Myrtle Beach, SC­ Working with a number of local and national organizations, Classic Home Building & Design, Inc. has become the first builder in South Carolina to build to the Fortified…for safer living® standards.

Classic Home Building & Design, Inc. partnered with the Institute for Business & Home Safety, AMVIC, PGT® Industries, and South Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company to bring new homeowners the Fortified option, which specifies code­ plus protection measures to increase a home’s disaster resistance to whatever hazards it faces anywhere in the country.

The Fortified homes being built by Classic Home Building & Design, Inc. in Myrtle Beach pay particular attention to windows and door protection and require stronger connections between the roof, walls and foundation, resulting in a greater resistance to high winds and earthquakes.

“We are excited to have the opportunity to provide our homeowners with Fortified homes,” said Berkley White of Classic Home Building & Design, Inc. “As a nation, we have seen the effects of natural disasters on areas hit the hardest and the people who call these places home. The threat of hurricanes and natural disasters is real, no matter where we live, so it is a great honor to be able to provide our homeowners with extra protection and a little peace of mind.”

One of the storm­ready features of the Fortified homes is PGT® WinGuard® Impact­Resistant Windows and Doors with vinyl frames. WinGuard’s heavy­duty vinyl frames with standard laminated insulating glass offer maximum energy­efficiency and meet or exceed International Building Code requirements. WinGuard windows and doors combine heavy­duty aluminum or vinyl frames with impact-resistant laminated glass. Upon impact from debris or wind, laminated glass may crack, but the pieces tend to adhere to the plastic interlayer, keeping the glass intact within the frame and the opening protected. With the building’s envelope sealed, a structure is protected from wind­borne debris and hurricane ­force winds. PGT has been manufacturing WinGuard since 1995, and to date has over 1 million units installed.

These homes are being built using Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) construction provided by AMVIC Building System. ICFs are revolutionizing modern construction and rapidly changing the way new homes are built. These expanded polystyrene (EPS) blocks are poured with concrete and form the outside walls of the house. AMVIC Building System with FormLockTM technology is leading this revolution by providing the highest quality and highest performance ICFs on the market.

Fortified® upgrades not only offer homeowners a home that exceeds state building codes, they may also receive insurance discounts from the South Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company. According to Susan Merrill, Corporate Communications Director for SCFBMIC, “we recognize the importance of owning a Fortified home in a coastal area and will offer a discount to qualified homeowners whose homes are built to the stringent Fortified standards.”

Fortified…for safer living® is a national new­ home construction designation program sponsored by the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), a non­profit initiative of the insurance industry to reduce deaths, injuries, property damage, economic losses and human suffering caused by natural disasters.