How to Build Residential Construction in the Gulf Coast Area

Course Summary:

The intent of the course is to provide Gulf Coast homebuilders, contractors, and local engineering professionals with a series of recommended foundation designs that will help create safer and stronger buildings along the Gulf Coast. The use of these designs is intended to cover many of the home styles anticipated for the construction effort.

The foundations may differ somewhat from traditional construction techniques; however, they represent what are considered to be some of the better approaches to constructing strong and safe foundations in the hazardous areas along the Gulf Coast. The objectives used to guide the development of this manual are:

• To provide residential foundation designs that will require minimal engineering oversight.
• To provide foundation designs that are flexible enough to accommodate many of the homes identified in A Pattern Book for Gulf Coast Neighborhoods prepared for the Mississippi Governor’s Rebuilding Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal (see Appendix B)
• To utilize model layouts so that many homes can be constructed without significant additional engineering efforts.

Learning Objective:

The focus of this document is on the foundation of residential buildings. The assumption is that those who are designing and building new homes will be responsible for ensuring that the building itself is designed according to the latest building code (International Building Code [IBC], International Residential Code [IRC], and FEMA guidance) and any local requirements. The user of this manual is directed to other publications that also address disaster-resistant construction (see Appendix G).

Although the foundation designs are geared to the coastal environment subject to storm surge, waves, floating debris, and high winds, several are suitable for supporting homes on sites protected by levees and floodwalls. For protected sites, wave loads may be less than those in an exposed coastal environment and, therefore, the designs presented in this manual may be conservative for such areas.

For further details click on the Course Topics #16 hyperlink below and the quiz.

Review the quiz before studying the course.

Course Content

Course Author: FEMA