Friday I had a great conversation with Steve Murray of Murray Homes Inc (www.murrayhomesinc.com), who is a prominent and knowledgable builder of high-end coastal homes. We have a client who is smitten with Longboat Key ("LBK"), and he'd like a single-family home on the beachfront with one particular amenity required -- a tennis court.
Talk about narrowing your search parameters! The number of homes for sale on LBK, beach-front, with tennis court, can be counted on the fingers of one hand -- with several fingers to spare!
With so little to choose from, we must explore other options, like adding a tennis court to an existing home OR obtaining a raw lot to start building from scratch.
But first, the resales. The one house with tennis court we did find is rather old (early 60's) and not that large. Our client asked if he would able to add a second story to it. That prompted a call to Steve Murray.
Steve gave me a crash course in beach construction.
A direct hit from a Category 1 storm could bring storm surge of 17 feet, which is why the new FEMA standards require that the first floor of new construction be no lower than that (this varies depending on exact location). The building must be able to stand up to:
- The high winds, of course
- The battering of the high water
- The scouring action of the waves, which can suck the sand right out from under the foundation
To build a home that can take it, regulations require that concrete pilings be driven down to bedrock, sometimes 30 feet or more (as many as 50 pilings, at $1,000 per piling). The pilings are then cut off evenly at ground level and a cap of concrete is poured as the foundation for all that follows. The pilings and walls are then installed to the level required for the first floor to begin (the garage and other non-living spaces will be under the first floor). And from there, up you go.
To build a beachfront house, bottom line, will cost a good deal more than its duplicate non-beachfront house, plus added engineering and permitting fees, and the whole permitting process will take 5-6 months before the first tradesman touches the site.
All necessary so that your property is still standing the day after the storm.
With that in mind, would you spend money to add a second story to an exisiting (pre-hurricane code) house -- knowing that a direct hit from a hurricane would take it all away? Almost certainly not a good investment.
Better to demolish the old building and start over; the cost of the demolition is minute compared to the overall cost of the property.
Steve was fantastic: Knowledgable and generous with his time ... and helped us to advise our client well!
To be continued ...
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