Construction in Florida never stops, but some events can stall or slow progress. A hurricane? Yep, that’s one of them. Fortunately, there are ways to minimize damage and delays during South Florida’s hurricane season by protecting your job site and ensuring adequate safety measures are in place for your construction crew. It starts with a plan (local experience helps, too).

5 Ways to Prepare a Construction Site for Hurricane Season

Our teams at Seacoast Consulting Group and Seacoast Construction have more than 25 years of experiencebuilding and overseeing luxury home and commercial property construction projects in South Florida. We’ve endured more than our share of hurricanes and have seen the devastation and destruction they can cause.

While we can’t put our hand up and tell a storm to stop in its tracks, we can do everything in our power to prepare a site for a hurricane, protect it during peril, and continue safety measures through the equally hazardous recovery stage. Here are 5 ways to do so.

1. Make a plan long before hurricane season begins. Each year, our team writes an extensive preparation plan for all our current projects in hurricane-prone areas. We include detailed instructions and tasks for each member of our team to be responsible for before the storms hit. 

2. Work closely with other local building officials to ensure that joint preparation plans for project sites pose no threat to neighboring properties or residents. Seacoast Consulting Group is a local firm and we go to great lengths to protect our community.

3. Secure the job site. When a storm is approaching, we do everything from tying down any construction equipment susceptible to heavy winds to removing equipment like cranes from the site altogether. We focus on materials, trash, tools, hazardous materials, dumpsters, and portable bathrooms, as well as job site signage and in-process utility systems. Before we leave, we turn off the power.

4. Plan for water removal. Getting rid of excess water is important for a few reasons: it makes for easier clean-up, and it also protects adjacent properties from softening the ground supporting those structures. We work together with those around us to ensure we all empty water through the storm system or using a tanker to haul it away.

5. Assess the damage. The danger doesn’t disappear with the storms, so we pay strict attention to compromised structures, hazardous spills and debris, and any destruction that interferes with the restart of the build.

If you’re building in South Florida, you need a local construction team who knows its way around a hurricane. Whether you’re looking for a construction consultant to oversee your build or help with just one phase of construction, our team at Seacoast Consulting Group can give you the local perspective you need to weather storm season in Miami and throughout South Florida. Contact us to schedule a free consultation.