As we all know
Hurricane Katrina destroyed a great many people’s
homes and left a lot of families homeless. In fact one
of those homeless families lived with me and my family
for three (3) months after the hurricane. As time passed
I realized that there was a need for construction on the
Gulf Coast that exceeded the current standards and decided
that I wanted to be a part of that effort.
I believed
that I was particularly qualified for this task since
I had just retired with forty years of construction experience
ranging from building residential and light commercial
buildings to engineering, designing, and constructing
offshore oil and gas platforms. Offshore oil and gas platforms
must be engineered, designed and constructed to withstand
high winds that frequently exceed 160 mph and high seas
that frequently exceed 50 to 60 feet.
Therefore,
armed with the aforementioned construction technology
and expertise I came out of retirement and started Newmark
Construction, Inc. to build homes that are safer, stronger
and affordable.
Newmark spent
the next ten (10) months researching building standards
and building methods and government regulations. Our research
resulted in our decision to build homes that could withstand
140 mph wind loads and to build to 2006 residential building
codes. Because of the massive quantity of construction
that would be required to get those families that had
lost their homes new homes in which to live, we decided
to investigate pre-engineered systems built construction.
We learned
that some systems built construction uses the same methods
as site built construction. The main differences between
the two methods are that systems built construction is
performed in a covered facility and therefore, not subject
to weather conditions and uses an assembly line to build
their homes (the factory that we use can build five (5)
homes a week). There are many advantages to this type
of construction such as uniformity in building, quality
control and economies of scale. As with any business,
there are good modular home factories and bad modular
home factories each building to a particular set of standards.
We found an excellent pre-engineered systems built factory
that builds to the most current International Residential
& Commercial Codes and has been operating in the Northern
part of the country for decades.
Working with
the factory who has professional engineers on staff and
also uses third party inspectors to inspect their work,
we were able to engineer and design homes that meet or
exceed the 140 mph wind load specification as well as
the 2006 residential building codes. Homes with these
specifications can be built for as little as $125,000
to over $3,000,000.
In 2007 we
started building homes. One of the areas in which we chose
to build was Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. One of the reasons
we chose this area was because the Inspection Department
in that community required the most stringent adherence
to all requisite codes. The first home that we built in
this area was a pre-engineered systems built home.
At every stage
of construction from the foundation permit to the occupancy
permit, the building inspectors made sure that the home
was exactly built to meet the 140 mph wind load specification,
and the 2006 residential building codes. The Bay St. Louis
building inspector told Newmark that we were the only
residential building contractor in the area that had passed
all inspections the first time around.
The other
area in which we built homes was Larose, Louisiana. We
decided that our first home in this area would be a site
built home so that we could compare the quality of the
site built home with the systems built home. We used the
same designs and specifications that were used to construct
the Bay St. Louis pre-engineered systems built home thereby
constructing a home that could also withstand 140 mph
wind loads as well as adhere to the 2006 residential building
codes. We found that the systems built home and the site
built home were comparable in quality. The primary difference
between the site built home and the systems built home
was that the systems built home was completed in a much
shorter period of time.
After meeting
with insurance companies, design engineers and building
officials Newmark has been assured that we are building
the houses of the future for Louisiana and Mississippi.
