Before

The small house in Center Moriches, NY was filled with 3-4 inches of water during Sandy.  It sits directly across the street from the Moriches Bay, and is exposed to all the harsh elements of any storm.  This house was built in the 1950s and had little work done to it since.  This house needed a complete renovation and needed to be renovated with the idea that it could be flooded again.

The entire house was completely gutted down to the studs and joists and new insulation, sheetrock and flooring was added.  New kitchen, bathroom and heating/cooling system along with new plumbing and electrical services and infrastructure. When selecting the materials, we had to keep in mind the budget, (the budget did not allow us to raise the house above the floodplain), and we were able to select materials that weathered water better than others.  We choose a porcelain tile to lay throughout the house that had a very low absorption rate, we removed the boiler that had been flooded as it was located in the crawlspace, and replaced it with a new ductless system that the interior units are located  high up in the walls and the exterior unit is raised on a platform outside.  We used cabinets that had legs four inches to avoid water damage to the cabinets, and used spray foam insulation on the underside of the house to help with insulating the space and keeping the water from penetrating the underside of the structure.

After