What a FORTIFIED roof is, and what it can and can’t do for your insurance

In the fall of 2010, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety built two two-story houses inside a test chamber and aimed a wall of fans at them, set to the winds of a hurricane. One was built to the standard code. The other had extra fortifications. The standard house blew out the back door of the chamber. The one that stood had cost “less than 5% more” to build (Planet Money, November 6, 2026). That test grew into FORTIFIED, the institute’s standard for a roof that keeps the wind and the rain out. This article is what the standard asks of a roof, what it costs, and what it can and can’t do for your insurance, in the institute’s own words.

Who IBHS is

IBHS is a research lab paid for by insurance companies. Its “member companies” pay dues, “sometimes in the millions of dollars”, and get the full range of its research; some of it is released to the public (Planet Money). FORTIFIED is its program for homeowners. The standards are free to read. A designation, the paper an insurer asks for, is not.

What a FORTIFIED Roof asks for

Every FORTIFIED level starts with the roof, because “as much as 90% of all catastrophe-related insurance claims include damage to the roof” (IBHS FAQ). The roof’s requirements, from IBHS’s FORTIFIED Roof page:

• A sealed roof deck. The seams of the wood under the shingles are sealed, so a storm that strips the shingles doesn’t pour in. IBHS: one inch of rain on a bare deck lets in “the equivalent of nine bathtubs of water”, and sealing the seams can cut that “by up to 95%”.
• Ring-shank nails, closer together. 8D ring-shank nails in place of smooth ones, with less space between them, “can double the uplift your roof can withstand”.
• A stronger edge. A wider drip edge and a fully adhered starter strip, where wind gets under a roof first.
• A rated roof cover. Asphalt shingles must meet the highest wind ratings, ASTM D3161 Class F or ASTM D7158 Class H. Metal, tile and low-slope roofs are tested for the pressures where they are built. A hail supplement is optional.
• Attic vents that hold. Vents rated to stay on and keep sideways rain out.

FORTIFIED Silver adds bracing for the gable ends and the chimney, anchors for attached structures and a pressure-rated garage door, and in hurricane-prone areas, rated windows and doors. Gold adds a continuous load path, the connections from the roof down to the foundation (IBHS).

A certified FORTIFIED Roofing Contractor installs it. An independent FORTIFIED Evaluator documents the job as it goes, and IBHS issues the designation from that record. “Without this verification, you will not be able to receive a FORTIFIED designation or qualify for any financial benefits” (IBHS FAQ).

What it costs

IBHS: “When re-roofing a 2,000-square-foot home, the cost increase is typically between $1,000 and $3,000.” A new FORTIFIED Gold home can add 1 to 3% to the total budget. The evaluator is a cost on top, and IBHS gives no figure for it (IBHS FAQ).

What it can do for your insurance

Ask IBHS whether insurers give a discount and the answer, word for word, is “Sometimes yes. Please contact your agent for more information.” Where there is one, it is usually on the wind part of the premium, and “many of those companies require the designation to be renewed every 5 years” (IBHS FAQ).

Some states go further. In Alabama, “most insurance companies” offer discounts “up to 55%” off the wind portion of the policy: 25 to 35% for FORTIFIED Roof, 35 to 45% for Silver, 45 to 55% for Gold. When it is funded, the state’s Strengthen Alabama Homes program gives grants “up to $10,000” toward the upgrade (IBHS, Alabama). Alabama’s regulators “mandated insurance company discounts”, and “over 50,000 people in Alabama have fortified their roofs.” When Hurricane Sally came through, IBHS’s Anne Cope said, “the IBHS-fortified roofs were the ones that were in great shape” (Planet Money).

Elsewhere, from IBHS’s incentives page: in Mississippi some insurers give “as high as 55%” off the wind portion; in Oklahoma “as high as 42%” off the wind and hail portion; in South Carolina, “a 2016 survey identified 17 insurers” giving FORTIFIED discounts, some “more than 50%” on the wind portion. In other states, ask.

What it can’t do

A discount, where there is one, is on the wind part of the premium, not the whole bill, and it is the insurer’s to give.

It is not a promise you’ll stay insured. Planet Money’s reporter spent months on wildfire and insurance in California, and found homeowners “trying to follow IBHS’s new building standards to the letter of the law” and still saw “price increases of almost 1,000%, or they’ve gotten dropped from their insurance altogether.” That is wildfire, not wind. Asked about it, IBHS’s Anne Cope said, as the show put it, that a property’s physical risks are “only one part of the multi-dimensional puzzle” of whether someone can be insured. What the neighbors have done counts too (Planet Money).

And it is not stormproof. IBHS: “we do expect some FORTIFIED homes to experience damage during extreme weather” (IBHS FAQ).

The certificate lasts five years

A designation expires five years from the day it was issued. Renewing it takes a new inspection, and if the roof is in good condition and nothing has been added on, the inspection “is likely the only step”. IBHS renews up to one year after the expiry date, with standard fees. Between one and five years late, there is “an additional $50.00 processing fee”. After five years, the house starts over with a new evaluation. “A gap in designation status could affect your insurance premiums” (IBHS FAQ).

Before you re-roof

Call your agent first and ask three things. Do you give a discount for a FORTIFIED Roof, and on which part of the premium? What paper do you need to see? Does my policy carry a FORTIFIED endorsement? Insurers in Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Mississippi are known to offer one. It helps pay for the upgrade when a roof is replaced, and what it covers varies by company (IBHS FAQ).

Then ask the roofer whether they are a certified FORTIFIED Roofing Contractor, and who the evaluator will be. When the certificate comes, keep it with the house’s papers, and note the date it expires. In Homaic, your house has its own email address: forward the certificate there and it is kept with the house.