Tips for Rebuilding After a Flood: Ready for the Next One

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Rebuilding after a flood* SUCKS! You didn’t want this, you don’t want to go through the mess, and you wouldn’t wish it on your worst enemy. It is one of the toughest experiences you will EVER have, picking up the pieces with what is left both physically and emotionally.

Good on you that you are here online figuring out what can be “better” next time. You are planning ahead like it will happen again, but let’s hope not in your lifetime. A few, yet sometimes overlooked choices when rebuilding after a flood can make the next rebuild much easier, faster and cheaper!

There are a few different methods to do this:

1. Upgrades to the existing structure making it either less flood prone, or making it stronger.
2. Methods involving different kinds of material choices to go back in place of their predecessors.
3. New ways to reconstruct different parts of your home so the repairs are faster despite still needing replacement.

These are more than just talking points in a nice little article you read on the internet as a list of pretty ideas–we are currently making these changes in the homes we are rebuilding in the area affected by Hurricane Harvey. We want you to REALLY consider them for yourself too!

Raise as much as you can

Your best bet to win against the next flood is a change in elevation. Ideally you would raise your entire house above the flood line. Buillding a Texas basement–moving your livable space up an entire story and creating a space below for parking, a workshop, etc.–lifts your home out of harms way.

If a house lift is cost prohibitive, there are other smaller measures allowing you to get back in your home sooner and cheaper next time. Make a list of all your valuable home systems. If you can think of it, it should go up. Think about your water heater, your air conditioning unit outside if it is on the ground, a generator, etc.

This even extends to your electrical system. Consider raising the level of those low outlets along the wall where are you currently have to bend over and touch your toes to plug in your vacuum.

Anything that can possibly go up above the floodline should get raised.

Tips to make it stronger against the next flood

By making your home stronger you are increasing odds you come back to a home that is salvageable. Less structural damage and the ability to stand strong against moving water is essential when water rises.

Hurricane ties

Here are a couple different kinds of hurricane ties in action.

Hurricane ties are a must if you live along the coast, in Tornado Alley, or anywhere with micro bursts– which doesn’t really leave many areas left out. Hurricane ties protect the roof of your home from being ripped off during high wind weather. Specifically, these metal brackets connect your trusses to the wall plates, strengthening your house and roof against wind uplift up to a certain MPH. How much depends on your local code.

An older home may or may not be retrofitted with hurricane ties. It is certainly easier to retrofit hurricane ties when your walls are open in the middle of a rebuild. It is also possible when reroofing a house, but it is much more difficult going down from the roof because you have to take off part of the decking.

Flood vents

When four feet of water is ripping through your neighborhood you are going to get some kind of water coming in through the lower level of your home. Flood vents are like a doggie door for the water. They are placed along the bottom edge of the lower level of unoccupied rooms, foundation stem walls, and garages. When the water comes it allows the water to enter. This keeps negative pressure from building inside the foundation or sides of the structure. If it did build up instead as the water rises it breaks out windows and doors and the force of water through the house causes much more damage structurally.

Water still pours in through the vents but the vent also prevents massive amounts of debris and soil from entering into the garage or first floor basement. Just imagine how much shoveling you do not need to do. Instead, you fire up your power washer and spray what little came in back out of where it came in: the flood vents.

We are using Smart Vents in the garages we are currently renovating as pictured above.

Tips for reconstruction with rinse and reuse building materials

There are a few different options for flooring and walls. By choosing the right kind of materials this time around you have the ability to walk back into your home, rinse off the floor and move to the next repair. The same can be said for walls to minimize the work involved during the next flood. Walls are more of a two step process: replacing with the correct materials as well as how they go back into place.

Flooring materials

As we have covered before, tile needs to go despite the fact many people unknowingly leave tile behind at their peril. When you have flood waters entering from the outside, it seeps into EVERYTHING. If it is related to cement (mortar or grout), it is porous. These materials have millions of microscopic holes where water will go and stay. Flood water will even soak into a concrete slab given enough time and volume!

Unfortunately, there are very few traditional options for salvageable flooding, but at least there are a couple. Terrazzo and sealed concrete are rarely used, but are the two options for wash and go. Everything else: remove and replace.

Exterior wall materials

Brick, cement board, stack stone, vinyl siding, and stucco are all different exterior choices that are wash and reuse type materials on the exterior. That is, if they are high enough quality and supporting pieces like mortar are also in good condition.

Another potential problem is if you discover a material that cannot be reused in between the exterior material and the framing. Gypsum board is one kind of old school type housewrap that needs to go. A drywall board surrounded with tar paper, it has to be removed for the safety of all inhabitants so mold cannot grow unseen in the walls.

Removing gypsum board from the inside leaves a gap between the exterior brick and framing. More on this soon. In order to fix this the exterior needs to be removed as well as the gypsum and a new exterior needs to go into place.

You also have to think about what goes back in to reseal your home since the gypsum board is gone. Dorken Delta Vent SA is a newer air and moisture barrier product we are using in place of commonly used Tyvek. More on this in a forthcoming post…

Ceiling insulation material in the ceiling: spray foam on the roof decking

You are definitely dropping your drywall ceiling if…

• the flood water went all the way into the attic,
• or your contractor sees that there are problems with your ceiling and you’re already gutting the rest of the house,
• or your contractor sees that there are problems with the framing or the truss structure up above your ceiling.

When you’re at the point of dropping your drywall ceiling you’re also dropping the blown in or batt insulation above the ceiling (and the accompanying dirt and debris).

A newer way of insulating is spray foam. You contract out a spray foam company to come out with their truck mount system and spray open cell foam on to the rafters and decking below the roof. The entire area underneath a roof is now part of interior envelope of your house.

With this new insulation, the next time the flood rolls through you’re not dealing with ANY insulation in the attic. Second, this is more energy efficient and you’re saving on cooling costs. Third, it’s now easier to access anything in the attic including plumbing, electrical, air conditioning, and cable lines. Fourth, you don’t have to deal with any of the old insulation dust that clogs your nose and lungs or wear a mask when you go up there. Fifth, the air quality inside your home improves.

Tips for reconstruction with easily replaced materials and new rebuilding techniques

Closed cell foam or Roxsul as insulation in the walls

Closed cell spray foam is the state of the art insulation filling in gaps and sealing off the wall cavity from exterior elements.  Closed cell spray foam is applied once the new sheathing, electrical, plumbing, cable and other wall cavity items are in place. Next, paint everything with acrylic latex paint–not just the foam, but also the framing. This essentially makes the wall cavity a wash and close back up area after the next flood.

If closed cell spray foam is out of the budget consider Roxsul instead of regular insulation. Regular paper faced insulation has to get pulled out especially because it soaks up water. Blown in insulation products do as well. Roxsul improves on this by being a non-wicking material. It still needs to get ripped out, but when Roxsul is the same price as standard insulation why choose a wicking material over a non-wicking material?**

Just to get us all on the same page, you can compare the soaking property of standard insulation to Roxsul by looking at the difference between the sponge and green brillo pad in your sink. The sponge soaks up water, grime and retains it. Meanwhile the green pad sheds water quickly preventing mold, odor, and other contaminants from building up.

Drywall installation technique

There is no getting around waterlogged drywall has to be replaced. However, there is a method that makes replacement cheaper, faster and easier.

Normally drywall is put up and 4’ x 8’ or 4’ x 12’ sheets horizontally along the wall. Once all the drywall is in place then it’s taped and floated so each wall is perfectly flat. When flood water hits it it continues to soak upwards. So despite the fact that the water only goes so high in your house you still have to take out additional drywall above and beyond. The water continues to soak up an additional foot or more upwards.

If you go past the four foot mark you might as well go to the ceiling because a drywall crew is faster and it is easier match the finish across the entire wall. Imagine piecing together an extra foot or two of drywall throughout an entire house. Think about all of the extra floating to make it seamless. No way. You won’t be happy with the schedule, the final look (paint really highlights even long floated seams on the wall) or cost. Neither will the drywall crew.

With the normal application of drywall, if the water only goes up to the four feet mark you still have to take out about five feet. But what if the water is not allowed to wick upwards?

To address this, if the drywall is hung with a larger seam space intentionally left in between the sheets. Instead of mudding, basically attaching the two sheets together, it is left open. Wicking cannot occur between two separate surfaces. Instead, a chair rail covers the gap keeping them separate and helps control the capillary action property of water. With this different technique, if the flood water level stops anywhere below the four feet mark a drywall crew can quickly replace full sheets on the bottom.

In this scenario, when water hits you are buying yourself less odds of water soaking upwards if there is not as much water in the house. So let’s say that same one foot of water comes through. All you would have to do is take off the chair rail and rip out the bottom four feet. You also have less chance of damaging the top four feet or having to tape and float anything horizontally.

Another method is to have drywall along the top four feet of your wall and a different wall treatment entirely on the bottom for feet. Imagine coming in after a flood taking off the wainscotting covering the screws, unscrewing the boards, and then screwing new ones back in place. Demo would be ridiculously clean.

The bottom of the wall is also another place for drywall hanging improvement. Instead of going all the way to the base plate, the drywall stops short, allowing an air gap at the bottom for water to drain out. Baseboard covers up this gap. This is a small, yet effective way at fighting mold growth in the short term by keeping the water draining out of the house as fast as possible. However, before you choose this installation option, please check with your local building inspectors to make sure it is allowed due to fire ordinances.

It is a lot cheaper, faster and easier to replace drywall in a house with these installation techniques. Every drywall crew will appreciate your effort and, if unfamiliar with the technique, will probably try using it on their next jobs.

Cabinet material and installation

There are some ideas to keep in mind when selecting you replacement cabinetry. First, do NOT use MDF cabinets at all. None. Never. When this wood product comes in contact with water, it soaks it up (and the stuff in it) and begins to swell and break apart. It cannot be saved or reused. The best option is to have replacement cabinets made of marine grade plywood (best) or all finish/ paint grade plywood at least ½ inch in thickness. These materials are more resilient and resistant to water and flooding. Homeowners MAY be able to salvage the cabinets and have them restored by professional restoration firms, thus making replacement costs less. This may also remove the hassle of choosing new ones all over again.

There are additional steps that can make cabinet survival and restoration easier. Install the countertops and cabinets with possible repairs in mind. Mount countertops/ countertop plywood substrates with screws from below and inside cabinet base boxes. Consider having all of your cabinet bases cabinets be modular units connected together. Also, install toe kicks that are angled inward a bit with removable faces. Add adjustable legs/ feet to the bottom of your base cabinets where they do not rest on the floor and reducing damage to the bottom box structure. For uppers, still go modular, but hang the cabinets using a cleat system. These suggestions allow for remediation and restoration crews to have a better chance to save your materials for possible reuse instead of replacement.

If all else fails, purchase flood insurance

A flood event is not covered in your regular home insurance policy. Even if you are not in a flood plain consider buying one. Floodplain maps are more like guidelines. The actual rainfall or flow of a river is what really matters.

No map can 100% predict who or what is in the path. The rainfall in the summers of 2016 and 2017 in Texas and Louisiana had huge numbers of flooded homes without flood insurance.

If there’s any chance of rising water based on too many houses being built in the next subdivision causing a problem of rain runoff trust your gut. Even a localized rain can flood one water retention watershed and leave another within a few miles high and dry. Buy yourself peace of mind with a flood insurance policy.

Not only is this tip the easiest, but it is also the quickest!

Better methods for rebuilding after a flood this time to prepare for the next time.

All of these measures are great ways to minimize flood damage the next time around. Some of these measures, such as raising your house and adding in flood vents, may also lower your flood insurance premium.

Many times building code in the local area requires some of these measures during new and remodel construction. Of course, you do not have to limit yourself to code. The more you put in the better, safer and stronger your home is for the next round.

There are other improvements to consider once you are in the rebuild phase. Any extras you can throw in for the same cost of rebuilding are just a bonus. Considering upgrades when part of the cost is covered is also a bonus. You can also consider other improvements for ADA compliance and wheelchair access.

Let’s be real. You may not have much more peace of mind during the next event. However, you are increasing your odds at coming home to a more intact house, less to fix, and move back in to a SAFE home more quickly the next time around.

*A category 3 flood in your house. Read: water coming from your local sewage system and/ or groundwater, not your washing machine line breaking.

**It also has a special place in my heart since Mike Holmes loves the material too.