Our Coastal Home Credentials
While the managing member of Hazel Built Inspections, LLC is not new to the Carolinas, caring for coastal home needs of our area’s new owners is an important part of services we offer clients.
Hazel~Built strives for continual learning about coastal homes, inspections, and new regulations. Continual learning about structural integrity of coastal Carolina homes began for Samuel Altman as a teenager, when working with a talented framing carpenter/uncle’s new home building crew. Later taking many building and real estate appraisal classes at NC technical community colleges, Sam also became an Examination Qualifier for a Building Class NC general contracting license. Mentoring with some of the state’s most knowledgeable appraisal & coastal home professionals Sam later became the Director of Code Enforcement and Planning, CAMA LPO for a NC beach community that had previously been devastated by Hurricane Fran. Through extensive training at FEMA’s National Training Center (Emmitsburg, MD), Sam was able to help this barrier island community recover from their previous post-hurricane federal floodplain non-compliance issues. This resulted in a “model community” recovery (in compliance) and record improvement of two classification levels, also allowing the beach town residents significant flood insurance savings. Additional coastal home construction and floodplain testing with the NC Division of Emergency Management prompted a highly regarded designation as: Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM). Other related coastal development studies involved the National Hurricane Center (Miami, FL).
The following responsibilities and authority were a part of Sam Altman’s professional duties, as a NC beach community’s Director of Code Enforcement and Planning: Building Official (for all trades), NC Coastal Management Local Permit Officer (CAMA LPO), NFIP Community Rating Coordinator, local Floodplain Administrator, Director of Storm Damage Assessment, and Zoning Administrator. These were multi-disciplined delegations involving all aspects of both permitting and inspections, land use, construction, review, and related problem solving for the ocean hazard and other building management areas within a beach town. Additionally, coastal home building training and oversight included educating local contractors about coastal NC Building Code and federal floodplain compliance standards (such as high wind and home elevation in flood zones).
These coastal home building responsibilities often included complex inter-relationships between local, state, and federal regulatory oversight, for the applicable beach permitting and inspections. Sam’s professional coastal home inspections training further involved a personal apprenticeship with the former state director for NC Coastal Management and the beach Building Official who helped originate all of the beach community building inspections departments on Topsail Island.
With this coastal home expertise and experience in mind, Sam Altman originated leadership of a premier coastal home general contracting company. Specializing in oceanfront and other beach homes, these prior coastal regulatory responsibilities and professional education became the best possible preparation for building hurricane-strength beach homes. Hazel~Built concentrated on not only building wood framed homes on the beach most capable of withstanding the wind loads experienced during Hurricane Hazel, but equally important efforts were made to incorporate the most durable methods & materials possibly available for such high value ocean oriented homes. This coastal home experience has ranged from implementing coastal construction regulations for insuring the solid placement of foundation pilings, to investigating best/worst corrosion aspects of coastal home metal fasteners, to simulating effects of storm water intrusion forces, and real time research (occupying the beach homes he built during storms) during actual area hurricanes.