.com)	$4,350
Total	$36,310	$25,960

*Includes Fortified roof insurance premium discount for 10 years at 30% per year, which conservatively mirrors Smart Home America’s estimates for Alabama. Money saved is market and insurance-specific. 

The table estimates what retrofitting a 2,000-square-foot roof would cost for a vacation home valued at $150,000. Fortified roofs initially need to be certified by an evaluator, and then every five years. The Fortified evaluator fee is an estimate from IBHS, including the initial inspection and a follow-up certification after five years.

With data from the Alabama Department of Insurance, the chart estimates an average annual insurance premium of $2,000 and a deductible of $3,000.

Extrapolating from annual wind damage estimates for a traditional, unfortified roof, a 10-year storm could cause $25,845 in damage. Assume this level of damage would cause the rental property to be taken off the market, conservatively speaking, for 30 days to allow a contractor to rebuild the roof. Likely, the time to accommodate the rebuilding of the roof would be longer. A vacation property owner’s loss could also include furniture and appliances.

If a vacation property owner (or builder) chooses to retrofit a roof to the Fortified standard, the IBHS says to call on a Certified Fortified Evaluator™ to inspect the dwelling during the construction process. This is required to earn the Fortified designation certificate. Watch out for roofing scams, too; the largest share of remodeling complaints with the Better Business Bureau are for roofing projects. Certified Fortified roofers and evaluators can be found at the Fortified Home website.

Through its website, Smart Home America provides property owners with continuing education on Fortified as well as building codes and insurance.

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