This is an interesting story.

https://art19.com/shows/the-we...fe-b1cf-d0877c2563f4 <---audio interview

https://weather.com/news/news/...es-hurricane-michael

A single home remarkably left standing on Florida's Mexico Beach after Hurricane Michael might very well become a prototype for how to build on the coast in the decades to come.

An image of one home still standing amid unthinkable devastation shows the hard work and forward thinking of Dr. Lebron Lackey, a radiologist from Cleveland, Tennessee, and his uncle, Russell King, an attorney from Chattanooga. Their Sand Palace of Mexico Beach, finished in April, was designed to survive a monster hurricane, and the reinforced concrete structure was meant to be the last home standing in the event of the unthinkable.

Lackey didn't say how much he and King spent to build the home, but he did disclose that they spent 15 to 20 percent more to go above and beyond standard Florida building codes.

"Neither one of us had ever built a home," Lackey told weather.com. "We knew we were building a home in a position to potentially suffer a natural disaster – a hurricane."

Despite the work they did to fortify the Sand Palace – in addition to the one-foot-thick concrete walls, tall 40-foot pilings were driven deep into the ground and steel cables held the roof in place – Lackey, who was at his primary home in Tennessee during landfall, watched the footage from a security camera with great concern.

He wasn't sure the cables would hold the roof down while 130-mph winds attempted to rip it away.

"I went through this storm with a tremendous amount of anxiety and concern," said Lackey. "I was also heartbroken for all those dwellings around us."

Lackey, who traveled from Tennessee to Mexico Beach to survey the damage and assist with emergency response, said he hopes the now-viral image of the Sand Palace surviving Michael serves as a reminder to all that stronger codes are only half the battle.

"You aren't a hero if you stay," said Lackey. "The first responders who come to clean up are the heroes."

My friends farm down there was trashed, every single structure.

I recall a similar situation after hurricane Ike (I think).
1 lone house left on Crystal Beach.

Its not rocket science. It isn't cheap either... People want cheap.

I am sorry for everyone who lost loved ones and property. This obviously does nothing to help existing homes, but hopefully people will take note of what worked and incorporate these things going forward.

I've been curious for years how much more ICF construction (or whatever it is called now) costs versus traditional stick construction.

quote:

Originally posted by deepocean:
I am sorry for everyone who lost loved ones and property. This obviously does nothing to help existing homes, but hopefully people will take note of what worked and incorporate these things going forward.

I've been curious for years how much more ICF construction (or whatever it is called now) costs versus traditional stick construction.

ICF is about 15% more expensive for the basic structure. However some of that comes back in reduced insurance costs. I have been studying ICF construction for several years, it is a great way to go.

The article makes it seem like it's the only home still standing but in the wide shot from the drone, you can clearly see five other homes still standing--though each seems to have been damaged to some degree while the one featured is nearly undamaged.

quote:

Originally posted by deepocean:
I am sorry for everyone who lost loved ones and property. This obviously does nothing to help existing homes, but hopefully people will take note of what worked and incorporate these things going forward.

I've been curious for years how much more ICF construction (or whatever it is called now) costs versus traditional stick construction.

That's not true actually. Dade County hurricane codes have filtered to older homes for upgrades. (I live in South Florida, Broward County just North of Dade). If you do all of your openings with Dade County approved impact windows and doors (or shutters or screens), if every opening is covered to Dade County code, you get a huge discount on insurance. Same with roofs since 2001 are re-roofed in conformance with the Dade County code and you get a discount also (mainly in regards to adhesives and the way they attach the tar paper). But also remodels and new homes have to conform to some higher standards. For example, when I bought my house in 2013 (1966 CBS home) my insurance was $6800 per year (not including flood), I instantly replaced all of the doors and windows with Dade County Aproved ones and my insurance instantly dropped to $2800 per year. Then the next year I replaced the roof, and it dropped to $2400 a year. I paid $225k for the house and it's worth $425k, it's 1700 sq feet under air and 2200 sq feet with the attached garage/laundry room. BUT, it's a huge difference in insurance cost and with the insurance savings, the windows paid for themselves in 3 years, not including the electric savings, additional security of them and quietness.

Using Isotherm spray insulation on the inside of your roof and sealing off all of your gable vents helps A lot too, as no wind can come in through the gable vents and put upwards pressure on the roofing deck or suck pressure from the inside living spaces......This is a biggie. Here in South Florida all of our homes are CBS that are at least 5 miles from the Ocean and to the ocean. Poured concrete walls are very strong also......Stick construction is crap when it comes to hurricanes.

The older houses here are built SOLID. All exterior walls CBS, 2"+ thick plaster on the interior walls.....etc......some newer construction leaves little to be desired.

Last year during IRMA, my sisters barrel tile roof lost lots of tiles to where it needs a complete re-roof. Meanwhile my mom's 2001 tile roof is 200 yards North of my sisters house and was perfectly fine......so most of the time it's stuff that is on borrowed time to begin with.

I grew up here and all of these houses have survived a lot of hurricanes. My mom's was built in 1955 for example and most in the 50's and 60's. So they're built pretty stout and have survived CAT 3 and lesser. I think once you get to a magic wind speed, them damn near everything starts to go......probably somewhere in the CAT 4's and more. Flooding (storm surge) is what does the most damage by far.


Hurricanes are funny too, there's no rhyme to what gets damaged sometimes. Sometimes you see 12 houses destroyed on both sides of the street, then 4 identically built houses that are perfect, then another 18 destroyed.

But I agree that some hurricane standards should be increased.

quote:

posted October 17, 2018 07:32 PM Hide Post
The article makes it seem like it's the only home still standing but in the wide shot from the drone, you can clearly see five other homes still standing--though each seems to have been damaged to some degree while the one featured is nearly undamaged

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Poor cropping of the photo. LOL Good eye here. The media does this stuff ALL the time.

cheaper, faster or better

Pick any two

Jimmy123x, it seemed to me that house was a bit higher than others I have seen. I am not sure if that is true, or if it just seemed that way. How do they tie the blocks together in CBS construction? Do you have cement tile roofs? I have seen a lot of what look like terracota tile roofs. I wonder which roof covering has the highest wind rating.

quote:

Originally posted by deepocean:
Jimmy123x, it seemed to me that house was a bit higher than others I have seen. I am not sure if that is true, or if it just seemed that way. How do they tie the blocks together in CBS construction? Do you have cement tile roofs? I have seen a lot of what look like terracota tile roofs. I wonder which roof covering has the highest wind rating.

The construction on that house (on stilts we call them) would most likely be pilings driven to bedrock, then where the floor is supposed to be the pilings have several pieces of rebar sticking up, which is tied into the rebar for the poured concrete 1st floor, then rebar also sticks up from the slab for a couple of feet of the concrete blocks usually tieing it all together, roof is generally wood trusses with hurricane straps tieing the trusses down to the concrete wall below it.

A house built on pilings or good footers on the ground would be stronger, because you don't get air under the dwelling at all, and don't have to worry about pilings shifting. BUT, if the house is built right on the ground flooding would destroy it. A stilt house can be built very very strong as that video shows in Mexico Beach. The 7' storm surge most likely did in most all of those homes, wave action crashing into them.

Here's an explanation on a website of CBS with drawings
www.tamure.com/cbs-construction/


Standing seam metal roofs have the best hurricane resistance. The concrete tile roofs are what you see all over most of Florida on homes and seem to come through the hurricane very good IF they're done right but metal roofs tend to do the best. The lifespans of metal roofs are great, but there are downsides to metal roofs (poor cell phone reception inside the house, can be noisy with heavy rain).

Concrete tile roofs. They generally nail down 30# tar paper, now they're using a peel and stick membrane and just tar the seams MOST of the time instead of 90# tar paper which was then hot mopped at the seems etc. Then in the old days they just used blobs of concrete and pressed the tiles down on them and relied on the concrete to adhere to the tar paper and the concrete tile, NOW they generally use a 2 part 3M product that mixes and creates a foam sealant at the gun and that secures the tiles, it's supposedly really good stuff.

I have concrete tile roofs on 2 properties and 3 tab GAF shingles on another property within a few blocks, that shingle roof was put on in 2010 and I've had 25 shingles after one storm and 35 shingles replaced after IRMA that blew off. Never again will I do a shingle roof. They're cheap at about $300 a square versus $600 for tile and $700 for metal. A square is 100 sq feet.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
I recall a similar situation after hurricane Ike (I think).
1 lone house left on Crystal Beach.

Remember the Bolivar Peninsula? Wiped damn near clean.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
I recall a similar situation after hurricane Ike (I think).
1 lone house left on Crystal Beach.

Remember the Bolivar Peninsula? Wiped damn near clean.

During Ike, some of the well-built homes on piers got demolished because large boats broke loose and were smashed up against the piers/house.

As Ron White said, it isn't that the wind is blowing, it's what the wind is blowing.

Not surprised but good to see. In 2010 I knocked down my small 3/2 I bought in 2005. We built a 2 story with metal roof, flat deck on 2nd story with pre stressed slab and 3 inch pour. Engineered to Dade County standard +...roughly 180 mph. 72 concrete trucks, 8-inch pre-stressed slabs for 2nd story pour and roof ( 3rd story), cbs poured every other cell with steel reinforcing, etc.

It cost roughly 1/3rd more including raising slab to 12 ft above sea level. I never want to find out, but would bet a direct from 152mm would chip the 12” of concrete. Never want to use insurance.

Smart on those folks.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
The 7' storm surge most likely did in most all of those homes, wave action crashing into them.

I expect this explains the houses I saw somewhat intact which were off their foundations and floated across the beach.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
Here's an explanation on a website of CBS with drawings
www.tamure.com/cbs-construction/

Thank you for that, it was the tie beams I was curious about.

Here in Utah, the cement tile roofing tiles are nailed and sometimes glued in depending up their type and position on the roof. The larger flat tiles are heavy (probably 45 lbs or so each). Wind gusts above 70 MPH can and does knock them off from time to time. I've been told they can add 50K lbs of weight for a large roof, and I do not doubt that could be the case.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
I recall a similar situation after hurricane Ike (I think).
1 lone house left on Crystal Beach.

Remember the Bolivar Peninsula? Wiped damn near clean.

During Ike, some of the well-built homes on piers got demolished because large boats broke loose and were smashed up against the piers/house.

As Ron White said, it isn't that the wind is blowing, it's what the wind is blowing.

True, no doubt. On Bolivar, the storm surge pushed the gulf up over than peninsula to a considerable depth, so the water alone would have done most of the damage.

ive spent 15 to 20 percent more to go above and beyond standard Florida building codes.

I have had several building inspectors tell me the sorriest houses are built to "minimum building codes"

john

The home cost ~$300,000 as it included $40,000 or so for reinforcement and better materials resistant to storm damage. All the piers that the house and foundation were built upon were bored about forty feet into the ground and then back filled with concrete.

They sustained a bit of water damage on the ground floor, but said that they should have everything fixed and repaired in a few weeks.

While there are other houses/structures that haven't been decimated in the picture, keep in mind that this house was bearing the full force of the entire storm and there wasn't another (two/seven/whatever) houses that had to be destroyed before the next house faced the winds and storm.