What is the cost? What is the amount of work involved? Slightly more than the work to replace what is damaged. So if you do this work while you are repairing your home the cost is nominal and you would not feel it. You would stop the stress worrying about flooding again, you would also increase your homes value. When you have a claim on your home it is noted and recorded. Your premiums and future owners premiums will be higher and it will be an issue later.
Recap, doing the same thing and expecting different results is Insane.
Give us a call we provide free estimates and we can help you. 561-597-0021
When you have water damage the first thing you need to do when the water recedes is to dehumidify the area. If you have a dehumidifier set it up to run 24-7. If you do not have one then you can set your thermostat low and run your ac until you are able to get your hands on a dehumidifier. Remove everything that is wet from the house including drywall. Cut the drywall above the waterline until you find dry area. Drywall will soak the water so the sooner you cut it the less you will need to purchase later. Remove wet wood moldings carefully so you can possibly re-use when it drys out.
Besides raising your home there are steps you can take to prevent damage from storm surges. One is notice how the water has entered your home. Through the walls, through doorways etc. If your home is block construction on concrete slab (like the one in the picture), the focus needs to be on waterproofing the lower level of the masonry walls. Raise your entrance doors and help offset water damage to the extent possible.
In the picture (above) you see the step up to enter the home at the front door, this is good and you can also see the space above the front door to the ceiling. Raise your front door, create steps and landing outside, modify the ceiling inside and outside, create a landing inside to step down. This would need to be done at all exterior doors including the one from the garage to the house.
Next, waterproof the entire lower section from below the interior floor level. Dig the soil away where possible by hand and apply a waterproof membrane. Manufactures are plenty (Laticrete is a brand we use often) and apply this over the surface and include the area you raised under your door ways. Cover the surface area heavily including wall to floor along your garage floor and walls, apply multiple coats after each drys properly. You can also apply Laticrete to the lower section of your finish interior walls and the corner of the floor, this will stop water from intruding into the wall and prevent your drywall from getting wet in the event you experience water intrusion. Laticrete and most products can be painted over so this will allow you to blend it in. They have a fabric that can be applied at the corner of the wall and floor, this will seal the edges and keep the wall dry.
The steps above will help resist water from flooding into your home based on the elevation but it is not a sure fix. Elevate your home is a sure fix and this can be done by building over your existing walls. The cost to elevate your home will reduce your flood insurance and increase your home value. Repairing will help prevent damage from surges at the lowest expense to you, but it will not increase your home value.
Information to know, single story masonry block wall homes are built on top of concrete footings set in the dirt. The floors are concrete slabs installed over compacted soil. Your interior walls are built over the concrete slab. House movers raise homes, these homes are typically wood frame homes (floor & walls) built on top of foundations. The interior floors are structural wood floors with beams posted down to concrete footings. To raise a wood frame home there are location points used to jack up the home, because the floor is structural they use the post locations to raise the floor and the entire home.
Could you lift a slab on grade single story masonry home in similar fashion? Yes but in order to raise it supports have to be added to the existing concrete slab that your interior walls sit on. So you tunnel underneath to add supports and lift or you cut up the existing floor and add supports to lift. Think of the amount of work involved. Labor is expensive and really what are you saving in the end?
Our solution is to remove your roof demo all of the interior walls and flooring, reinforce footings as needed with masonry piers, plus necessary anchors, then build a new floor, with new walls on top of your existing block walls at the elevation required. 3-4 months work and done to the style design you want all new.
The cost to elevate your home increases the value of your home offsetting the cost to do the work. We can raise your existing home at a cost of $111-$185 per square foot. The price is based on the structural integrity of your existing foundation and maintaining the same footprint of your existing home.
If you are interested give us a call and we can provide you with a free estimate. 561-597-0021.
Saint Petersburg has so much to offer that other Florida cities and towns are missing.
Yes there are white sand beaches with turquoise waters, amazing sunsets and sunrises across the bay. Yes there are tiki bars and live music almost everywhere along with outdoor seating. There are dog friendly bars and a dog martini bar, outdoor sports, concerts, so much to do all year long and everynight.
What you might not know is besides your beach town activities there are also choices for fine upscale dining, theater, museum, art and everything you would expect from a large city. What is missing in St. Petersburg can be found 20 minutes away in Tampa. Location, Location, Location.
With interest rates hopefully coming down, a cooling economy, Saint Petersburg continues to sell homes. The map above shows what single family homes sold in the last 7 and 90 days from today 12/12/23 (note this does not include condos or lot sales).
You are always walking distance to numerous restaurants and nightlife, Straub Park with its ancient Banyan trees, the Pier, Central Ave, Beach Drive, plenty of hotels and parking. Scooter rentals, electric bike rentals, major league baseball, Dali Museum, Mahaffey Theater, Vinoy Golf Course, and all this just 20 minutes from beautiful white sandy beaches.
Unique to St. Petersburg is the upscale neighborhoods on Tampa Bay. Snell Isle, Old NorthEast, Shore Acres, and many others all within 2-3 minutes of downtown and still 20 minutes away from the beaches.
Naples has a vibrant downtown full of shops and restaurants and upscale neighborhoods with entry pricing in the mid $20M for new construction.
The other Gulf coast towns have exquisite beach front homes and neighborhoods but all lack a vibrant downtown with choices.
Saint Petersburg has more to offer than the other towns plus much more. You are 30 minutes from Tampa International Airport, 30 minutes from Raymond James Stadium for football and concerts, 2.25 hours from Naples and 3.5 hours from Miami. New homes in St. Petersburg start at $278K in south St. Petersburg and go up to $13M in Snell Isle. St. Petersburg has options for all and that is what makes it special. If you appreciate the laid back feel from being near the beach but also like to go out and have a great dinner with a nice bottle of wine, everything is available in St. Petersburg and that is why I feel it is undervalued today.
4 bedroom, 3.5 baths, Viking appliances, quality upgrades, block construction.
2024 Completion
info@iridiumdev.io
What will happen to all of the lenders who are overextended on office building loans?
Some of the largest office developers are handing over the keys to entire buildings and defaulting on loans.
What will happen to these building values? If you have an office building leased and you are current on your loan, your building value will decrease along with these defaults. Banks will be stuck with loans for buildings that no longer have 50% of the underwritten valuation. Some developers may not be able to refinance in this environment causing more defaults and decreasing valuations lower.
It is not hard to see that we are in the beginning of a major crisis. The time is now to convert office buildings into apartment rentals.
Iridium Development is converting full floors from office to residential in most major cities for $6,300 per unit.
The time is now to convert losses to gains, consolidate the current office leases and utilize the vacant space for residential. Our in house team will work with you to obtain entitlements and value engineer the best use of the vacant space.
For more information please write us: info@iridiumdev.io
2 Bedroom/2 Bath Apartments
5/8 drywall, led lighting, shaker style doors, modern moldings, modern kitchens, caesarstone counters, laminate flooring, tile shower, tub, SS appliances, polish chrome plumbing fixtures, neutral paint finishes.
Approvals and demolition additional per application.
We had over 500 people working on this project each day. When it came to the interior finishing we had people working 24/7. Leading up to the interior we could only work 7am to 6pm M-F and 9-5 on Saturday.
I am going to share how we were able to build this 18,000sf home with 1,800 sf pool house and 1,800 sf guest house plus a 700sf guard house on 12 manicured acres.
I will not name drop or share any costs as the ability to complete this caliber work in this timeline is the feature. I also state we and I, we includes myself and others and I includes myself who at this time was V.P. of Construction.
For those of you who build or work in construction you may ask, Why?
It was the challenge, the ability to accomplish something no one else has done. I have to be honest it was actually comfortable for me most of the time.
Let me start with the team, our client had an Interior Designer on board already who they worked with for many years prior. Very talented and open minded firm I grew very fond of during this project. We arranged the Architect who was someone I have worked with for years and very very talented. We also used an amazing local land use attorney, along with civil/structural engineer and surveyor who always met our needs. We also hired a state certified wetlands professional to oversee our site development and pond dredging. There were many others who participated on the team as well, the point is this project consisted of numerous professional entities along with processes to complete, we were not cowboys in the wild west.
Permitting, we started this project knowing we were going to build it fast. So to expedite the start I obtained a demo permit and site excavation permit. This allowed us to cut out the 20ft tall mountain that existed where we set the home. We developed plans and interiors while working on the site. We also were hung up momentarily with a zoning review on volume. We were able to submit our foundation plan and hedge our zoning approval to build the house designed, which you can see all worked out.
The Build,
As you can imagine it was difficult to onboard new subs and get them to agree to the timeline. It is something I deal with on a daily basis.
I remember vividly vetting the HVAC sub I wanted to use for the project. I had worked indirectly with them in the past on many projects and they were very capable. The sub we had been using prior had provided a really high price for the job and they were not worth the squeeze. So I brought in someone else, agreed on pricing and the start and finish dates.
The biggest challenge building at a reduced timeline is making sure everyone fully understands you are going to be on time for them to start. Delays in construction are typical (when or if allowed). Today there are so many ways to mitigate delays that you really have a lot of control. The only thing you cannot still control is mother nature but now it is when she acts extreme.
We were fortunate to avoid delays and when contracting the HVAC sub they were to start rough installation 5 weeks from contract signing. No big deal, except at that time we were still excavating for the foundation. The concern was raised from the sub and I assured them we were going to be ready and this is normal for us.
Well three weeks before HVAC start date we were pouring footings and the sub stopped by the project very concerned. I had a lengthy conversation and really delivered my message that I will be ready regardless of how long it takes everyone else to build that they work for. I could see this was really tough for them to swallow. In the timeframe of 2 weeks we finished pouring the foundation, waterproofed, installed underground piping and drains and backfilled ready for framing. I hired 6 framing companies to frame the house hourly under my leadership. They did not know they were going to be working with the other 5 companies. That monday am one of the companies left and I was down to 5 companies.
We started Monday am and framed the house complete by days end Saturday. The cost was equivalent to contracting one firm, the time savings was enormous. To put this in perspective it would have taken a framing company most likely 6-8 weeks to frame what we did in 6 days.
This type of processes was duplicated over and over again. Outside the box perspective and action to gain results. When we arrived at interior trim and millwork, I hired numerous companies to work by the hour again. I set up a millshop in the Family Room and we made mouldings and raised panels along with many other parts needed to complete the work. I used the architects autocad to work with the trimmers and reduce questions by expanding drawing profiles to see dimensional properties. I also had a meeting with each of the company owners and workers (alone) to offer time and half for anyone who was willing to work over 40 hours. I made sure the owners and workers were present so the money was assured to go to the worker and not in the owners pocket. I was also clear that they had to perform each week during the 40 hours or the overtime was negligible. They agreed and diligently worked as they felt comfortable performing.
I worked many hours weekly on this project coordinating everything from value engineering the pre-buy, permits and approvals, to overseeing field work, project management, inspections, processing invoices and tracking all expenses. Most companies have numerous people on the construction team. I had one supervisor, one pm, an office assistant, and myself. We did have a full accounting office, excavation, masonry, landscaping division and hundreds of laborers but on the construction management side it was the four of us (and we had other projects in various stages).
The painters were our employees and the client at this time changed the floor finish color after we completed the floor finish. To not extend the schedule I had a meeting with our painters and asked them if they wanted they could work from that Monday to Friday. They all looked at me smiling like I was certifiably crazy, “Lee we already work Monday to Friday”. I laughed and apologized for my shortness, I explained that I meant work from Monday 7am until Friday late evening and not go home in between. We can make a bunk area to sleep and I will provide dinner and breakfast, you will receive time and half plus double time, you work until you can’t then sleep and do it again. They all agreed at the opportunity to make extra money and they did it. I already had cameras set up to monitor work from anywhere on my laptop. But with the walls up it was tough to really monitor anything. So to make sure everyone was honest I would randomly show up at the house to check on the production and workers. 11pm, 1am, 3am, 8pm, 10pm never the same time and no pattern. I never encountered anyone taking advantage they were all great workers and exceptional people.
More to Follow..
If you are curious or want to learn more please reach out to us: info@iridiumdev.io
If you are locked in with a low mortgage rate it most likely makes sense to renovate instead of buying new.
The downside is living in a construction zone!
Selecting the right contractor can make a big difference. Organization is the first ingredient to a successful renovation. You can assess how organized your contractor is by the estimate they provide you.
Having a detailed scope of work and values not only provides transparency but also shows you that the contractor understands what is need to complete the work.
When we built Judge Judy’s Home we included every detail in the estimate from how many hinges to manufacture model numbers. This has been our standard process and always provided up front in our estimate.
Regardless if the project is cost plus or fixed price, we list every detail, qty, count, size so there is less confusion later.
We have found over the years that this makes the process much easier for the clients and for us.
If you are presented with an estimate (or worse a contract) and after review you have no idea what is included…..I can assure you that this is not going to be a fun or successful journey.
Our estimates have every detail.
Start with all of the details and cost, then execute the work. Doing the work is always the easiest, making selections and knowing the true cost is best when it is presented clearly upfront.
What is the cost to build new in Florida?
Compared to the Northeast ($375.00 sft+) the cost to build in Florida is $135 per foot including landscaping!
Let’s break down the cost to build a 4 bedroom 3.5 bath home with a 2 car garage.
What is included?
If the tile material allowance caught your eye as it being to low, the cost to upgrade is nominal.
How is this possible? We build at this cost per foot in Florida today.
Experience and technique applied properly to create quality at affordable prices.
If you are interested in building a new home in Florida, contact us. We would be happy to provide a free estimate.
Iridium Development
561-597-0021