wrote:
On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:39:44 -0400, HK wrote:

wrote:
On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:08:56 -0400, HK wrote:

Frogwatch wrote:
On Apr 17, 11:25 am, "mmc" wrote:
What a novel idea:http://www.raisedfloorliving.com/
Like this is something new?
No, this is traditional "Cracker house" construction. My house is
built this way.
Not unusual in areas with high water tables...and gives the termites
something beefy - the posts - on which to chew.
These houses usually use 2.5 CCA posts and there isn't much that can
eat them. I still have some cutoffs from a house built in 1980 on Pine
Island and I use one for a bunk for my jon boat on my dock. It still
looks brand new. I have couple more that I keep next to the garage (in
the grass) for blocking up my trailer when I am working on the boat.
Same thing, still look new.
There were a few in Jax where the posts either were rotted out or were
eaten. I have no idea how the posts were treated. Most of the raised
floor houses I saw there, though, were on short concrete piers.

A lot of construction in Florida was done before they really had an
effective building code. People would come down here and do things
like they did up north with disastrous results. Just simple things
like "where does the vapor barrier go?" can make for bad situations.
The whole wind code issue is virtually unknown once you get much north
of the Florida line. That is why some little dust devil gets called a
tornado up there in Md because it rips off a bunch of shingles and
siding. We need engineered, stamped plans to build a shed these days.
You do see the difference after a storm though. Old, pre-code houses
still get blown up but the newer ones come out unscathed. One of my
best demonstrations is the Gilchrist house in Texas. That was built to
the same 150 MPH code Florida requires south of Miami.
It speaks for itself.
http://gfretwell.com/electrical/art....house.irpt.jpg


I spent close to a month in south Florida after Andrew preparing a
booklet for a client on how various structures handled the storm and its
aftermath. Hope I still have a few copies of it somewhere. It was pretty
decent, with lots of photos, a few drawings, explanations, all reviewed
by the proper sort of engineers. Codes and lack of code enforcement were
big issues in south Florida then.

That's a great photo, by the way. Never saw it before.