As in most beautiful things, beach homes are easy to appreciate and love, but there is a significant background of technical and legal issues that must be met to bring them into being.
The undertaking, like so many in our country, is now mostly owned by governmental regulators who act, almost daily, to protect just about anything and everything that comes to their minds. Restrictions have become most onerous. But they are finite and can, with professional guidance, be handle.
Here are five 5 issues, unique to building on a beach, that need to be considered:
Elevation - Determined by zoning, the elevation of the main floor of the structure must be considered. This is established as a BFE (Base Flood Elevation) which is a specified height above sea level. It is required that the bottom of the lowest horizontal structural member be at or above this elevation. Finish floors will generally be higher. It is VITAL that this be done correctly and verified by a registered surveyor. I have seen projects built just inches below these requirements which had to be demolished and rebuilt. The officials take this quite seriously.
FEMA - The Federal Emergency Management Agency has developed codes and requirements that affect structures on the beach. These include what types and the sizes of enclosed spaces that may be built on the ground (below the required elevation), the types of materials allowed, electrical restrictions, and many other requirements. Also, if one intends to enclose the space under the home (for parking or storage) the enclosing walls must be designed to break away during a storm event. These are called “break-away” walls and their purpose is to allow storm water to flow naturally without hindrance.
Pilings – Beach homes will usually be on stilts (columns). These will be supported by pilings which are driven into the ground. Pilings are designed to hold if a portion of the soil around them erodes away during the storm. Pilings are designed by a Geotechnical Engineer who specializes in ground investigation and design. Additionally, a Structural Engineer will assure that the loads are adequately supported against water, wind and gravity forces.
Windborn Debris – Doors and Windows must be designed to withstand significant winds as well as the impact of high-velocity projectiles. These are known as “Impact Resistant” windows and doors and can be purchased from numerous manufactures.
DER – The Department of Environmental Regulation will be intimately involved. They assure that wetlands are considered, beach features remain undisturbed, and that wildlife is protected. Lighting is controlled so that beach mice and sea turtles are not adversely affected by the night lights coming from the structure. Additional setback requirements (in addition to the local requirements) are sometimes imposed by DER.
Beach home design, while exciting and aesthetic, is quite technical. However, many consider it worth it to achieve the ultimate in living in Florida and southeastern coastal states. The requirements are numerous – but finite. There are only so many.
Hiring a good professional designer is your best bet to assure that you are guided through the process thoroughly and beautifully.
As the illusion of ever-increasing complexities and danger is amplified by 24 hour news and the apocalyptic shows on Discovery and the History Channel some may wonder if they need to better protect themselves in their own homes.
Can one’s own home be a safe haven during the worst of storms?
In 2004 and 2005 US was hit by several hurricanes and we saw (or experienced) the destruction of these events. Homes today are being built by high structural standards – however they are designed, in reality, for wind events that occur in mid-sized hurricanes. Get a really big storm (a Category 4 or 5) and all bets are off.
Beyond evacuation and other very wise precautions, you can still provide for a way to get to safety in your own home by building what is called a safe room.. These are sometimes called storm shelters.
A safe room is a small windowless room that has been strengthened to resist the effects of wind pressures and the impact from windborne debris generated by extremely severe weather. These are becoming rather common in Florida and other hurricane state.
A relatively cheap storm shelter can provide you and your family with a sense of security knowing that there is a space in your home that will withstand the forces of the worst hurricanes. These can also act as tornado shelters.
What is a safe room? It is usually a small space within the home that has special walls, ceilings, fastening systems and doors and are (to use an engineering term) really, really strong They can serve the vital purpose of providing safety for you and your lovelies during those scary events.
I’ve designed a few myself for folks who value the room’s existence even if they never actually use it. Seems a lot like insurance, doesn’t it?
These rooms can be separate or can be some part of the home, like a walk-in closet, which is built like the proverbial brick stink house. They need to be isolated from the main structure so that as the main home becomes unglued and turns into countless fragments, this little oasis of space remains unscathed.
The best way to do this, above ground, is to build a concrete storm shelter with walls that are reinforced masonry, with all the cells (the holes in the concrete block that you have seen) filled with reinforcing bars and concrete. Generally we form and pour concrete slab roof over top. This can be relatively inexpensive do to if you are building your home – it is easy to work into the structure.
One of my clients had me design his master walk-in closet and bathroom into a safe room. Its ceiling was designed to be concrete and rest just below the bottom chord of the trusses. The trusses could blow off and basically the entire home could collapse yet he and his family would remain safe.
Any structural engineer can design such as space for you. FEMA has a great guideline called FEMA320A “Taking Shelter from the Storm: Building a Safe Room inside your house”.
Of course, we can’t nor should we worry all the time. Life has its inherent risks. But, like insurance, a safe room can offer peace of mind – even if you never really use it.
Energy is heat. Saving energy is mostly about heat management. Let’s cover 10 basic actions to reduce energy usage in your home. These apply to new construction and existing residences.
First, some basic science:
A. Heat energy flows from hot to cold. Its speed of flow increases as the difference between temperatures increases
B. Heat flow is reduced by insulation.
C. Heat can be pumped in the opposite direction – from cold to hot. Air conditioners and heat pumps do this. Pumping heat is cheaper than created heat – about 1/3 the cost or less..
D. Any heat that enters your home during the summer must be removed by your air conditioner.
E. The green-house effect is like a one-way check valve which allows heat to enter but not leave. Heat from sunlight must be stopped before it passes through the glass – not after.
F. Passive operation just happens by its nature. It requires no energy.
Okay – so based upon these simple rules, here are 10 basic actions that will improve a home’s energy efficiency which will save you money. I’ll mention the rule and then what you can do:
1. Rule B - Insulate your home to the max. Few actions will give you a better cost to benefit ratio. This is also passive (rule F).
2. Rules D and E - Large overhangs – this reduces sunlight into the home which would have to be removed. This is passive (rule F).
3. Rules D and E - Reduce or block windows on the western side. If you are designing a new home this can be easy. This is passive (rule F)
4. Rule E - Use reflective glass. Shades and curtains will not work. They will heat up yet not pass the heat back out the window. Your air conditioner will have to remove that heat. You must stop the heat before it goes through the glass. This is a passive method and will save you lots of energy and money in the summer time.
5. Rule A - Place foil on the bottom of the plywood roof sheathing of your home. This is easiest to do while building a new home. If your home exists, then consider a radiation barrier in the attic. This will keep the attic cooler. This is also passive (rule F)
6. Rule A – Ventilate the attic. This can be passive or active. It reduces the attic temperature which slows the flow of heat into your home. The active, but effective, way is with a powered fan system which operates only at high attic temperatures. An advantage is that this will not operate in the winter when you DO want heat flow into your home. The passive method of ventilation is by effective venting that operates when the wind blows. This is excellent in the hotter states. This requires good air flow both into the attic and out of the attic.
7. Rules A and B - Place the air conditioning ductwork inside the cooled space of the home – not the hot attic. This reduces the heat that flows into the ductwork which eases the work load of the air conditioning system. This is easiest done in new construction. it can be also be done by wrapping insulation on top of the ductwork and not placing any between the duct and the interior of the home thus thermally connecting the duct to the inside temperature. This is also passive (rule F).
8. Rule D - Water heaters should be outside of any air conditioned space. They leak heat. If they leak heat into the home then the air conditioner has to remove it. This action is passive.
9. Rule D - Dryers, ideally, should be outside air conditioned space for the same reason as water heaters. This action is passive (rule F)
10. Rule C - Most water heaters heat their water by running electricity through coils. As an alternative heat can be pumped into the water less expensively. One way to do this is to route the heat being pumped out of your home straight into the water heater. This has multiple advantages. It even works in the winter because the heat being pumped from the cold air outside (this is how a heat pump works) can be used, in part, to heat the water. Per Rule C, pumped heat is cheaper than created heat.
Considering the basic rules you can think of your own ideas of ways to save energy and money.
Remember, it is all about the heat.
