A year has passed since Hurricane Harvey left 50+ inches of rain on our beloved city of Houston, TX. We all watched in disbelief as the rain kept coming down and the waters around our homes and businesses just kept rising. It was a very difficult time, but also a time where our city came together to help one another, even complete strangers, in whatever ways we could. That was an amazing thing to witness, and it continues today.
Many Houstonians are back in their homes which have been rebuilt and restored, but many are not. The damage was so extensive in some areas that a total knock down and rebuild from the ground up was necessary, and some families even made the tough decision to just sell what was left and move on. Whatever the scenario, our city has seen a massive amount of demand for construction services of all kinds over this last year. Harvey’s aftermath has certainly impacted us at Alair Homes Houston, and we would like to share with you just some of the lessons learned and what we see as continuing market factors in Houston homebuilding today.
Flood insurance is no longer optional (in our opinion)
Having flood insurance is no longer something only for those in the 100 year flood plain. With the 100 and 500 year flood plains being re-visited and a bond passing for funding to rework the drainage and flood plans for Houston, it’s still uncertain what any given area could experience in the future in terms of the threat of rising water. Given that insurance for flooding is regulated by FEMA, it’s a fairly simple and straightforward cost and coverage and we think worth the peace of mind.
Higher elevations are becoming more commonplace
We’re already witnessing a change in the look of new and renovated homes around the city as a result of Harvey. Typically, a home is designed and engineered to meet minimum requirements for elevation per the local regulations and codes. In the past, this has been accomplished by building up the pad/dirt underneath the home’s foundation, but with new legislation coming and the fact that adding dirt in one place displaces water to other places, that practice may not be an option going forward. As a result, home designs may require piers or other design elements to accommodate.
We are seeing this already in new home design and many Houstonians have also hired specialized contractors to raise their existing homes up higher with hydraulic jacks. Generally, this type of pier/crawl space elevation design has not been seen much away from the coastal areas, but it is showing up more commonly inside the city today and will in the future. Bottom line, going above and beyond the minimum is now being seen more often today as clients look to do anything they can to add an extra level of peace of mind for their investment.
High demand = Material & Labor Shortage
It’s simple economics really, and it’s certainly been felt in our area over the last year and continues. When such a massive amount of work needs to be done all at once, it floods the market with demands for materials and labor. We have seen price increases in many raw materials such as lumber and sheetrock. This hopefully will stabilize soon, but the biggest challenge we still are facing today is a labor shortage for all types of specialized construction trades. Sheetrock labor, tile installation, painting, framing, trim work, you name it…the crews are smaller and are stretched thin. This results in increased wait time to get a crew to a jobsite, get the work done, and in some cases, quality suffers as well. We at Alair Homes have great market partners we’ve worked with for many years to provide the best quality, but we’ve seen that even the best companies are struggling to keep up and to keep their best employees. These issues unfortunately will continue until the market demand slows down. We are doing our best to manage this very closely for all of our clients.
Opportunism abounds….do your research!
Anytime there is a high demand for work and not enough people to do it, there are many new entrants into a market to opportunistically fill the gap. While these new entrants are very much needed right now for certain trades, a client still must be careful to do their research. We have unfortunately heard many stories over the last year of people in our area hiring a general contractor to re-build their home, only to be left high and dry with a half-finished home and the contractor is nowhere to be found. Also, as many tried to manage the rebuild process themselves with no past relationships with reputable trades to rely on, poor workmanship and countless delays have occurred.
Bottom line: For any contractor, ask for references, check their history, read their online reviews and then carefully weigh the trade-offs. Waiting longer and possibly paying more for a qualified contractor might be the best choice in the long run to ensure it’s done right.
We at Alair Homes Houston are amazed at the resiliency of our great city and are proud to be part of the continued rebuilding. We hope this overview has been helpful point of view of our current market today. If you have been thinking about building a new custom home or renovating a home, damaged by flooding or not, we’d love to be a resource for you in any way we can. Contact us to learn more. Living Better Starts Here!