Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Where We Live: Oceanfront home built to be hurricane-proof

VIRGINIA BEACH — Virginia Beach is no stranger to wild weather lately.

Being a coastal city, hurricanes and tropical storms — and the flooding they can bring — are considerable threats to the area.

A Mediterranean-style home at 600 S. Atlantic Ave. in the city’s Croatan neighborhood is designed to be as hurricane-proof as possible.

“When we purchased the land there were no sand dunes or protection from the ocean,” said Ruth Vogel, who along with her husband, Avi Lipkis, had the home built in 2006. “We wanted to be close enough so that you could wake up to the smell of the ocean, but still have a significant level of protection from storms and flooding. We designed this home to successfully withstand a direct hit from a major storm.”

In addition to creating the sand dunes from scratch and adding erosion-resistant plants and fencing to them, Ruth and Avi did a number of other things to make the home hurricane-resistant.

First, they raised the base ground level of the property up three feet from what it was originally. The house was also constructed on over 30 pillars that were driven between 20 and 30 feet into the ground. The pillars are connected by a reinforced concrete belt. The walls on the first floor are made of cinder block with steel rods and reinforced concrete. This construction method was more expensive, Ruth said, but provides additional protection from storm surge and flooding.

Additionally, all of the home’s ocean-facing windows are protected by electronically controlled hurricane impact storm shutters.

Finally, the property is completely surrounded by a seawall, which not only stands six feet about the ground but has a base that is buried six feet below ground as well, for a total of 12 feet of protection. The seawall has three “knee supports” to provide additional structural support when there’s a major storm or flooding event. It’s one-foot thick and is constructed of double reinforced concrete and steel. It’s designed to provide maximum strength protection against not only storm surge flooding, but erosion of the beach as well.

So far the design elements have passed the tests.

“The home was completed in 2006 and the house has successfully weathered multiple intense storms including tropical storm Ernesto, Hurricanes Irene and Sandy and several nor’easter storms,” added Ruth.

The home also sits a full 10 feet closer to the Atlantic Ocean than the homes around it.

“This provides one standing on the ocean-facing balconies magnificent unobstructed 180-degree views of the Atlantic Ocean, Croatan Beach, and Rudee Inlet,” Ruth said. “You can see down to the Sandbridge neighborhood to the south and the Virginia Beach Oceanfront boardwalk to the north.”

The home is served by W.T. Cooke Elementary, Virginia Beach Middle, and First Colonial High School.

For more information about the home visit the Katie Zarpas Group online.

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