We are already one month into the hurricane season and (thank goodness) no storms yet. I hope this will give me time to make some storm shutters.

Questions:

#1. What wood? pine, cedar, treated pine, cedar? They will be on windows under a porch; so very little exposure to harsh elements.

#2. They are for my condominium - early motel style. That is the four apartments are side by side with a front porch running the length of the building. My shutters should look very similar to the others which are either a frame and panel pattern or a fake slatted blind pattern. Vertical boards held together with a batten are acceptable.

#3. The current plastic blinds are 14" in width. The window opening is 48". So if I were to replace them with the same width, I'd fall 20" short of covering the window when they are closed. I'd like to make them hinged so each leaf is 12". This is probably acceptable, but I'd rather have one leaf 14" with a 10" leaf folded behind it, but I can't think of a hinge pattern that will let me do that. Maybe if I made the 14" leaf with 3 vertical slats and the 10" portion with only 2 slats when they were folded you wouldn't notice that there were two leaves. Whatcha think?

#4. What's the best way to stiffen up the system to resist the wind? I've thought to fasten a bracket on each leaf so a piece of 3/16" steel flat stock can be dropped in to span all 4 leaves and seat against the brick siding. I'd probably want to fasten it to the leaves with threaded studs and wing nuts to stiffen the whole structure. Comments?

I guess that's enough questions for the moment. I suppose. living where I do, I should be the expert, but I'd be remiss not to tap the vast store of knowledge here on the Creek.