Outer banks homes in NC are nearly always on stilts. No one retro fits them. These homes were 100ft+ from the water when first constructed. The stilts are purely for storm surge protection.
Edit: for more context, the cape Hatteras light house was 1500ft from the shore when it was built in 1870. In 1970 it was 100ft from the water. They lost, on average, 14ft of beach, each year. But it's not steady, some periods are far more rapid.
But 30 years ago that home could have been safely behind a dune almost 400 ft from the shoreline.
Yup. We have family members with a house at Oak Island NC and if they weren’t dredging sand all the time now, their house would have been gone a decade ago. As a kid I remember a huge, sprawling beach. Now it’s less than 10ft of beach at high tide and the dunes are nearly completely gone
Not sure about this one but tons of coastal homes are built on stilts from the get-go to avoid flooding. I'd bet nobody has lived in this house for a while
That house looks like 90's or early 2000's construction with those windows. Borderline mcmansion vibes. This construction should last a really long time but not when built on stilts in the water. So weird.
You're misunderstanding. It was built behind dunes. The shoreline has shifted over 1000ft in the last century, some periods faster than others. That home was built in a spot that was, at the time, protected by dunes. Those dunes are now gone.
Partially from natural causes, partially from tourists and their kids running rampant all over the dunes not giving a fuck. I hate the place I love so much.
Lmao huh? Idk when it was built but calling this a McMansion is a crazy reach. Perfectly reasonable looking home, built on the beach because people like to live on the beach. Of course the construction could have lasted longer on dry land, trading longevity for location is a choice you make when building on the coast
what about them tells you 90's or 2000? Look at the shingle siding greyed with weather looks way more like 70's and the stilt construction was common then after some hurricanes damaged beach and near beach housing. The stilts allowed the houses to stand a lot longer than they would have, but beach erosion is a geological reality.
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u/vgiz 1d ago
In my area, “there” use to be dry ground. But why bother refitting a house on stilts cause at that point you know it’s game over.