When you choose to relocate to hurricane country, you need to make sure that you understand how to protect your home from strong winds. Here are three great ways to protect your windows and doors, and thus your home, when you take up residence in hurricane country.

#1 High-Impact Windows

If the house that you purchased does not have high impact windows, this may be an expense that you want to add to your remodeling budget. High impact windows are extra strong windows that were engineered specifically to endure the impact of objects against them at high speeds without taking any visible damage. They can be expensive, but are a worthwhile invest that will help keep your home safe and as a bonus, are extremely well insulated.

#2 Storm Shutters

It is common, regardless of the type of windows that you have installed in your home, to have storm shutters in hurricane country. Storm shutters are installed on the outside of your house; if you drive around your neighborhood, you may see storm shutters or the hardware up for them on your neighbors' windows. Storm shutters replace the need to have to manually nail boards over your windows every time that a storm is potentially approaching. Boarding up your windows can be time consuming, labor intensive, and not the greatest for the siding on your home.

There are various types of storm shutters that you can have installed on the outside of your home. There are storm shutters where the mechanics are in place on your windows, but the shutters are stored in your garage and only pulled out when needed. There are also storm shutters that are not permanently out; they may look like normal shutters or they may be rolled up in a device that goes over the side or top of your windows. Some storm shutters have to be operated manually and others electronically. Storm shutters will provide your house with another layer of protection from projectiles.

#3 Window Film

Finally, you can protect your home by installing window film over your windows. Window film will not prevent items from hitting your windows in the first place, like storm shutters, or increase the strength of your windows, like high-impact windows do. However, window film will keep your glass together and ensure that if for some reason you other lines of defense fail and your widow is shattered, the glass doesn't come flying into your home. The glass will stick to the window film if it shatters and prevent further injuries from broken glass.