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Construction of Residential Buildings in
Coastal Areas
Jeffrey Havelin, P.E.
Overview
Construction of residential
buildings in coastal zones presents challenges to the builder not usually found
in more inland locations. For all coastal residential buildings, these
challenges may include the following:
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Various connection details
require additional inspections
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Careful surveying is
required to place the building within property line setbacks and above the
Design Flood Elevation (DFE)
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Special care which is
required to ensure that all elements of the building will withstand the large
forces associated with high wind speeds and coastal flooding
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Difficulty of providing
durable exterior construction in a moist, sometimes salt-laden, environment
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The requirement to protect
and, usually, place utilities above the DFE
In constructing coastal
residential buildings on elevated pile foundations, builders face additional
challenges:
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Difficulty of constructing a
driven pile foundation to accepted construction plan tolerances
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Difficulty of building on an
elevated post-and-beam foundation, compared to building on continuous wall
foundations
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The additional care that
must be taken in constructing a building envelope that will withstand the
intrusion of air and moisture under the effects of high wind speeds
This course discusses the
construction aspects of the above challenges, as well as basic aspects of the
coastal construction process and is divided into the following sections
Fact:
The National Flood Insurance
Program (NFIP) regulations state that for buildings in V
zones, “a registered
professional engineer or architect shall develop or review the structural
design, specifications and plans for the construction, and shall certify that
the design and methods of construction to be used are in accordance with
accepted standards of practice” for meeting the provisions of the NFIP
regulations regarding buildings in V zones.
The
student must take a multiple-choice quiz consisting of twenty-five (25) questions at the end of this course
to earn PDH credits.
Specific Knowledge or Skill Attained
This course teaches the following specific knowledge and
skills:
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General understanding about pile foundations and potential bearing capacities
of various USDA soil classifications.
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Determine pile capacity using the “Pile driving resistance for Drop Hammer
Piledrivers” formula
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Learn about critical inspection areas that require special attention
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An overview of structural framing and discussion of top structural frame
issues for builders
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Methods to transfer shear forces and transfer wind uplift tensile forces
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Provide an overview to critical inspection areas of the building envelope and
top building envelop issues for builders
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Provides special guidelines for appurtenant structures
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Provides guidelines for utility and mechanical equipment
Designers should refer to
pertinent sections of the IRC 2000, in addition to those of the IBC 2000 cited
here.
Additional reference sources
should also include one or more of the following sources in high wind zones.
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American Forest and Paper
Association (AF&PA) Wood Frame Construction Manual for One and Two- Family
Dwellings (WFCM)
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Southern Building Code
Congress International Standard for Hurricane Resistant Residential
Construction (SSTD 10)
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Minimum Design Loads for
Buildings and other structures (ASCE-7)
Course
Click on the following PDF
attachment and review Chapter 13, "Constructing the Building" in
FEMA-55 third edition "Coastal Construction Manual" prior to taking a quiz for credit. You will be quizzed on the
attached document
on its entirety.
Constructing the Building (1.3 MB)
The course text references
sections located within other chapters of the complete FEMA document. Although
this additional information is not required to complete the quiz, a link is
provided below with information on how to contact FEMA to obtain a full copy of
the document for reference.
http://www.fema.gov/pdf/plan/prevent/nhp/nhp_fema55.pdf
Having Trouble Downloading the PDF File?
Right click on the link. Select "Save Target As..."
Then save on your desktop. To view the file, double click the icon on your
desktop and return to this page to take the quiz.
You may need Acrobat Reader to view this document.
Click on the link below to download a free copy of Acrobat Reader.
To obtain PDH credits for this course, you will need to take a quiz for
credit. Click on the link below.
(To take the quiz,
your web browser must be set to accept cookies. See how to
check your cookie settings.)
 
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