NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla — Flooded homes could become a thing of the past in Lochmoor Waterway Estates, which saw significant storm surge during recent hurricanes. On a drive through the neighborhood, you could see homes getting lifted to avoid future flooding.
As Fox 4’s North Fort Myers Community Correspondent, I work in this area daily, so I talked to the company doing the lifts to show you the process.
Watch my report here...
In drone footage a neighbor sent me, you could see what the neighborhood looked like during Hurricane Milton - streets underwater, with surge seeping into homes. I met Dick Marting after his house took on two feet of water during Helene, only to be flooded again by Milton just ten days later.
Face with rebuilding, he said he had three options. “The house either needed to be torn down and rebuilt. Or, sell it as is as a house that flooded and probably take a lesser amount because someone else is going to tear it down. Or, decide to lift it which was the third option, and that’s what we decided to do,” said Marting.
While Marting is in the permitting phase, you could see a few of his neighbors were already being lifted out of water’s way. Chris Ellis, Davie Shoring’s Operations Supervisor, walked me through how it’s done.
“We come in and we dig around the outside perimeter house, and we dig tunnels under the house, and we push down our Perma-Lock piling. That gives us a really good foundation for then placing our jacks on to lift the house up out of the ground, proceeding with other methods of crib blocks and frames to lift the house up to the desired height,” Ellis explained.
Ellis said lifting a home can add value by protecting it from flooding and creating extra living space after a garage conversion. Since Hurricane Ian two years ago, he said demand for those lifts in Southwest Florida has skyrocketed.
“There’s a change. Something has to happen. And the logical option is, you’ve just gotta’ go up. We’re in the industry to provide a great outcome, and hope, because so many people have been told they have to tear down their houses and build anew, which is a big, three-year process and horrendous money. Sometimes three to four times more than the option we’re offering,” said Ellis.
On average, Ellis said a home lift takes about 18 weeks. Marting said he’s looking forward to starting his, and being able to stay in an area he loves.
“We’ll remodel the house. We like the location. We’ve never had wind damage in any hurricane. We’ve solved that problem like most people have. But, we haven’t solved the flood problem, that’s a very different problem than the wind damage problem, and the lift is one way to go to do that,” said Marting.
