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Luxury Estate and Development

Reoccurring Flood Damage

by Lee Seward Flood damage, building a house, Construction, construction companies, construction contractor, construction contractors, Contractors, Custom Homes, general contractor services, Home Equity, Home Remodeling, Housing Market, licensed contractors, local building contractor, local construction company, new home construction, Paint, Rebuilding Homes, Remodeling, Renovation, Repairing Home, small construction companies, Uncategorized

Home DIY

Flood Prevention 101

Here are some tips to keep water where it should be

Did you know that “INSANITY” is defined by doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? 

  Replace drywall, install new cabinets, moldings, flooring, furniture…wait for it….BOOM!  the next storm surge (not hurricane) your home is damaged again. Be angry at those property owners who drove past your home and created a wave that gets your house wet. How dare they leave the house they own to get away or go the house they own to check damage. You have every right to be upset, you just replaced all of the damage created from the last flood and now your home is damaged again. 

If your house flooded from a storm surge and you only replaced everything, you could be INSANE. You need different solutions to stop future water damage.

  • Where was water infiltration entry?

  • How high was the surge and water level outside and flood water inside?

  • What height (off the floor) are the entrance doors to the house?

  Take this information and create a plan.

  Most likely the height of the water level caused the damage. Raise all of your door entrances up as high as possible. Replace the space above your doors to installing that space below your doors. Add a landing outside to enter, and one inside if needed. Waterproof the lower elevation of your home, the entire perimeter. There are many waterproof membranes that can be applied as paint and will stop any water from entering. Besides being easy to apply, you can also paint over so it is not visible. Build the grade around your house up, add planting beds to buffer water and make sure you waterproof continuously behind and higher than the beds prior to creating the beds. Your garage, raise everything off the floor, be sure to waterproof the all of the walls 24″ up and to the concrete slab. Remove HVAC units, water heaters anything in the way and replace after applications are applied generously. Cover the entire concrete slab, be sure to raise the entrance door from the house to the garage to the max and add landing as needed.  

  Raise your exterior doors to create a buffer below. This work may be involved but if you do it once correctly you won’t have to do it again unless something huge came through. If your home has 8ft ceilings and you door sits on the floor of your home, you have these options:

  • Option 1 remove the lintel and replace with a laminated wood beam that is short in height and fat. Use the difference in height to raise the door with cement infill and waterproofing. A typical door is supporting 1 or 2 trusses so a 4″-5″ tall laminate beam is suffice. 

  • Option 2 remove the lintel and open the ceiling up inside, install a flush header above the block walls and joist hanger the trusses into the beam for support. put your door to the ceiling line and add the space below with cement and waterproof to bottom of footing. 

  • Option 3 open the ceiling, remove 2-4 trusses entirely, create a reverse gable roof and infill with framing. Raise your door 2ft and create an entrance outside and inside. Be certain to waterproof your exter to the bottom of your footing or at the least to the top of your footing well below your concrete floor elevation. 

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

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Home Flood Prevention and Mitigation

by Lee Seward Repairing Home, building a house, Construction, construction companies, construction contractor, construction contractors, Contractors, Custom Homes, Flood damage, general contractor services, Home Remodeling, licensed contractors, local building contractor, local construction company, new home construction, Rebuilding Homes, Remodeling, Renovation, small construction companies, Uncategorized

Flood Damage

Flood Mitigation

  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. 

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DIY PREVENTION

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  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. 

Raise Exterior Doors

  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? 

Elevate your Home

  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.

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How to hire a Remodeling Contractor

by Lee Seward Remodeling, building a house, Construction, construction companies, construction contractor, construction contractors, Contractors, Custom Homes, general contractor services, Home For Sale, Home Remodeling, Housing Market, licensed contractors, local building contractor, local construction company, new home construction, Property For Sale, Real Estate, Rebuilding Homes, Renovation, Repairing Home, small construction companies, Subcontractors

Remodeling in Pinellas County

  New Kitchen or Bathroom is very important to you and your Family. The added space or versatility in use or just updating the design to something current requires selecting a licensed contractor to do the work. 

  There are many steps in the process and everyone wants to save money. What typically happens is the cheapest path becomes the most expensive and sometimes never completed.  Horror story after horror story, clients have paid contractors more than 50% + of the contract and no or little work is completed in place. 

  Make sure you have answers to these questions in writing: 

  • What precisely is the scope of work?

  • How long will the work take overall?

  • What are the work hours/days?

  • Will I be out of a Kitchen for 2 weeks or 9 months?

  • What happens if the project takes a year?

  • What happens if you did not add work but the Contractor wants more money?

  • Who is responsible for managing the subcontractors? 

  • Is the contractor capitalized to operate business?

  Typical issues

  Google Reviews, There are companies you can hire to create multiple positive Google reviews. Companies with lots of positive reviews are not safe from being bad companies. But there is a way to vet the reviews to help pick good from bad. Read the reviews and you will start to see who the company truly is. You can tell the fake ones from real, the anger from clients and the absurdity from the contractors responses. 

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Summary Sheet of New Home Cost

Renovation in Naples

If you follow these steps you will reduce a bad experience.

  1. Read the reviews and responses.

  2. Stay away from narcissistic responses from the contractor.

  3. Meet face to face with the contractor and go over the work ask about all details.

  4. Review the estimate provided by the contractor beyond the price, look for details= product description, qty, cost. 

  5. Ask for written language of time duration and how will the work be managed.

  6. Ask for missing details to be added.

  7. Define what you are expected to do and what you expect from them.

  8. Add language for delays. 

Transparency

  Selecting the contractor because they provided the lower cost doesn’t mean that is the real cost. I have seen this numerous times over the years, clients pick the lower cost.

  Now what?

  The number was wrong, the contractor did not include 1/2 the work and you find out when you are to far in. You signed a contract that has no finish details but pages of how you cannot give a bad review or negative press. 

  If you have no details explaining what is included in your project then do not hire the contractor, this is true for Plumbing, Electrical, HVAC, Roofing, or General Contracting, Lawn Mowing, Car Repair, etc. 

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Contractor not showing up

Above we discussed how to avoid a bad situation, but what if you are already in one?

Here are some things you need to know.

  1. Confront your contractor and request a completion schedule in writing, make sure you paper all interactions going forward.

  2. Request a list of who and what was paid to date along with signed, notarized lien waivers. 

  3. The lien waivers are proof of payment and you need to know who was paid and how much by your contractor.

  4. Regardless of how much you paid your contractor, if the subcontractors were not paid they can legally (within 90 days) lien your home and foreclose on your property.  

  5. The state of Florida is very difficult to obtain a contractor license. You can use this as leverage, all contractors are out of business without a license. Report your contractor, it is a class one felony to take a clients payment and use the funds for anything outside of the clients project. 

  6. Threaten a lawsuit and hire an attorney. Most likely you have paid for the majority of the work and nothing or hardly anything is completed on site. Hire an attorney and go after the liability insurance the contractor has, also you can go after the state for allowing this person to operate. If this has happened to you there is a very high probability there are many more clients in the same situation, find them and share the cost. 

  7. If you have come to terms, sign a new amendment to go with your original contract. Be certain to have an agreed completion date, cost to complete, timeline and penalty for delays,  all missing details of what is included, and all lien waivers that match your overall payments to date and request lien waivers for all future payments.   

  If you are in a bad situation with your current contractor we can help you by providing you with a real cost to complete the work. This can be used to collect the overpayments you have made to your contractor. We can also work for you as an owners rep and help manage your contractor to complete the work at or near the contract price if possible. 

New Bathroom or Kitchen

If you want to remodel your home please contact Iridium Development Inc. We provide free transparent estimates that are detailed. Our contracts are detailed as well and we use industry standard AIA contracts. During the construction process, we provide our clients with login portals to view who we paid and how much we paid each vendor and sub. 

You can be assured our prices are very fair, the cost includes the entire scope of work to perform the work and complete the work. We stand by our timelines and minimize the overall duration. With our full transparency we eliminate stress and drama and that is always our goal.