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Island Home Design
By Carolin Santangelo
A quiet debate continues over which exterior veneer is preferable for our coastal clime.
Shady Character
By Carolin Santangelo
This is the time of year you find yourself seeking out a breezy, shady spot to sit a spell. It is late in the summer, heat is built up in the atmosphere and by now we’re almost weary of it. Even the gulf isn’t very refreshing when it is so warm.
The best house design for our locale will incorporate outdoor areas such as open sun decks with thought given to some kind of shade or cover. Shady porches are an integral part of most prospective homeowner requests. It is particularly important for those who have spent time on the island before and have a pretty good idea how prevailing wind and sun direction will affect their new home’s livability.
Recent clients include those whose homes were irreparably damaged by hurricane Ike; their original homesteads having succumbed to a wrecking ball. After the sadness has passed, many of these clients embraced the opportunity to build a new custom home, specific to their family’s needs. Each knows their location well, benefits as well as disadvantages, and none would live anywhere else.
If budgets permit, most prospective homeowners who have the opportunity to develop new designs, desire covered porches both on the street side — for protected access to front entry — and on the view side — whether that be beach, bay, canal or preserve — for easy access to and from living areas. While the western sun exposure gets a bad rap, don’t neglect to cover areas that are east facing, which can use a break from summer’s hot early morning sun.
A feature that is being incorporated into covered decks is a screened enclosure, often intended for outdoor dining, with direct access to indoor kitchen and eating areas. Screened–in porches ensure unwanted guests like mosquitoes or other seasonal bugs don’t interrupt outdoor dining events.
A pergola can be an attractive and reasonably priced addition to most any style existing home, providing relief from the sun. Pergolas can be a quick and easy construction project over an existing deck. Manufacturers even package pergolas for purchase as kits. This may be a DIY (do-it-yourself) project for those who are handy and so inclined. Local contractors can probably whip up a project of this type within days. Open joists, particularly of 2” x 8”, or greater depth, will provide filtered shade, which may be great solution if you are concerned about reducing natural light to adjacent indoor areas.
On the other hand, this look won’t provide rain protection in the event you’d like to entertain outdoors and a sudden rainstorm (we’ve recently had plenty of them) would spoil your event. Though a pergola can even be combined with removable canvas shades, this will barely stop a shower, and a canvas cover ideally should be removed in the event of extreme weather.
A more permanent alternative is to add a covered porch, with roof, to your deck or to parts of your deck. A partial cover can be added, for instance, over just half the deck. Any size cover or overhang projection may be possible. Always review your construction decision with your local HOA and city. There may be restrictions on the type of elevated or overhead structure that is allowed. No structure (decks, etc.) is permitted within a lot’s building set backs or easements and a building permit will be required.
Make sure that your contractor is experienced and has a good reputation. Ask for references and to see his or her previous work. You need a contractor who will do a good job of roofing and flashing appropriately where roof cover joins the existing, so that water penetration into the walls won’t become an issue. This means making certain that metal flashing is tucked beneath the bottom of existing siding and laps over the top of the new surface to be applied.
If you plan to add any type of porch cover, make sure it is sensitive to the scale and design of your house; so that it doesn’t overwhelm or offend it. You are looking for a feature that will provide comfort at the same time it adds character to your home.
Seek out a shady spot and find your happy place!
Carolin Santangelo is a home designer and owner of Seaside Home Design, LLC. To contact her, visit: SeasideHome@windstream.net, or call 409-632-0381.
Taking an 80s Contemporary to New Urban Modern
By Carolin Santangelo
Facing stunning sunset views of the back bay, and with canal access, Cindy and Dave almost had it all in the house on the far west end they purchased five years ago. The three bedroom, two bath house had enough sleeping accommodations although it didn’t have enough living space. In a somewhat constant state of improvement, its great features have been enhanced over the last few years.
An attractive built-in pool was added first; its amenities include in-water bar stools that overlook the bay. The original 80s contemporary style (or ‘contemptible’ style, if you will, due its poor use of space) had high clerestory ceilings, which contained huge and impressive, though generally useless, volumes. After a couple of years dealing with the constraints of cramped living and dining areas, Cindy and Dave decided to enlarge the space by enclosing an underused deck. It was a great solution; it utilized the existing structure and did not require additional pilings.
Their initial interest was just to increase the kitchen size and push the dining out onto the enlarged new space. After talking to a builder, it became apparent that it wouldn’t cost much more to expand their project and include more space in the master bedroom above and add a half bath, by taking in its open deck.
The decks never served the homeowners well as they did not provide adequate shade from the west sun. Nor were the decks weather resistant; open slat deck boards permitted rain to fall onto the deck and ground level patio below. While it would ordinarily seem counter productive to eliminate deck in our environment, where outdoor entertaining is so important, there would be no shortage of decking; the house now boasts a small covered porch over an existing open deck with room for seating, and which protects the front door, as well as original extensive decking from house out to another large deck above the boat slip.
The newly expanded dining room enjoys windows on three sides, extending views not just toward the bay, but up and down the canal in both directions.The addition of a standing seam metal roof shade cover over the large west facing windows also provides protection for the exterior deck stairs below which access the front door.
Most recently completed was a lowered ceiling above the volume living room. The new ceiling creates the floor for a new loft above, at the same time bringing the ceiling down to a height that has better scale which is more conducive to relaxed entertaining. Their recovered storyboards — collected in overseas travels, which floated away from the ground level storage area during Ike — now grace the living room walls. Here, IKEA storage components are an ideal, clean looking display for other artwork.
For the kitchen, Cindy shopped the sales and sourced IKEA cabinets in a warm brown stain, accented with stainless steel hardware and glass door inserts. Maple butcher-block slab countertop along one wall contains the workspaces, stainless steel appliances and under mount sink, which Cindy and Dave installed. White subway tile makes a clean looking backsplash. A 10 1/2 foot solid bamboo parquet slab makes an enormous island that is central to the remodeled kitchen, dining and living areas. Its shape promotes flow around the kitchen and its size provides a great buffet surface. Bar stools encourage guests to enjoy their refreshments out of the way of the workspace.
Aside from the initial structural addition, Cindy coordinated contractors for interior finishes which she and Dave could not do themselves. The work was not complete when Ike visited the island in late ’08. Furnishings, unfortunately, were stored on the ground level and most everything was a loss. While interior damage to the house was limited, enough moisture came in under the front door to make the yet unfinished end-cut wood floor cup and buckle, requiring sourcing of hard-to-find matching pieces from Lumber Liquidators. The boat dock was seriously damaged during Ike, and Dave personally rebuilt it when contractors were in heavy demand.
All in all, this was a most resourceful makeover; making the best use of features and spaces already contained by the original house, adding only a few hundred feet to its original 1,500 square feet, and yet expanding its functionality in so many ways.
Carolin Santangelo is a home designer and owner of Seaside Home Design, LLC. E-mail her at SeasideHome@windstream.net, or 409.632.0381. The home featured in this article is a popular weekly rental while the homeowners travel during the summer. For information about renting it, go to www.vrbo.com\232406.
What Is WPI-8 ?
by Carolin Santangelo
What Is WPI-8 ? And what does it mean to my construction or remodeling project?
Hint: It isn’t an acronym for engineers using wands, potions and incense to analyze your project.
WPI-8 is the certificate of compliance that is required upon completion of coastal home construction, which certifies a home as insurable for windstorm coverage with the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI). Think of it as ‘windstorm proof of insurance.’
Our location along the coast and on a barrier island comes with all the benefits of island living; sand and sun, recreational watersports, bird watching and fishing. This setting, seaward of the intra-coastal waterway, comes also with special requirements for construction, additions or exterior remodeling. It is precisely because of the close proximity to bay and beach, and its inherent
higher risk due to exposure to tropical storms and hurricane force winds, that these measures are necessary.
Once the design phase of your project is complete, drawings will be provided for engineering review, prior to acceptance by the city permitting department. You or your builder / contractor may identify the TDI-approved engineering firm that you wish to use. A windstorm engineer’s plan review — and follow-up, on-site inspections — are required for all new construction and exterior
remodeling to achieve the WPI-8. The engineer may package services together, with a single fee for plan review and inspections. During the framing process, it will be up to the contractor to schedule inspections at appropriate times. Once construction is completed to specifications, the engineer will sign off and a WPI-8 certificate is issued by the TDI.
There are perceptions that the windstorm engineering criteria may unnecessarily cost the homeowner more in construction and labor costs.
If you are paying for the service, however, don’t you want to ensure you are getting the best-engineered product, which will withstand the rigors of coastal weather conditions?
In discussion with David Franklin of Aran & Franklin Engineers, we talked about how important some features, and engineering analysis, are to the ultimate performance of the entire structure.
A hurricane tie is a small, but mighty piece of hardware designed to hold roof rafters to the walls of the house. There are a wide variety (whole catalogs) of clips that can be installed on any roof / rafter /wall configuration. These generally cost just a couple bucks apiece (note that hundreds may be required, depending on house size).
On a larger and more dramatic scale, substantially more beefy hold-down connectors may be specified to be used at critical positions throughout the house, but still cost only $25 to $35 each.
Last month extreme high winds were experienced overnight on the west end, and in the morning it was discovered that two houses in Sea Isle had been severely damaged. These older homes, which faced the beach, had deep roof overhangs and porch covers that caught the wind.
Hurricane Ike had not seriously affected either of these, and we can’t say what kind of tornado-like winds may have been experienced this time. However, predating current codes requiring application of hurricane clips or other connectors, both of these sustained catastrophic damage to their roofs and consequently, to their interiors.
David Franklin recommends a maximum roof overhang of 24 inches; an overhang less than this can be supported fully by the integral rafter tail extensions. Beyond 24 inches there must be additional engineered support. Additionally, porch overhangs should be supported via a combination of: connection to the roof, transferring wind load pressures from the roof through supporting posts and down to the pilings or foundation. Internal to the structure, shear walls are often used to resist the ‘overturning moment;’ to the layman, this means to make sure the house doesn’t twist in the wind. Shear wall is built of plywood panels on one or two sides of an interior wall, to assist in keeping the structure rigid, resisting undesired movement. When winds are applied to the roof, loads are transferred to the shear wall, which in turn, transfers pressure to the floor and to blocking between stringers.
Each project is different, though at strategic points hold-down connectors may be specified, along with extra bolts, beams, metal strapping, shear walls, insert shear panels or steel plates. Your project may include any or all of the above.
It may even be possible to apply connectors to your existing structure. If you have an older house, it may be prudent to hire a windstorm inspector to identify vulnerabilities in the structure that will benefit from reinforcement.
For the homeowner, these may seem to be non-gratifying details of your home’s construction. These special features will be installed behind the walls, immediately covered up with sheetrock and siding, never to be seen again. However, you will be able to sleep well at night, knowing that your home is designed and engineered to meet most extreme coastal weather conditions.
Consultation courtesy of David Franklin, Aran & Franklin Engineering, Inc. www.aranfranklin.com, 409-935-5200.
Carolin Santangelo is a home designer and owner of Seaside Home Design, LLC.
To contact, visit SeasideHome@windstream.net, or call 409.632.0381.
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