Damage investigations carried out by the Cyclone Testing Station (CTS) following severe wind storms have typically shown that Australian houses built prior to the mid-1980s do not offer the same level of performance and protection during windstorms as houses constructed to contemporary building standards. Given that these older houses will represent the bulk of the housing stock for many decades, practical structural upgrading solutions based on the latest research will make a significant improvement to housing performance and to the economic and social well being of the community.

Some structural retrofitting details exist for some forms of older housing but the take up of these details is limited.  There is also evidence that retrofitting details are not being included into houses requiring major repairs following severe storm events, thus missing the opportunity to improve resilience of the house and the community.  Hence the issues of retrofitting of older housing including feasibility, and hindrances on take-up etc. must be analysed.

The primary objective of this project is to develop cost-effective strategies for mitigating damage to housing from severe windstorms across Australia.  These evidence based strategies will be (a) tailored to both aid policy formulation and decision making in government and industry, and (b) provide guidelines detailing various options and benefits to homeowners and the building community for retrofitting typical at risk older houses in Australian communities. Outputs from this project will target a range of users from policy development through to homeowners and builders on recommended actions to improve resilience of existing housing.