West Street Recovery has been investigating low-cost flood resilient design strategies and has several offerings to share.
- “Muck Ready” Walls
- Metal Kitchen Cabinets
- Closet Curtains
- Exterior Insulation
- Rain Gardens
Each of these solutions is designed to be low-cost, attractive, and relatively simple to implement.
“Muck Ready” Walls is a design that separates the pieces of sheetrock on a wall, as to preview moisture and mold from moved up the wall and damaging more drywall than actually touched flood water.
Metal Kitchen Cabinets are an attractive/modern open concept approach to kitchen cabinets. When money is an issue, the kitchen area is often one of the last items replaced after a disaster. Metal framed cabinets allows for a family to continue to have a sink, countertop and shelving soon after a storm hits.
Closet Curtains are an alternative for off the shelf composite doors. Composite doors mold and break easily, but curtains can be cleaned and reused.
Exterior Insulation allows for a house to be built without sheetrock, which has many benefits.
Rain Gardens can not prevent a Harvey sized storm, but they can help manage water with 2-5 inch rain storms.
Please find the attached PDF to find out more about these strategies.
