Step 13: Hurricane Prep
September 2018
It isn't a construction project without a few bumps in the road, so why not a hurricane?
It isn't a construction project without a few bumps in the road, so why not a hurricane?
See that purple part? Yeah. We're in there.
Of course we did regular hurricane prep like tying down the dock boxes and then taking everything off the dock that could fly away - chairs, water skis, fishing rods, etc. - and putting it in storage. That was some dirty work. When we emptied out the house, we didn't really get to cleaning out the rafters of the dock, where my dad had been storing old broken skis and other random things... for 30+ years. Some of that stuff had been up in the rafters of the dock for a loooong time. Let's just say lots of dried out wasps' nests falling on my head.
We tied up the canoe and the sailboat and took the motor boat out of the lake. The club decided to lower the lake in anticipation of flooding. Almost 20 years ago, when Hurricane Floyd came through in 1999, the dam was destroyed and it was a huge expense for the community to repair the damage. Hopefully with the lake lowered, even with the flooding we anticipate, it will only fill in the lake, not overflow. Or at least not as much.
But the construction site was a whole other story. No idea how to even start on that. Thankfully our contractor came out with a whole crew of guys to get the house ready for a hurricane. This is why you hire a general contractor, people.
One of the biggest concerns we have had in planning out the remodel has been the fact that, because the house is on a hill, when we get hard rains, rain would often come down the driveway and gather by the back of the house under the carport and not drain properly down the hill. The contractor has been working on a plan to regrade the area and pour a new concrete pad that will divert the water away from the house properly. But that phase of the construction work hasn't started yet. So... he and the guys came out and started digging out trenches and put up some temporary gutters and piping to divert the water away from the house. Here's hoping it works!
They also wrapped the whole house in that construction plastic stuff because we haven't put siding back up yet. They even covered up all the exposed windows and doors with it to protect them from the storm:
They also covered the dumpster in the same stuff and tied it down, since it had all the drywall and other debris in it. Not like drywall is so light it can easily fly out in the wind, but, you know, just in case:
From this angle, you can really see where the rain water typically comes down the driveway straight towards the house.
They also went ahead and put in the posts on the screened in porch, since it was only propped up with temporary braces. This is another just in case step, to keep it from getting blown over in the storm. Put up a little earlier than planned in the process just for safety, but it's exciting to see the porch come together too!
Feeling much better about the house making it through the storm. Bring it on, Florence!
We have homes still going up around us, and it has been interesting watching the prep beforehand. The most important thing for me was tying down the porta potty!!! Could you imagine that flying in your front yard! AHHH! Luckily they strapped it to the street sign. They said those things take a backhoe to come up, so hoping it stays on!!!
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