Serving Anna Maria
Wind-Driven Rain Intrusion Anna Maria, FL
Wind pushes rain sideways through window frames, stucco and the base of the wall. The roof can hold and the house still take water. The walls on the side the wind came from are traced first, at windows, sliders, the base of the wall and the soffits. Block that took on water is dried from inside the closed building rather than left to the outdoor air.
Say where the water came from when you call
Often needed alongside
- Humidity & Moisture Drying
When the outdoor air is wetter than the building, opening windows adds water. Drying means a closed building and conditioned air.
- Storm Surge & Tidal Flooding
Surge and tidal water rise from the ground up and carry salt and silt with them. Anything porous they soaked is treated as contaminated.
Frequently asked questions
What happens beneath an elevated Anna Maria house that stays closed through the summer?
Where an elevated house runs its ducts through the space under the floor, that metal sits in open air carrying salt and moisture off the Gulf. With the cooling set high in a closed seasonal house, each run still chills the ducts, water condenses on them and their wrap soaks it up. Looking underneath for sagging insulation or rust-streaked straps when the house reopens shows where it gathered.
Why can an ordinary afternoon storm put water into a house at grade on the bay side of Anna Maria?
East of Gulf Drive the ground averages only 3 to 4 feet above sea level, and the city's storm drains empty into Tampa Bay and Anna Maria Sound. When a thunderstorm arrives at high tide, those drains fill from the water's end as well as the street's, and the city has recorded water entering houses built at grade along the bay. Slabs and the base of walls on that side stay wet longest.
What does salt from the Gulf do to the metal parts of an Anna Maria house?
The city's center lies about a third of a mile from the open Gulf, close enough for onshore wind to leave salt on screens, slider tracks, outdoor cooling units and duct straps. Salt pulls water out of humid air, so salted metal stays damp longer and rusts, and an air handler or drain pan set beneath an elevated house sits in that same air. Rinsing exposed metal with fresh water slows it.
Back to Anna Maria for the housing and weather behind them.