Serving Opa-locka
Wind-Driven Rain Intrusion Opa-locka, 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.
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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 were Opa-locka's first houses built of?
Concrete block with a stucco finish. The National Register nomination for the city's Moorish Revival buildings describes Bernhardt Muller's houses of the 1920s as a reworking of the flat-roofed concrete block bungalow of the land boom, dressed with domes, minarets, crenelated parapets and rough textured stucco. Block and textured stucco both take up rain, so those walls stay wet longest after a storm.
Why does the terrazzo floor of a ground-floor Opa-locka apartment get slick in summer?
Because it is colder than the air. More than two in five Opa-locka homes are in buildings of ten or more units, many from the late 1960s, and terrazzo laid on a ground-floor slab holds the concrete's coolness. When humid outdoor air comes in through an open door or window, it beads on that cool stone the way it does on a cold glass, leaving a film of water.
Why do the wooden casement windows on an old Opa-locka building stick in the rainy season?
The wood has taken up water. The 1920s buildings were fitted with wooden casement windows set into stuccoed block walls. Where the paint on the sash and sill has worn, rain soaks the wood, and in the humid months it cannot dry out, so it swells against the frame. A sash that no longer closes tight then lets the wet outdoor air in around it.
Opa-locka's own page carries them beside the local figures.