Waterproof Garage Door Opener

7 Tips to Preparing Your Florida Coastal Condominium for the 2011 Hurricane Season

“7 Tips to Preparing Your Florida Coastal Condominium for the 2011 Hurricane Season“, a free report, has just been released by Florida condominium construction expert Robert Fitzpatrick, P.E.

The 2011 Hurricane season is just starting and predictions indicate it could be a rough one. You need to start getting ready now. Prepare for two things; water coming in and power going out. Here are some things to check.

1. If You Have Hurricane Shutters

- Check the anchorage (screws into the walls, ceiling or floor). Make sure they are tight and there is no rattle. Shutters that blow off won’t protect you and one of the biggest causes of shutter failure is insufficient or improper anchorage. They should be anchored in reinforced masonry that has grouted cells or into reinforced concrete or wood. If anchors are loose or rattle, they can fail from the buffeting winds. Shutters should not be attached to Exterior Insulated Finish System (EIFS) (synthetic stucco on light gage steel studs). If the shutters or the anchors rattle or appear loose, call the shutter company and have them install the next larger diameter size or back them out and epoxy them back in.

- When you are comfortable with the shutter anchorage, make sure the shutters open and close properly and that the weather stripping or gaskets are still pliable and resilient. Deteriorated gaskets will rub off on your fingers when they should be replaced. They shouldn’t be cracked. If the shutters do not open and close well, try WD 40 or Silicone garage door opener spray on the hinges and then open and close them a few times to get the oil worked around all the hinges. If the shutters aren’t working up to par, or the gaskets are worn, call a shutter company to have them checked and serviced.

2. If You Don’t Have Hurricane Shutters

- Get buckets and towels staged by the sliding glass doors to soak up the water that will come in. You can stuff beach towels in the sliding glass door tracks to absorb water as it enters and then squeeze the water into buckets. This is a family operation. One person removes the wet towels and gives to the squeezer and puts in dry towels. The squeezer squeezes the water into the buckets. The bucket crew transports the bucket to the toilette and brings back empty buckets and someone else is drying towels in the dryer. Everyone hopes that this doesn’t have to go on all night.

Garage Door Opener Mod (Yeah, I said it)

Slick mod and the kind of thing I would do. lol. I have mine in my jacket pocket so i only have to have one of them for all bikes. I did a radar detector install on my 97 gsxr1100 that was slick. Used miniplugs and an accordian wire to plug in to my bike. Had an LED and small speaker in my helmet to alert me. It was wired to the existing speaker in the radar detector. Worked great!

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