Sandy Ground Project

Sandy Ground Project: Firefighters building playgrounds to honor Newtown victims in NJ, NY, Conn. towns hit by Sandy

The state’s largest firefighter union is remembering the 26 victims of December’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre in Connecticut by building a playground to honor each one in a community recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

New Jersey and New York will get 10 playgrounds each, and Connecticut will get six. Each playground will link the two tragedies with the shared name Sandy to create memorials for recovery and hope.

One of the playgrounds will honor 6-year-old Catherine Hubbard, who would stretch out her legs to reach up to the clouds after pushing off on her backyard tire swing and was hopping mad about leaving her beloved swing set behind when her family moved across Newtown, Conn., in October, two months before the mass shooting there.

Catherine’s mom, Jenny Hubbard, said the idea for the playgrounds felt right as soon as she heard it — a playground was the “perfect” memorial for a 6-year-old.

“I immediately could think of Catherine playing and swinging,” she said Friday in a telephone interview. “I know that Catherine will be there and she will love that there are kids to play with on that playground. In a way, this is like us giving her back her swing set.”

Bill Lavin, president of the Firefighters’ Mutual Benevolent Association, a 5,000-member union spearheading the project, said each playground will reflect the personality of the child or teacher for whom it is named. Jack Pinto’s will have a football theme because he was a New York Giants fan. Chase Kowalski’s will have fitness stations because he competed in children’s triathlons. Others, still in the early planning stages, may incorporate a victim’s fondness for a particular color, activity or symbol.

Grace McDonald’s playground will be decorated with peace signs, which she habitually drew on mirrors and windows when they fogged up. Grace’s mom found the outline of one on a window at home shortly after she died and had the glass etched in pink and preserved.

Catherine’s playground, to be built on New York’s Staten Island, will have a tire swing and be near a beach because of her fondness for sea animals. Her 8-year-old brother, Fred, is the honorary project foreman; he’ll be on site with a tool belt supervising as the playground is built by volunteer first responders and members of the community.

Lavin said he’s reached out to all 26 families and has heard back from 14, all supportive. He’s driven to Connecticut to meet with several families personally. After visiting Noah Pozner’s family, he decided Noah’s playground should be in New York in the Rockaway section of Queens, where his grandfather lives.

“So when the family visits, they will see it,” Lavin said.

Noah’s parents, Lenny and Veronique Pozner, wrote after discussing the idea with Lavin that they “could not be happier” he was being honored with the playground.

“We cannot imagine a more fitting tribute for Noah than a playground designed to offer children years of play and interaction with others in their community,” they wrote.

The project will cost about $2.1 million. Enough donations to fund six playgrounds have been received so far.

The first playground, in Sea Bright, will honor special education teacher Ann Marie Murphy. It will include a climbing wall and slides hand-picked by some of the children in town. It may include a dog run because of Murphy’s love for her pet. The groundbreaking is March 1.

Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long said the project is having a positive impact on the community’s recovery after Superstorm Sandy, which flooded neighborhoods, washed away boardwalks and destroyed homes and is considered the state’s worst natural disaster.

“The residents of Sea Bright lost so much from Superstorm Sandy that something like a new playground, besides providing a safe place for our children to play, is also a symbol of hope and recovery,” she said. “It has a far greater impact than just a nice playground.”

New Jersey firefighters built three playgrounds in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and developed a lasting relationship with an elementary school there because of a teacher who is a New Jersey fire captain’s niece.

After Sandy devastated the tri-state region in late October, schoolchildren in Waveland, Miss., where one of the playgrounds was built, organized a toy drive for the New Jersey victims. A truckload of toys arrived in time for the holidays and just after the Dec. 14 Connecticut school massacre, along with a video from a girl thanking firefighters for caring enough to build new places for children to play.

Lavin said it gave him the idea to “get out of our funk” over the Sandy and Newtown tragedies and build more playgrounds.

Though the new project, called The Sandy Ground: Where Angels Play, was conceived to honor the school victims, Lavin said he sees no reason to stop at 26. He said the union hopes to build playgrounds in violence-scarred cities such as Newark and Camden and in other states, too.

“While these parks will bear the names of the Newtown victims, they are dedicated to all children of violence,” he said. “This is not just about Newtown. A massacre is occurring one child at a time in our inner cities.”

Source of this portion of article: www.foxnews.com

Sandy Ground Project info:

Building 26 Playgrounds in areas damaged by Hurricane Sandy in honor of the 26 students and teachers who were lost in Sandy Hook Elementary School. Donate by visiting www.thesandygroundproject.org.

Inspired by senseless violence in Newtown, Connecticut and in an effort to restore the storm ravaged east coast after Hurricane Sandy, we endeavor to create 26 living memorials to all children who have been victims of violence while creating safe, fun places for children to be children.

May these playgrounds provide a symbol of hope, recovery and a return to normalcy. A gift to our youth in an effort to enhance and sustain their precious childhood.

For more information about our story or to learn how to get involved please visit www.njfmba.org or www.thesandygroundproject.org

Donate to the Sandy Ground Project here: www.thesandygroundproject.org/donation/

In honor of Chase Kowalski age 6, Sandy Ground Project will be on Sunday August 18 at the Bay Beach House operated by the Normandy Beach Improvement Association.www.nbianj.org

Normandy Beach Improvement Association

Sandy-Damaged Homes in NJ Starting to Be Leveled

About 3,000 of the estimated 300,000 New Jersey homes that received some storm damage will be torn down.

Along the New Jersey shore this year, the sounds of summer include earth-moving equipment still cleaning up the devastation wrought last year by Sandy.

Officials say knocking down the homes that are too damaged to repair is a key part of the rebuilding process.

“We can’t start rebuilding until we get the demolition done,” Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said Wednesday during a tour of demolition being done in two barrier-island communities slammed by the storm.

Martin said about 3,000 of the estimated 300,000 New Jersey homes that received some storm damage will be torn down. So far, about 500 have been razed and many more will be soon.

In one program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the federal government pays 90 percent of demolition costs, with towns picking up the rest. So far, that program is being used in Brick and Toms River, and five other communities are in various stages of joining.

In the Normandy Beach section of Toms River, Rich and Janine Hennion watched and took pictures as an equipment operator knocked down their five-bedroom beachfront second home like it was a model, tossing aside a water heater, washer and dryer and a prized autographed photo of Larry Bird. The house, leaning back toward the beach, was in such bad shape that the owners never had a chance to get anything out after the storm.

“We’ve got to tear is down before we rebuild,” Rich Hennion said. “It’s a step in the right direction.”

The couple, who also live in Totowa, were planning to meet with an architect later Wednesday to plan their replacement house.

Martin said the state is pushing rebuilding quickly while maintaining environmental standards.

“We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” he said.

Source By Geoff Mulvihill at www.nbcnewyork.com

www.brunebuilt.com

Future of House Building

Open-Source Future House Building. Think of a world where you could simply download the blueprints of your future home for free just like you download any open source software today. A team of British architects developed just that and they are hoping their project called WikiHouse will radically change the way we think about building homes.

Architect Alastair Parvin and his London team have been working on a revolutionary new concept that if successful – might change Architecture forever. Instead of trusting the design and construction of our homes to a tiny group of professional architects and construction people and hoping that constructors are more interested in the quality of the house than in making a quick buck, there is a way to turn the process of building our homes into something that almost anybody can do and with very limited expense.
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How can this miracle be achieved you ask? the answer has to do with several new technologies that are making great progress in recent years including 3D printing and low cost C&C machines which can create extremely accurate parts on a large scale directly from a computer model.
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By creating WikiHouse as a place where users can find open source blueprints for building homes out of simple materials that can be printed in low cost C&C machines out of plywood they have turned the way we normally think of construction upside down. Now you can print the building blocks of your future house in a few hours from low cost plywood, bring them to the construction site and assemble them with two or three friends in a matter of one day.
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All the pieces are numbered and no special skills or knowledge is required nor do you need any power tools to build your new home – all you need is the printed home kit and you are good to go. According to Parvin, the entire process feels like building a large Ikia model.

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Several buildings based on these kits have already been created around the world and more are created each day. Parvin and his team hope that more people will contribute to the project allowing people to develop their own solutions, adding more and more parts which users can download, print and build to make their home more personal and unique (unlike most existing construction projects which tend to have almost identical characteristics).
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The project is still in very early stage and there are a lot of open questions including how legislation and local regulation in different parts of the world are going to accept this concept and the idea of non professional people building homes without any supervision. However for some communities this could prove to be a very welcome solution as it will make the entire process of building a home much simpler, cheaper and more versatile.

Source by www.thefutureofthings.com

WikiHouse website: www.wikihouse.cc

www.brunebuilt.com

Lightning Home Protection

How Can You Protect Your Home from Lightning?

It’s Lightning Safety Awareness Week. Lightning is the second leading cause of storm-related deaths in the United States, exceeded only by floods.

In fact, lightning strikes cost nearly $1 billion in insured losses each year. New Jersey ranked number 23rd in the nation in 2012 with 454 claims costing more the $2.2 million. But, there are steps you can take to protect your home or business.

“The average lightning claim costs more than $6,400,” said Dave Phillips, State Farm spokesman. “There are two issues with lightning. You can have a direct strike, which can hit your structure and rip through it or cause a fire or you can have the risk of an indirect strike where it hits a nearby tree that can fall on your home or create a power surge that can zap your electronics or appliances.”

“When you know there’s an approaching storm in your area, you can unplug items or remember when the power goes out, this surge of electricity can cause damage when the power comes back on.”

Consider the following tips to protect your home or business:

• A whole-house surge protector is the best starting point for reducing the risk of damage or a fire.
• Install additional protection for important or expensive electronic equipment.
• Make sure all equipment is UL-listed and properly labeled.
• Lightning protection systems are designed to protect a structure and provide a specified path to harness and safely ground the super-charged current of the lightning bolt. The system neither attracts or repels a strike, but receives the stroke and routes it harmlessly into the earth, thus discharging the dangerous electrical event.

“Take a look around your home and if you see that there are tree limbs or other things that can be blown or hit by lightning or that might be an attractive source during a storm. If you find anything, you may want to have it removed,” said Phillilps.

Last year, 28 people were killed by lightning and 85 percent of the victims were children and young men ages 10 to 35 who were engaged in recreation or work. To prevent death or injury, the Lightning Protection Institute advises the following:

• Treat lightning with proper caution. If you’re outside and a thunderstorm approaches, immediately seek shelter inside a fully enclosed building.
• If a building is not available, take shelter in a car with a metal top and keep doors and windows closed.
• Certain locations are extremely hazardous during thunderstorms. Avoid lakes, beaches or open water. Don’t fish from a boat or dock, ride on golf carts, farm equipment, motorcycles or bicycles. Never seek shelter under a tree.
• If caught outdoors, try to minimize your risk by going to a place of lower elevation.
• Stay off the telephone. Don’t stand near open windows, doorways or metal piping. Stay away from the TV, plumbing, sinks, tubs, radiators and stoves. Avoid contact with small electric appliances like radios, toasters and hairdryers.

Source By Kelly Waldron at www.nj1015.com

www.brunebuilt.com

New FEMA Flood Maps Released

FEMA releases updated flood maps for 4 New Jersey counties

Thousands of homes along New Jersey’s coastline have been shifted out of the most at-risk flood zone, according to revised maps posted online during the weekend by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Find Out Your Advisory Base 

Flood Elevation: CLICK HERE

A spokesman for the federal agency declined to comment on the data Sunday, except to say the revised maps for Atlantic, Hudson, Monmouth and Ocean counties officially would be released today. But local officials said the updated maps significantly reduce the scope of areas susceptible to major waves, known as “V” zones. Homes in those zones must be elevated on pilings, which could cost tens of thousands of dollars more than raising a home in less at-risk areas.

“I am absolutely thrilled,” Brick Mayor Stephen Acropolis said Sunday, but he added, “I was hoping that it wouldn’t have taken this long.”

The federal agency provided advisory maps late last year to serve as guidance for storm victims rebuilding in Hurricane Sandy’s wake, but residents and officials balked at the expansion of the “V” zone.

The number of homes in the high-risk area in Brick jumped from 400 to 4,000 in the advisory maps, a designation that left many homeowners unsure whether they could afford to rebuild, Acropolis said.

Acropolis said he expects at least 3,000 homes to have been moved back into the “A” zone in the updated maps. For “a lot of those people,” he said, “it’s going to be giving them an opportunity to move forward.

Search the new FEMA flood maps: CLICK HERE

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has released updated flood maps for four New Jersey counties — Atlantic, Hudson, Monmouth and Ocean. These maps are meant to supersede the Advisory Base Flood Elevations released earlier by the agency. Zoom in or search by address in the interactive map below to see the new flood zones.

“We’re gearing up now for a flood of building permits,” Acropolis said.

But homeowners still face other obstacles as they rebuild, Acropolis said.

“With these maps, there are so many other issues that are going to have to be addressed,” he said, like finding enough money and available contractors to complete repairs. “It’s just a small battle. It’s not the war.”

Other local officials also cheered the removal of large swaths of coastal communities from the high-risk flood zone.

In Sea Bright, Mayor Dina Long said the working maps left very few borough homes in the “V” zone. Homes in the downtown area have been rezoned and now require homeowners to lift their houses to around 7 to 9 feet, instead of about 13 or 14 feet, Long said.

They also no longer have to move their houses or use a costly, screwlike form of pilings called helical piles during the elevation work, she said.

“It’s still a challenge, but at least it doesn’t seem impossible,” Long said.

The maps provided hope for Alan Sum and Sue DiMassa, a couple who live on Surf Street in Sea Bright. Their home, already elevated 10 feet above sea level, would have had to be raised several feet higher on pilings had it stayed in the “V” zone.

“We bought this house because we knew it was already high,” said DiMassa, a 32-year-old occupational therapist. “I guess it just wasn’t high enough.”

Elevating the home further would mean “destroying everything” that supported the house, Sum said, and it would mean being displaced a second time because the home would have to be moved while the pilings are installed.

But the couple believe their home complies with the revised base-flood elevations, ending months of anxiety.

“Financially, we can breathe easier now,” said Sum, a 32-year-old project manager.

Raising a home in a “V” zone could cost up to $30,000 more than in an “A” zone, said Jim Matarazzo, an architect who founded Coastal Architecture Design Build.

So the reduction in the highest-risk flood zone translates into a substantial savings for many homeowners. “Now that it’s just a lift on block, it’s much cheaper,” he said.

Matarazzo, who owns a Sandy-damaged home in the Shore Acres section of Brick, said that although the revised maps moved his waterfront property out of the “V” zone, he still plans to build his new home to those standards.

“(The maps) show the “V” zone coming right up to the bulkhead,” he said. “I’m definitely going to stick the pilings on my house.”

Toms River Mayor Thomas Kelaher said the revised maps also decreased the expansive “V” zone in his town.

“It looks like pretty much the entire mainland and parts of the beach areas have been changed from a ‘V’ to ‘A,’ ” he said.

Kelaher said he’d have a better handle of the exact number of homes moved back into the “A” zone today, but a news release published on the township’s website Friday said FEMA indicated there had been at least a 40-50 percent reduction in the “V” zone in Toms River.

“We’re anticipating this is going to cause a rush on the town hall building department,” Kelaher said. So Toms River, like Brick, is readying more resources to handle the anticipated surge in demand.

George Kasimos, a Toms River resident and founder of the group Stop FEMA Now, said the revised maps look like the “first good news we had since Sandy. It looks like a majority of the homes that are not on the bayfront or the oceanfront have been reduced to ‘A’ zone and some of the elevations have actually been lowered.”

But Kasimos — whose home was moved out of the “V” zone — said the good news follows months of uncertainty for homeowners.

“If they had this information seven months ago, they could have already been in their house,” he said. “Now they’re saying I might be able to afford it, maybe, and now I can start rebuilding.”

Source By Erin O’Neill and Eugene Paik/The Star-Ledger

Find Out Your Advisory Base Flood Elevation: 

CLICK HERE

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New Jersey Shore Modular Construction

New Jersey Shore: Modular construction helping to rebuild homes destroyed by Sandy

A shot from the designer-outfitted interior of Country Living magazine’s 2010 House of the Year. The modular cottage, designed by New World Home, was previously open to the public in New York City and then at Crystal Springs Resort in Hardystown.

The construction crew arrived on the Marcellus Avenue building site in Manasquan at 8 a.m. May 18.

By 2 p.m. that same day, a new three-story house was standing. The kitchen and bathroom cabinets were in place, each sink had its faucet, all the interior trim was finished.

This house had arrived in six pieces, with many of its interior components in place. Before its trip of more than 200 miles on five flatbed trailers, another team of builders — working in a massive Pennsylvania house-making factory — constructed the modular parts that became a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house.

A crane lifted and placed each module, weighing as much as 25,000 pounds, and the New Jersey crew from Atlantic Modular Builders in Manasquan bolted the parts together, making sure the 2,400-square-foot house was tight and waterproof.

“It looks like it’s ready to move in, but there’s a lot of hidden work that still needs to be done,” says Terrance Hegel, owner of Atlantic Modular Builders. Over the next few weeks, the company will do the finishing work. That includes putting in utility connections and installing the exterior siding that will cover the connection points. Builders like Hegel, who work with modular, say it’s the future of construction. “There’s much less waste, fewer truck visits to the site, more recycling of materials,” Hegel says, making the building efficient and cost-effective.

Modular homes, such as this model from Atlantic Modular Builders in Manasquan, are usually indistinguishable from their site-built neighbors.

But there’s still resistance in more than a few quarters to having a house arrive in sections on a tractor-trailer when the norm is to watch it go up gradually, hammered together on the spot. And while there are numerous modular models from which to pick, the building style does have its design constraints.

“Anything you build in a factory and transport on a trailer has limits on height and width,” says Urs Gauchat, dean of architecture and design at New Jersey Institute of Technology. “You are limited to whatever you can transport across the road.” Even when the modules are stacked to create multiple levels, there is a finite number of options, with most of the variation relying on exterior embellishment.

“Modular depends on repetition,” Gauchat says. “So, the design can be repetitive and it can be monotonous.” However, the fact that the modules have to be made for transport — and lifting by cranes — also gives them a unique advantage, Hegel and other modular builders say. “They have to withstand the transportation, so they are engineered to much higher specifications. There is a lot of steel in these houses — up to 20 percent more framing,” Hegel says.

Modular systems are often compared to building toy structures with variously sized Lego blocks. “All the modules are in standard sizes,” Hegel says. “Imagine four shoe boxes,” he says, calling to mind a vision of the average modular house. “It’s like a four-box house.” Generally, the modules are 14 to 16 feet wide and 40 to 50 feet long, he says.

The design options are expanded when standard modules are cut to make shorter sections, Hegel adds. Despite somewhat predictable designs, Gauchat also sees certain advantages in modular construction. “One is speed,” he says. Most houses can be factory-built in less than a week. “You build these things under controlled conditions, and you get a predictable end product.”

Within a given factory, the structures will have the same kind of finish, the same level of quality. And because they are built indoors, construction will never be delayed by weather. “There are no unknowns,” Gauchat says. All of these factors make modular construction an invaluable option for those rebuilding homes ravaged by Hurricane Sandy, Gauchat says. In effect, it allows home construction to be outsourced to modular builders in Pennsylvania, New York and other neighboring states that are home to modular factories.

“If you have a house lot at the Shore, you would have a terrible time getting a builder who has time to build on site. At the moment, you have a finite number of builders; they cannot cope with the amount of work that needs to be done,” Gauchat says. “Modular increases the capacity to build enormously. You are importing labor. You can build more houses in a shorter period of time because you are not limited to the local skill and labor pool.”

Country Living magazine’s House of the Year in 2010 was this 1,607-square-foot modular cottage designed by New World Home. It was first shown in New York City and then moved to Crystal Springs Resort in Hardystown.New World Home

Eileen Raulli, who, with her husband, Eustace, owns the Manasquan house, says they were unaware of modular construction before severe damage from Sandy’s high floodwaters required their previous home to be torn down in January. The speed and efficiency of modular appealed to them. “We always thought in terms of stick-built, but time is of the essence,” she says. “Because of the weather conditions, it would have been a long and drawn-out process to have a house stick built.”

So they picked their home, the South model, from the website of Atlantic Modular Builders. “It’s not the cookie-cutter house,” Eileen Raulli says. “It has huge oval windows put in four different places to bring in more light.” And while it might be like many other modular houses in terms of its architecture, inside, it will have high-end features with mass appeal: granite countertops, hardwood floors, hand-tiled surfaces. “On site, you give them a lot of custom features,” she says. Their house, like other rebuilt Shore homes, was raised on 5 1/2-foot piles under a new requirement that aims to protect area structures from future flooding.

While modular homes may be thought of as a bargain option, erroneously linked with manufactured or “trailer homes” in other parts of the country, Hegel says that’s not the case in New Jersey. The Jersey Shore was a bright spot for modular building pre-Sandy, Hegel says. He was doing brisk business and building million-dollar modular homes among the more modest models long before the storm hit the area, he says. Even in upscale communities in New Jersey, there has been a wider acceptance of modular, Hegel says. “There are people who built modular 20 years ago,” he says. “I moved here 10 years ago from California, and I’ve seen people become more and more accepting of it.”

A modular farmhouse, traditionally designed by New World Home on the farm owned by former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

In western New Jersey, there’s a high-profile supporter of modular building in former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. On the family’s Tewksbury farmstead, Whitman’s daughter Kate lives in a traditionally styled modular home with her husband, Craig Annis, and their four children. For Whitman, who also headed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the dwelling exemplifies how modular construction can produce highly energy-efficient “green” dwellings designed to mesh with historic areas.

The Whitman-Annis house, with its steel roof, conforms to requirements of the Oldwick Historic District in which it is located, says Tyler Schmetterer, a founding partner of New World Home, which built the house. “The architecture is equally important as the green attributes,” he says.

Behind the facade of a traditional farmhouse, builders installed bamboo floors, a re- claimed-wood kitchen island, water-conserving kitchen and bathroom fixtures, energy- efficient appliances and other features. “When we design something, we want it to look like it’s been there 150 years,” Schmetterer says.

On a verdant lot in Sussex County, another New World Home design had been a model house at Crystal Springs Resort, an example of what could be built in the area. Created in partnership with Crystal Springs and in collaboration with Country Living to produce the magazine’s annual House of the Year in 2010, the 1,607-square- foot cottage spent two weeks as an exhibition at Manhattan’s World Financial Center that year. Then it was disassembled and trucked to its present location in Hardystown.

The model cottage, which sold last year, stands as an example of the sturdiness of modular houses, Schmetterer says. “The modules are independently strong and reinforced by the rest of the house.” The sturdiness of a well-engineered modular structure also makes it a good solution for those building in hurricane-prone areas, he says.

“Our stock home is built to withstand 120-miles-per-hour wind. In the Hamptons, that’s code. New Jersey is going to have to do the same thing,” Schmetterer says. “Look what Sandy did at 70 miles per hour. The homes have to be able to withstand these storms.”

More on modular

“Prefabulous: Almost off the Grid” by Sheri Koones

For those interested in  learning more about  modular construction,  author Sheri Koones has  written four books on the  topic, the latest of which is  “Prefabulous: Almost Off the  Grid.” (Abrams, $24.95)  The  book profiles more than 30  American modular homes in  various styles, detailing the  green building techniques and eco-friendly features used for each.

The book  includes floor plans and  several photographs of each  house. Koones aims to  dispel negative perceptions about prefabricated  construction and to highlight  the options beyond modular,  including panelized systems  in which prefabricated walls  are used in various configurations (a technique  preferred by NJIT’s Urs  Gauchat).

Visit a house-building factory:  Excel Homes,  the nation’s largest modular  builder, opens its Liverpool,  Pa., factory to the public for  tours from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  the second Saturday of each  month. Learn more at  ExcelHomes.com.

Source By Kimberly L. Jackson/The Star-Ledger

www.nj.com

www.brunebuilt.com

Special Edition of THIS OLD HOUSE® Features Jersey Shore Recovery

America’s most trusted home improvement experts focus on NJ restorations and highlight best practices for coastal building

Months after Superstorm Sandy devastated shorelines on the East Coast, affected homeowners are still determining how to rebuild in a landscape of provisional FEMA regulations, delayed building permits and continued weather risks. During the anniversary month of Sandy, PBS’ Emmy® Award-winning home improvement series THIS OLD HOUSE® will premiere a special eight-episode series on October 3, 2013 focusing on three sets of homeowners rebuilding in Bay Head, Point Pleasant and Manasquan, New Jersey. Along with a multitude of side stories, THIS OLD HOUSE experts Norm Abram , Richard Trethewey , Roger Cook and host Kevin O’Connor will report on individual communities’ restoration efforts in the heart of New Jersey’s worst storm damage, and what the future holds for building along the coast.

“Our JERSEY SHORE special edition is not only timely but critical for those in need of insight for recovery,” says Michael Burton , executive producer for THIS OLD HOUSE television. “Just months after the devastation, THIS OLD HOUSE is arriving at the scene to offer 35 years of expertise in restoration and do our part to restore the Shore.”

THIS OLD HOUSE: JERSEY SHORE restoration projects will include an 1880s Shore Cottage in Bay Head, a 1950s Colonial inPoint Pleasant, and a prefabricated new house in Manasquan. Side stories will also feature Mantoloking, Long Beach Island,Ocean Grove and other local rebuilding projects along the beach and the bay.

“I was born and raised in New Jersey,” says host Kevin O’Connor. “So this one hits home for me. The locals here can’t imagine aNew Jersey without a vibrant Shore, so it is not a matter of ‘if’ they will rebuild but ‘how.’ We hope to highlight best practices that will resonate in other coastal communities around the country.”

Abram, Trethewey, Cook and O’Connor will take viewers to the wild frontier of mold remediation, breakaway walls, house raising, and state-of-the-art pile driving. They will consult environmental experts, government officials, engineers, local builders and determined homeowners from all walks of life, to present a realistic and heartfelt portrait of a region struggling to rebuild smarter, better, and stronger, one house at a time.

“Throughout the country, extreme weather is clearly on the rise,” says senior series producer, Deborah Hood . “And while you can’t hold back Mother Nature, you can design and build houses and communities in a way that helps to save lives when the next storm comes. We’ll follow the progress from the front lines as these special communities struggle to come back.”

Featuring eight brand-new episodes, THIS OLD HOUSE: JERSEY SHORE will premiere nationally on PBS on October 3, 2013(check www.thisoldhouse.com/tvschedule or your local listings) at the start of the series’ 34^th national season. Viewers will be able to watch full new THIS OLD HOUSE episodes Sundays at 7 p.m. after each show premieres atwww.thisoldhouse.com/watchTOH.

In the months leading up to premiere, visitors to www.thisoldhouse.com can access exclusive behind-the-scenes videos from the New Jersey projects and other locations along the shore. And, for the first time ever, host Kevin O’Connor will be blogging atoldhousemyhouse.thisoldhouse.com. Special features, such as a photo gallery, project overviews, products and services information, and a webcam will be available on www.thisoldhouse.com. Viewers can become fans of THIS OLD HOUSE onFacebook or follow the show on Twitter.

THIS OLD HOUSE is produced by THIS OLD HOUSE Productions, Inc., for THIS OLD HOUSE Ventures, Inc., and is presented on PBS by WGBH Boston.  Vice President of Television Operations is Michael Burton .  Senior series producer is Deborah Hood.  Series creator is Russell Morash . THIS OLD HOUSE is the No. 1 multimedia home enthusiast brand, offering trusted information and expert advice through award-winning television, a highly regarded magazine and an information-driven Web site. THIS OLD HOUSE Ventures, Inc., is a business of Time Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner.

WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcasting producer—PBS’s leading source of content for television and the Web (prime-time, children’s, and lifestyle programs) and a major supplier of programs heard nationally on public radio and online. For more information, visit www.wgbh.org.

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SOURCE THIS OLD HOUSE

DEVASTATED: God Bless the Jersey Shore

Mantoloking, NJ

It’s worse than I expected. I saw all the news reports about Super Storm Sandy on TV, of course, and talked with friends and family about their experiences. But that didn’t prepare me for what I’m seeing. Actually standing amid the ruin is an entirely different experience than seeing it on the news.

One of my first stops today is Mantoloking, N.J. a place considered by many to be “ground zero” for the storm. I walk along the coastline, with its pristine white Jersey sand and fresh tracks from the heavy equipment used to groom the beach. But right next to the perfect beaches of my childhood are huge piles of debris. No, wait — that’s wrong. The debris isn’t next to the beach, it ison top of it. There is no “land” here; it’s all beach. It’s all sand, broken up in places by asphalt or stones or wooden decks, but under that, it’s just more sand. And the piles aren’t debris – they are entire houses, or what’s left of them. You know it’s a house because, well, what else could it be? You can see the roof, the doors, the wires, and the furniture. But it’s all mixed up and tangled. It’s deeply unsettling.

Jersey pride is on display everywhere.

And it’s everywhere. House after house destroyed, piled up like yard waste after a spring cleanup. The houses that aren’t completely shredded are tilting or cracked, in some unnatural state. And they are all deserted, even the ones that appear intact. If they didn’t fall down or get washed away they took on water. They’re uninhabitable. Where are the people?

Source is an article by Kevin O’Connor at www.oldhousemyhouse.thisoldhouse.com

www.brunebuilt.com

Mold Remediation Resource Information

Crud Crusader A health nut before it was fashionable, Bill Sothern decided in the 1990s to shift from his family’s garment business to something a little more toxic: He was certified as an industrial hygienist. His firm, Microecologies, volunteered its services in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and is battling household mold problems caused by Sandy. Mr. Sothern, 66, and his team have conducted more than 5,000 investigations over the years, often with the help of a vacuum pump and an “air-o-cell” device, which collects airborne mold spores for laboratory testing.

Bill Sothern, an expert at detecting residential mold, has a cedar-lined hot tub on his verdant south-facing terrace at Madison Avenue and 117th Street. The tub holds 3,000 liters of ionized water heated to 101 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, 95 degrees in the summer, and the terrace has an elaborate irrigation system.

With all that moisture corralled seven stories above 117th Street, the danger of a leak, which often begets mold, and the potential for lawsuits blamed on leaks, a chronic source of unneighborly New York City courtroom disputes, appear ominous. But Mr. Sothern, occasionally an expert witness in those cases (Bianca Jagger once hired him), is not tempting fate on the home front.

He built the hot tub himself. And having built a career on investigating and remediating environmental hazards — mainly mold colonies, water damage and debilitating airborne agents like secondhand smoke, chemical vapors, lead and asbestos — Mr. Sothern says his conscience is as clear as the drains on his terrace.

The aluminum flashing beneath his patio door is sealed tight; the filters on his heating and ventilation system are changed on cue, second nature for a certified industrial hygienist with a master’s degree in environmental and occupational health. “Some people don’t even know where the drains on their terraces are,” he said. “It’s a recipe for trouble.”

Mr. Sothern, 66, is the founder of Microecologies, a 12-person firm that has conducted more than 5,000 investigations of metropolitan-area homes and businesses, typically occasioned by health-related complaints, since it opened in 1993.

“Our mission was to help city residents achieve clean and healthy indoor environments so that their home really could be a castle,” he said.

Mr. Sothern exited his first career, in his family’s garment business, in 1991 after coming to the conclusion that “the world really didn’t need another T-shirt,” but could probably use a progressive nutritionist. He was steered toward environmental science by a professor at Hunter College and by the discomfiting memory of a dusty D.I.Y. apartment renovation that left his daughter Wendy, then 5, with respiratory allergies. Back then, he was a smoker, too: a double offender.

“Now I am a health nut and an exercise nut,” he said. He is also a professional mold-buster and an author in 2005 of the instructional booklet and video “Mold Cleanup Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina,” sponsored by the HUD Office of Healthy Homes, and adopted as a template by the World Health Organization. (Mr. Sothern and a colleague drove to New Orleans after the hurricane to help out.)

The booklet was updated in 2012 to reflect the ravages of Hurricane Sandy; according to Mr. Sothern, some 100,000 homes along the New Jersey, New York and Connecticut coastlines sustained water damage, and “99 percent plus of them are seeing mold problems on structural wood.”

The tiny Microecologies office is a few blocks north of his home. A sign in the window announces “Asthma Intervention.” The storeroom is stocked with full-face respirators; after contracting pneumonitis early in his career while removing mold from the basement of a lighting fixture store on the Bowery, he stopped using half-face respirators.

Green mold, he said, has been recognized since 2004 as highly allergenic to humans. Black mold is that and potentially worse.

Half of the company’s investigations are related to complaints about water damage and mold: “We consider ourselves to be health care providers.” Microecologies also designs exhaust systems for problematic commercial businesses on the ground floors of residential buildings, like cigar stores or dry cleaners.

To resolve complaints about secondhand smoke, Mr. Sothern said, the simplest and cheapest solution is to install an exhaust fan in the smoker’s apartment. The alternative is to retrofit a building’s ventilation system at a cost of $100,000 to $200,000.

“Secondhand smoke is a big issue,” he said. “Some of the highest-end residential buildings in Manhattan have decided it’s worth it to spend the money and solve the problem. They know their residents have every reason to object to secondhand smoke.”

A spare room in his apartment is stacked with the files — more than 50 — of the cases that Microecologies is handling this spring in addition to the pro bono work it did in the Rockaways section of Queens after Sandy’s inundation.

The firm is also working with Neighborhood Revitalization NYC on a need- and income-based program to provide inspections and mold remediation to 2,000 homes. “We have inspected 300 so far,” he said, “and 100 percent of them showed mold activity.” The devastation here, he added, “is similar to Katrina.”

One hint to residents affected by water damage from Sandy: wallboard with paper facing is a prime conduit for mold and should be avoided in reconstruction projects. When water-soaked, the paper is a breeding ground for Stachybotrys chartarum, the black mold suspected of exercising toxic health effects on humans, especially infants and persons with compromised immune systems. A safer option, Mr. Sothern said, is cement board or gypsum board faced with fiberglass.

A few years ago, Mara Landis hired Microecologies to inspect her Park Avenue duplex. Her family had long-term respiratory and neurological problems, initially traced to mold caused by leaky windows and a burst pipe, and a remediation attempt by a Connecticut company had failed. “They came in wearing their little hazmat suits,” Ms. Landis recalled of that company. “Charged us $100,000, which our insurance paid, but when we moved back into our apartment I immediately started to feel sick again.

“I love this apartment,” she continued, “but I got so upset, I told my husband I thought we were going to have to sell it and move. Then somebody told us that if we really wanted to clean up the mold, Bill Sothern was the guy to call.”

Mr. Sothern assessed the air quality in the duplex and, a bit like a detective, had a hunch the problem was lurking upstairs. “He told me he needed to rip out the floorboards,” Ms. Landis said, “and when he did, there was a paper liner underneath, full of black mold.” Since its removal, she said, she’s been symptom-free.

Mr. Sothern has a low-tech general rule of thumb for breathing easier indoors: “Everybody should crack open a window a quarter-inch no matter the season,” he said. “The air indoors is 10 times more contaminated than the air outdoors at any given time. Your grandmother was right.”

A noxious exception to that golden rule, he added, is a West Side warehouse-to-lofts conversion where the original lead-based paint on the exterior is flaking off and wafting indoors through open windows, sickening some residents. Lawsuits have been filed. Mr. Sothern is an expert witness for the complainants in this case.

“If you are unfortunate enough to live there,” he said, “then grandma is wrong. Keep the windows closed.”

Source of this article can be found here: NYTimes.com

www.nchh.org

Policy

Nat’l Safe & HH Coalition Steering Committee Minutes–9-15-09[doc]

NCHH Commends Acting Surgeon General Galson for Issuing “Call to Action on Healthy Homes”[url]

Coalition Case Statement[pdf]

Coalition_Appropriation_Committee_Letter_11-19-09[pdf]

Asthma Regional Council – Investing in Best Practices for Asthma[pdf]

Research

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Introduction[mov]

Mold and Bacteria Levels in New Orleans Homes Warrant Use of Strong Respiratory Protection[pdf]

Fact Sheet: Mold and Moisture[pdf]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina: Complete Video[mov]

HUD Fact Sheet: Mold[pdf]

About Your House: The Tenant’s Guide to Mold[pdf]

Asthma and Weatherization in Maine[pdf]

Asthma Regional Council – Investing in Best Practices for Asthma[pdf]

Resource

Creating a Healthy Home: A Field Guide for Clean-Up of Flooded Homes[pdf]

Seven Principles of Healthy Homes[url]

Improving Ventilation in Multi-Family Buildings That Do Not Have Fan-Powered Ventilation[pdf]

Video: Green and Healthy Remodeling[wmv]

HH Related Training – Other Courses – Asbestos[pdf]

Hurricane Aftermath: Ten Tips To Protect Your Family from Housing-Related Health Threats[doc]

Science Supports Action Now to Make High-Risk Homes Healthier[pdf]

Healthy Housing Challenge—Critical Details 22—Mold Growth[pdf]

Training

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Introduction[mov]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Introduction: Introduction[wmv]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Personal Protective Equipment[mov]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Personal Protective Equipment[wmv]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Removing Possessions[mov]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Removing Possessions[wmv]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Who Should Perform the Clean-Up[mov]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Who Should Perform the Clean-Up[wmv]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Rebuilding[wmv]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Rebuilding[wmv]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Health and Safety Advisories[wmv]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina Video: Health and Safety Advisories[wmv]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina: Complete Video[mov]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina: Complete Video[wmv]

Mold Clean-Up Guidance for New Orleans Residents Affected by Hurricane Katrina: Complete Video[wmv]

Seven Principles of Healthy Homes[url]

Video: Green and Healthy Remodeling[wmv]

Environmental Protection Agency, A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture, and Your Home[pdf]

Mold Fact Sheet[pdf]April 2005 Report to Congress on Mold and Moisture[pdf]

HH Related Training – Other Courses – Asbestos[pdf]

Science Supports Action Now to Make High-Risk Homes Healthier[pdf]

Healthy Housing Challenge—Critical Details 22—Mold Growth[pdf]

www.brunebuilt.com