Engineering
Numbers, not adjectives
Every claim on this page follows our language rule: if a sentence has an adjective doing a number's job, we swap in the number. And one word you will never read here is "hurricane-proof" — no honest engineer uses it. We say Hurricane Ready: engineered to a stated design wind speed, and we show the math.
The floor the industry builds to
| Standard | Wind design | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| HUD Wind Zone I | 70 mph | Most of the continental US — most mobile homes are built to this |
| HUD Wind Zone II | 100 mph | Coastal counties |
| HUD Wind Zone III | 110 mph | Highest-risk coastal areas; most of Florida |
| Miami-Dade HVHZ | 175+ mph | The toughest wind standard in America |
| Megalodon design target | 180 mph | Every frame, everywhere — pending certification |
Design target, stated plainly: our engineering analysis and third-party certification are in progress. Until they're complete, "180 mph" is the number we're designing to, not a number we've certified. When it's certified, this sentence changes — publicly, on this page.
Why over-engineering is the cheap option
Engineering to the worst case costs surprisingly little when the structure is one repeatable steel system — the analysis is done once, and steel's strength margins come almost free at this scale. What it buys:
- One home, legal everywhere we ship. No re-engineering per county — that's what makes stamped plans affordable.
- Insurance that rewards it. Homes with third-party resilience designations (like IBHS FORTIFIED) qualify for 20–55% discounts on the wind portion of premiums in participating states. Against Florida's average premium of $8,292/yr, that's real money every year — we're pursuing the FORTIFIED path and will publish results.
- Fewer claims, higher resale. Published research on FORTIFIED homes found 73% fewer claims in Hurricane Sally and a measurable resale premium.
Energy: the same philosophy
Manufactured homes are built to HUD energy minimums; we design the envelope to the strictest IECC climate-zone requirements instead, so the same home performs in a Minnesota winter and a Texas summer — and your utility bill shows it. Envelope targets are published on every model spec block.
The claims ledger
Every number we publish traces to an engineering calculation, a test report, or a citation — kept in a claims ledger we review before anything goes public. This category has burned a lot of trust with big talk. We'd rather earn it back slowly with arithmetic.
For journalists and storm-season researchers: our press page has the fact sheet, spec targets, and an engineer available for comment on what actually fails in high-wind events — and what it costs to prevent.