By Richard Wall
Barbara Revels' crew has just wrapped up the framing and window installation stage of a three-story house fronting the Atlantic Ocean (about 60 yards near at high tide). For coastal builders in Florida, where hurricanes drive wind, rain and building codes, these steps are crucial to the home's final integrity — and, in this case, to Revels' reputation as a hometown builder in Flagler Beach.
Her company, Coquina Real Estate and Construction Inc., has been putting up homes along this stretch of coast for 25 years, with Revels generally managing three or four residential projects at a time. She says framing is tougher along coastal areas, where codes specify strict requirements for a structure's design category based on wind speed tolerances (130 mph in Flagler Beach), design pressure and debris potential.
And then there are requirements she puts on her own company — standards she sets as a quality builder concerned about the durability of her houses. "I haven't built a home along the ocean in the last 20 years that didn't use 2x6's for framing, not 2x4's," says Revels. "All exterior walls are 2x6's. It's not code; it's something you work out with your engineer."
The quality of the framing crew is pivotal on a coastal job, too. It isn't a building environment for what Revels calls "men with tools," which isn't meant as a gender-based criticism. Revels looks for framers who understand what she calls "engineering the house."
"You know you have a good framer when you first meet him on the job site and he has 50 questions for you," says Revels, who is a former president of the Florida Home Builders Association. "There are a lot of framers who can stand up a stud wall, but beyond that, they just don't get it," says Revels. "They don't get how you put your housewrap paper on and overlap as a counter-flashing measure for water."
Bottom-up tie-down
Revels uses a threaded rod system to anchor the framing from the foundation concrete to the roof. Some firms have copyrighted systems and will design for a structure, or an engineer can specify materials, spacing and fastening parameters.
"You always position one of the rods on either side of a window or a door," says Revels. "The rod system may interrupt the spacing of windows and doors, because sometimes you have a window here and on another floor it's over there. You have to work through that transference of load in your design."
The alternate, approved method for securing coastal framing is to use clips and straps. Revels prefers the threaded rod method for several reasons:
- It's faster and simpler.
- Strap requirements can call for 12 nails in a stud, which may compromise its integrity.
- Straps and clips can interfere with baseboard and other installations.
- An inspector has to check every strap.
No room for window errors
Coastal framers have less room for error on window openings, too — half an inch or less. "If they don't get it right, you have to start padding your opening before putting in the window," says Revels. "That padding has to be firmly fastened. In the past, you might have a framer who left an extra inch, and we'd put in shims. But you can't do that anymore."
Other aspects of window and door installation on this beachfront home include:
- The Andersen windows installed in the house use a new code-approved fastening system with an integral piece of metal that is split into the frame.
- On the exterior, window openings are taped against water intrusion, and stucco goes over that with more waterproofing measures.
- Windows and doors are set in aluminum flashing that is turned up underneath the trim. The principle is to begin with a waterproof membrane, then layer, counter, layer, counter for constant counter-flashing, then apply waterproofing tape.
- A building inspector must check out the work before it is covered up with cladding or trim.
The house has an insulated attic with cement board soffits that don't allow air flow. Failures of conventional soffits account for considerable home damage during hurricanes; new Florida codes address those concerns. But with a closed-system home like this one, window and door installation has to be perfect.
"If you've got something that's not caulked just right, that's not fitted just right, where there is a chance for a little tiny leak, it creates a negative pressure inside," says Revels. "When you've got lowering pressures outside with a hurricane, it will absolutely pull water through a pin hole."
If that happens, you crack open a window on the other side of the house, just like they used to do in old beach homes as hurricanes blew by.
Then you call Revels.
Richard Wall lives in St. Augustine, Fla., and writes about the building industry from his 20-year-old coastal home, which could easily be flooded and/or blown away by a hurricane.
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