Flood-thru design works again!
This home took a 4′ storm surge during hurricane Ivan. The flood-thru design allowed water to pass through garage doors on the back, through the garage, and out the front garage doors. There are no blow out walls to repair or replace which can be quite expensive.
“Hey, it worked!” ~ Tom Henry
You can see where the flood waters blew out the front garage doors thus relieving the hydrostatic pressure and preventing structural damage. Garage doors make great blowout walls, easy and inexpensive to replace.
The black steel columns hold up the floor system above. The garage is a mess but there's not really that much damage. It's all cosmetic and was very easy and inexpensive to repair. Labor and material rates are quite high following a hurricane so it's an advantage not to have to deal with complicated structural repairs such as with blow out walls. If a wall blows out you also end up having to re-side or re-stucco the whole side of the building.
Good as new!