What you don’t see is also what you get.
Any builder can build one good house. The mark of an exceptional builder is the ability to consistently turn out a quality product with attention to detail year after year. With over thirty years of experience in the building trade on the Outer Banks, Jimbo Ward, the President of Beach Realty & Construction, has proven the lasting importance of building on a strong foundation.
The foundation is the most important thing you will put in your house.
The majority of new homes on the Outer Banks are built on pilings. The actual dimensions, the depth of placement, and the distance between pilings are established by North Carolina State building code. But the builder determines how securely the pilings are tamped into the ground. Rather than relying on five or six hard swings of a sledgehammer, Jimbo requires that the pilings on all of our homes be mechanically driven.
When winds blow in excess of 60 mph a certain amount of movement and settling is inevitable.
The key is to keep that settling to a minimum. Once the pilings are firmly driven into the ground, Jimbo further stabilizes the foundation by tying the pilings together with bracing and lattice work. Jimbo takes another step to assure the homeowner of lasting structural integrity in the way he forms and pours the concrete slab. Where other builders may be satisfied with pouring 3.5” of concrete, Jimbo uses permanent 2”x8” salt treated form boards around the periphery of the slab in all Beach built houses. Not only does this provide further stabilization to the pilings, it also minimizes the danger of sand blowout. (Remember those 60 mph winds?) Now 7.5” of sand has to be lost to wind erosion before the integrity of the slab is threatened.