One thing that Florida residents may have to worry about is the continued rise of the sea. Sea rise can have a significant impact on the state, especially because there are so many people living along the coast.
As the sea continues to rise due to natural disasters like hurricanes or climate change, residents in Florida may see floodwaters and the sea levels impacting their homes. If this isn’t considered during construction, then entire properties could be ruined.
What’s interesting about sea rise is that Florida’s building codes don’t require sea rise to be considered specifically. Instead, the last update asked construction teams to add an additional foot of elevation to any new construction. A study from Florida International University suggested that the foot may not be enough, and two would be more appropriate.
When a building code doesn’t take sea rise into account in a state where the ocean affects many of its residents, homes, businesses and other properties could be threatened. There are current ideas, such as developing region-specific sea level rise curves to determine how high construction teams need to build. Until then, the reality is that there is little that the building code does to protect consumers or the people building properties.
If you are planning to build, you can tell the construction team to build higher in accordance with these suggestions from the latest studies. Right now, they’re not coded, so a construction team is unlikely to build higher without specific guidance. Not building higher could lead to foundation and septic tank problems, among other issues, so it’s something to consider.
