Most of the East Coast floods. In Hurricane Florence (2018), much to the surprise of the flood map makers, the area that flooded doubled in size.

The damage to conventional homes is that the sheetrock softens, the insulation gets waterlogged, and the particleboard disintegrates. The walls of Enertia® homes do not have sheetrock, insulation or particleboard.

The homeowner must accept that the cost of living in flood prone areas is occasional, or even yearly, flooding. With this in mind, a decision can be made about what type of home to build.

In the Enertia® home, the lower levels of poured concrete are designed for flooding, are heavy enough to prevent uplift from hurricanes and tornadoes, have electrical boxes high on the walls, and use aluminum doors, hard surface floors, and isolated plumbing with back-flow prevention.

The height of your foundation depends on the projected 500 year maximum flood level, or your personal choice. This foundation has 12' walls.

Above subfloor level, all the walls are solid wood - no insulation, no sheetrock. On the South, in the sunspace, is an opening in the sunspace floor, with a hoist mounted above it so you can easily raise your basement furniture out of harm's way in case of a flood. The sunspace connects to the attic and an airshaft in the North wall, which helps to dry out the structure after the flood.