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Iridium Development

IRIDIUM DEVELOPMENT INC.

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Home Flood Prevention and Mitigation

Flood Damage

Flood Mitigation

  When you have water damage the first thing you need to do when the water recedes is to dehumidify the area. If you have a dehumidifier set it up to run 24-7. If you do not have one then you can set your thermostat low and run your ac until you are able to get your hands on a dehumidifier. Remove everything that is wet from the house including drywall. Cut the drywall above the waterline until you find dry area. Drywall will soak the water so the sooner you cut it the less you will need to purchase later. Remove wet wood moldings carefully so you can possibly re-use when it drys out. 

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DIY PREVENTION

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  Besides raising your home there are steps you can take to prevent damage from storm surges. One is notice how the water has entered your home. Through the walls, through doorways etc. If your home is block construction on concrete slab (like the one in the picture), the focus needs to be on waterproofing the lower level of the masonry walls. Raise your entrance doors and help offset water damage to the extent possible. 

Raise Exterior Doors

  In the picture (above) you see the step up to enter the home at the front door, this is good and you can also see the space above the front door to the ceiling. Raise your front door, create steps and landing outside, modify the ceiling inside and outside, create a landing inside to step down. This would need to be done at all exterior doors including the one from the garage to the house. 

  Next, waterproof the entire lower section from below the interior floor level. Dig the soil away where possible by hand and apply a waterproof membrane. Manufactures are plenty (Laticrete is a brand we use often) and apply this over the surface and include the area you raised under your door ways. Cover the surface area heavily including wall to floor along your garage floor and walls,  apply multiple coats after each drys properly. You can also apply Laticrete to the lower section of your finish interior walls and the corner of the floor, this will stop water from intruding into the wall and prevent your drywall from getting wet in the event you experience water intrusion. Laticrete and most products can be painted over so this will allow you to blend it in. They have a fabric that can be applied at the corner of the wall and floor, this will seal the edges and keep the wall dry. 

  The steps above will help resist water from flooding into your home based on the elevation but it is not a sure fix. Elevate your home is a sure fix and this can be done by building over your existing walls. The cost to elevate your home will reduce your flood insurance and increase your home value. Repairing will help prevent damage from surges at the lowest expense to you, but it will not increase your home value. 

    Information to know, single story masonry block wall homes are built on top of concrete footings set in the dirt. The floors are concrete slabs installed over compacted soil. Your interior walls are built over the concrete slab. House movers raise homes, these homes are typically wood frame homes (floor & walls) built on top of foundations. The interior floors are structural wood floors with beams posted down to concrete footings. To raise a wood frame home there are location points used to jack up the home, because the floor is structural they use the post locations to raise the floor and the entire home. 

  Could you lift a slab on grade single story masonry home in similar fashion? Yes but in order to raise it supports have to be added to the existing concrete slab that your interior walls sit on. So you tunnel underneath to add supports and lift or you cut up the existing floor and add supports to lift. Think of the amount of work involved. Labor is expensive and really what are you saving in the end? 

Elevate your Home

  Our solution is to remove your roof demo all of the interior walls and flooring, reinforce footings as needed with masonry piers, plus necessary anchors, then build a new floor, with new walls on top of your existing block walls at the elevation required. 3-4 months work and done to the style design you want all new. 

  The cost to elevate your home increases the value of your home offsetting the cost to do the work. We can raise your existing home at a cost of $111-$185 per square foot. The price is based on the structural integrity of your existing foundation and maintaining the same footprint of your existing home.

If you are interested give us a call and we can provide you with a free estimate. 561-597-0021.

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How to hire a Remodeling Contractor

Remodeling in Pinellas County

  New Kitchen or Bathroom is very important to you and your Family. The added space or versatility in use or just updating the design to something current requires selecting a licensed contractor to do the work. 

  There are many steps in the process and everyone wants to save money. What typically happens is the cheapest path becomes the most expensive and sometimes never completed.  Horror story after horror story, clients have paid contractors more than 50% + of the contract and no or little work is completed in place. 

  Make sure you have answers to these questions in writing: 

  • What precisely is the scope of work?

  • How long will the work take overall?

  • What are the work hours/days?

  • Will I be out of a Kitchen for 2 weeks or 9 months?

  • What happens if the project takes a year?

  • What happens if you did not add work but the Contractor wants more money?

  • Who is responsible for managing the subcontractors? 

  • Is the contractor capitalized to operate business?

  Typical issues

  Google Reviews, There are companies you can hire to create multiple positive Google reviews. Companies with lots of positive reviews are not safe from being bad companies. But there is a way to vet the reviews to help pick good from bad. Read the reviews and you will start to see who the company truly is. You can tell the fake ones from real, the anger from clients and the absurdity from the contractors responses. 

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Summary Sheet of New Home Cost

Renovation in Naples

If you follow these steps you will reduce a bad experience.

  1. Read the reviews and responses.

  2. Stay away from narcissistic responses from the contractor.

  3. Meet face to face with the contractor and go over the work ask about all details.

  4. Review the estimate provided by the contractor beyond the price, look for details= product description, qty, cost. 

  5. Ask for written language of time duration and how will the work be managed.

  6. Ask for missing details to be added.

  7. Define what you are expected to do and what you expect from them.

  8. Add language for delays. 

Transparency

  Selecting the contractor because they provided the lower cost doesn’t mean that is the real cost. I have seen this numerous times over the years, clients pick the lower cost.

  Now what?

  The number was wrong, the contractor did not include 1/2 the work and you find out when you are to far in. You signed a contract that has no finish details but pages of how you cannot give a bad review or negative press. 

  If you have no details explaining what is included in your project then do not hire the contractor, this is true for Plumbing, Electrical, HVAC, Roofing, or General Contracting, Lawn Mowing, Car Repair, etc. 

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Contractor not showing up

Above we discussed how to avoid a bad situation, but what if you are already in one?

Here are some things you need to know.

  1. Confront your contractor and request a completion schedule in writing, make sure you paper all interactions going forward.

  2. Request a list of who and what was paid to date along with signed, notarized lien waivers. 

  3. The lien waivers are proof of payment and you need to know who was paid and how much by your contractor.

  4. Regardless of how much you paid your contractor, if the subcontractors were not paid they can legally (within 90 days) lien your home and foreclose on your property.  

  5. The state of Florida is very difficult to obtain a contractor license. You can use this as leverage, all contractors are out of business without a license. Report your contractor, it is a class one felony to take a clients payment and use the funds for anything outside of the clients project. 

  6. Threaten a lawsuit and hire an attorney. Most likely you have paid for the majority of the work and nothing or hardly anything is completed on site. Hire an attorney and go after the liability insurance the contractor has, also you can go after the state for allowing this person to operate. If this has happened to you there is a very high probability there are many more clients in the same situation, find them and share the cost. 

  7. If you have come to terms, sign a new amendment to go with your original contract. Be certain to have an agreed completion date, cost to complete, timeline and penalty for delays,  all missing details of what is included, and all lien waivers that match your overall payments to date and request lien waivers for all future payments.   

  If you are in a bad situation with your current contractor we can help you by providing you with a real cost to complete the work. This can be used to collect the overpayments you have made to your contractor. We can also work for you as an owners rep and help manage your contractor to complete the work at or near the contract price if possible. 

New Bathroom or Kitchen

If you want to remodel your home please contact Iridium Development Inc. We provide free transparent estimates that are detailed. Our contracts are detailed as well and we use industry standard AIA contracts. During the construction process, we provide our clients with login portals to view who we paid and how much we paid each vendor and sub. 

You can be assured our prices are very fair, the cost includes the entire scope of work to perform the work and complete the work. We stand by our timelines and minimize the overall duration. With our full transparency we eliminate stress and drama and that is always our goal. 

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Shore Acres Pop Up

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Flood Damage Home Solution

Stop dealing with high flood insurance and damage. Raise the house and increase your home/property value. 

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No More Damage

We can use your existing footprint and build a new home on top of your block walls. We simply add columns and beams to support the new level.   

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New Second Story Home

This is a proven solution to ending extreme flood insurance premiums and also having to deal with water damage. Starting at $185,000 we can build an elevated home that would have a finished valuation of $950,000-$1,100,000. 

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Selective Demo

We do not go in and crush your home, we selectively demo your current home. Utilize the existing bones and build off by shoring up the existing frame. This saves you cost and time. Our process is complete for you in under 6 months. 

We start with the layout of your existing home and rebuild that layout over the top of your concrete block walls. This is done by adding new columns and support beams. 

If you have a Florida home in a flood zone, contact us for a free estimate and stop paying extreme flood insurance premiums. Protect your investment and increase your homes value. Repairing an existing flood prone home is equal to burning your cash. Raising your home increases your net worth.  

info@iridiumdev.io

561-597-0021