r/interestingasfuck • u/Endolithic • Jun 06 '25

Homes are falling into the ocean in North Carolina's Outer Banks /r/all

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7.8k

u/GoldenGalz Jun 06 '25

I mean……. I don’t want to be insensitive or anything buuuuuuuuuut…. When you build your house on sticks in one of the most corrosive elements known then this is a big possibility.

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u/tidder_mac Jun 06 '25

There’s entire towns all built like this on coastal Texas waters. Some are right along the coast, but some are 100s to 1,000s of feet inland. It’s so damn flat there that if there’s any storm surge, it could flood for miles inland.

It’s a really fun looking town with literally everything on stilts.

Would enjoy renting there, but definitely not buying lol

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u/RD_Life_Enthusiast Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 07 '25

I'm from that area, and it always baffled me that no one ever switched to concrete pillars. Like, you're holding up an entire structure on something that a) biodegrades, b) is flammable, c) is vulnerable to termites, and d) absorbs water.

EDIT: I didn't say I knew anything about residential/commercial construction or science when I said I was from there. "It always baffled me" because I didn't know that concrete is worse in saltwater and Venice is built on wooden posts is probably a good why it baffled me. Relax.

That being said, I LOVE me a good beach house vacation. Second/third story porch with coastal breezes and adult beverages? Yes, please, and thank you.

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u/maidenhair_fern Jun 06 '25

Now that you mention it, why aren't they built on concrete?

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u/Minimum-Attitude389 Jun 06 '25

Wood in salt water is excellent, especially in mud.  It won't decay very quickly.  Look at Venice.

Most concreted will erode very quickly in salt water.

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u/ryebread91 Jun 06 '25

Iirc it's not the fact it's in water but the fact it is submerged nearly 100% of the time instead of this constant wet dry cycle every day

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u/MigasEnsopado Jun 06 '25

This. The buildings of the Baixa district of Lisbon are also built on wooden stilts as that area was once water and the ground is muddy. The trick is maintaining the stilts permanently wet. If you let them dry and get wet again repeatedly, that's when you fuck up. This was a big consideration and source of worry when building the subway there.

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u/bruno444 Jun 07 '25

Exactly the same in Amsterdam.

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u/plantsplantsplaaants Jun 06 '25

Wouldn’t some of it go through wet/dry cycles with the tide?

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u/ryebread91 Jun 06 '25

Yes but most of those posts are literally down into the ground with maybe 10-20% being exposed and that would be pretty rare. https://youtu.be/77omYd0JOeA?si=iFSIlMZuuwuOs4N2 This vid is well worth a watch as a whole but around the 2 minute mark it talks about the posts.

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u/PirateMore8410 Jun 06 '25

What about all the bridges and damns that use concrete that constantly have changes in water height?

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u/latefordinner86 Jun 06 '25

Tell that to bridge engineers.

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u/DookieShoes626 Jun 06 '25

Bridge foundation are a totally different thing

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u/Amtrakstory Jun 06 '25

This. When you see something that seems really dumb you usually just don’t know the full details about the materials involved 

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u/tacomaloki Jun 06 '25

anti-corrosion inhibitors entered the chat for more money

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u/i_am_icarus_falling Jun 06 '25

this is nonsense. wood will absolutely decay faster than concrete in saltwater. the main reason those houses are on wood instead of concrete is because it was cheaper when they built it.

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u/maidenhair_fern Jun 06 '25

Might need a new solution then. Doesn't seem like the wood feet hold up to haves. Maybe something like steel?

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u/Rampant16 Jun 06 '25

Yeah steel + salt water would work /s

The issue isn't the material the stilts are made out of. It's the fact they are built on sand that erodes away after a few decades.

Even if you massively overbuilt the foundation to have it all the way down to bedrock and strong enough to resist waves, the sand is still going to erode and leave your beach house surrounded by the ocean.

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u/Present_Bit3060 Jun 06 '25

In Venice, the brackish water and low oxygen levels in the lagoon actually help preserve the wood, preventing it from rotting. The minerals in the water also harden the wood, making it even more resistant. And primarily made of oak, larch, and elm. And before there was pressure treating wood.
So not exactly like full saltwater here. And not sure what this wood is but prolly pressure-treated Southern Yellow Pine or Douglas Fir in the US.

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u/Dentorion Jun 06 '25

There are mediaval versions of concrete with grounded Vulcan stone from Rome who are holding for thousands of years already as sea harbor stones Great read, was discovered a few months ago I think

They never could replicate it because they always tried to remake it with normal water but they needed saltwater instead:D

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u/Enginerdad Jun 06 '25

That's an urban legend that's completely false. We can and regularly do make concrete that's far stronger and more durable that what the Romans made. The issue comes with HOW we use concrete, specifically in applications that need reinforcement. It's the deterioration of the reinforcement that causes our modern structures to decay and eventually need replacement, not the concrete. If we built everything so that all concrete was in compression like they did, we wouldn't have to worry about that. But that's extremely limiting in terms of architecture and structural engineering, which is why we don't do it.

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u/reverze1901 Jun 06 '25

im a liberal arts major but gonna trust the guy called engineerdad

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u/snek-jazz Jun 06 '25

Say what you will about Spock's ability to understand human emotions, but the dude knew how to do sea harbor stones.

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u/TheGrumpiestHydra Jun 06 '25

The initial cost is higher than wood. It's all about the money 💰

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u/ResearchNo5041 Jun 06 '25

Surely if you got the money to build on ocean front property you got the money to do it right??

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u/Conspicuous_Ruse Jun 06 '25

You choose Texas water front property when you really want water front but don't have money.

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u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 Jun 06 '25

Yep. Texas beaches are maybe the worst in the US. Waterfront, but…

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u/SP3NGL3R Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

No No. The builder went cheap (Capitalism), it's the sucker buyer that just shouldn't have bought it. But!!!! "Hey. This is the exact house as that one, just on wood instead of <literally anything else> but it's $100k less. Let's buy this one honey."

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u/ryebread91 Jun 06 '25

I know you're being facetious but surely it's not that big of a price difference right? Or do they really take you over the coals for the "premium package"?

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u/SP3NGL3R Jun 06 '25

Well, sorta/kinda. We had a 40 foot (15m) retaining wall install in our backyard last year. The wood-version was way cheaper and is like a 10-20 year wall. We too made the choice to just get the cheaper option, BUT, if this wall fails it just means we get spillage into our yard. I want to say the wood version was $2,000 in materials and the 'nice' brick/cement version was $10,000. I'll just glue some brick facade on it and sell the house the next month :P. I'm joking, I actually prefer the natural wood look, even if I need to replace it every 10-20 years.

Now. Stilts holding up a house. A brick/cement/rebar version would take some pretty heavy work to get just right, then you build your base-frame on top of that. I'd bet it's the difference of 10k in work/materials to 40k. Heck even hammering in the stilt is easier than digging down to the same depth for a much larger cement base. But everything has a mark-up. To actually just build a house is no where near the value of the house. Even here (GA USA). Say you buy an empty plot of land with intent to build a house. You'll struggle to find legit companies to do it because you're just one house, versus the 300 houses being development 1 block away. So your costs go up. Say the 300 houses cost an average of 200k each to build, they'll sell for 500k in reality. And the same house 1-off if you had it built would cost you 400k and you'd have to constantly be involved for decisions, versus picking from a menu. I'm making the numbers up, to some degree, just to make a point.

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u/Laiko_Kairen Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

You're right, though. It's why every new neighborhood is made up of 300 cookie cutter houses with one of four designs, maybe a few different cladding options, etc. It's basically the difference between a bespoke suit and an off-the-rack mass manufactured one

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u/Sad_Low3239 Jun 06 '25

This.

Everyone keeps complaining about affordable houses up here in Canada and you cannot find anyone to build one.

I called 15 companies and was hoping for a 2 bedroom Strawberry Box home. Of the 15, 2 answered. 1 flat out said unless we were looking to have 500k or more built they weren't interested in giving us a quote. The other one told us that no one will build that anymore and we need to look elsewhere.

Kent mini homes was a company built for modular cheap houses. They start at 250k, and that was 6 years ago. The cost for the house isn't linear though to the pricing ; that 250k is your barebones 1 master bedroom with open concept kitchen/ livingroom, 1 full bath house. So 4 load bearing walls, 4 internal non load bearing and then electrical. 250k.

If you go up to 400k though? You get bay windows, a second bedroom, 4 extra feet on both dimensions, larger bathroom with sacrificing a little to the kitchen and living room.

Then there are laws against tiny houses.

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u/PitBullFan Jun 06 '25

When you go into the purchase knowing that you're probably going to sell again in 10 years, maybe less, you don't really care unless you think it will be a problem when you're selling.

That's the advice I give my clients: When you're looking to purchase something, consider what selling would look like. If the property is "perfect" for you, but would be weird for most people, you're going to have a hard time when you want to sell.

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u/SP3NGL3R Jun 06 '25

I always worry about that when buying too. We've done a fair bit of house hopping (4 in 15 years) and though I might 'love' that cooky design choice I'm well aware that it's cooky and might only appeal to me. We've just renovated/built our basement and backyard and worry that we've made some similar choices. We'll see when we sell I guess.

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u/greysnowcone Jun 06 '25

lol capitalism? As opposed to what? Soviet bloc apartments? Because that’s the alternative.

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u/webtwopointno Jun 06 '25

Do you really think everybody who lives on the coast is a rich tourist with a second home?

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u/DemonSlyr007 Jun 06 '25

Dude this whole thread is filled with people making jokes about how all these homes cost nearly a Million dollars.

Reddit and kids are so out of touch with reality when it comes to home prices, there's no point in trying to get through to them.

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u/TheDifficultLime Jun 06 '25

Maybe you need to go check beach house prices..

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u/DemonSlyr007 Jun 06 '25

Literally someone linked a zillow link under my exact comment trying to prove a point that they could find million dollar beach front homes. Obviously you can. But also, on that exact link, were plenty for 400k. In a housing bubble atm too.

I never ever claimed that you cant find million dollar beach front homes. If thats how people read my comment, I'll do a better job in the future completely specifying what I mean. Finding extreme prices and claiming they are the norm is what bugs me and what I was saying. A lot of the comments here seem to think that beach front=extremely expensive. When that isn't always the case. Some of the poorest people live on beaches because they are not always the best places to live for exactly the reason we see in this video.

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u/CogentCogitations Jun 06 '25

Ocean front property is not that expensive when the property is not really "livable". That's why homes keep being built in areas that flood, because it is cheap. And usually insurance will not cover them, at least not for the very obvious risk of storm/wave/flood damage.

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u/Anfins Jun 06 '25

Some of the new construction these days are both expensive and built like shit with cookie cutter designs. Yet they often sell for over asking price so there's no incentive for builders to do better.

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u/Unusual-External4230 Jun 06 '25

Beach houses weren't always as expensive relative to regular incomes as they are today, they were always a privilege but not with the same income to ownership disparity you see now. Many of these would've been built during that era and using concrete would've likely been prohibitively expensive.

It's also not entirely necessary, the wood lasts a very long time barring any severe damage and proper wood choice. It's probably also better off - if a hurricane ripped off the non-concrete structure, it's a lot easier to tear down and rebuild with wood stilts instead of trying to determine if the concrete was compromised by debris or not.

I grew up going to one of these islands and a lot of older houses are still standing now that were old when I was a kid.

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u/BootsAndBeards Jun 06 '25

Every dollar spent on a fancy foundation is a dollar not spent adding a 5th bedroom.

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u/sump_daddy Jun 06 '25

If youve been inside some of those houses it starts to make sense. They are built as cheap as possible because all they will be is rentals. The most important (perhaps only) factor driving decisions is 'years to payoff'. They build it as cheap as possible, maintain it as cheap as possible, because it means more money in their pocket. If it falls down 25 years later? The profit will have been made, and it will be someone elses problem by then.

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u/sdave001 Jun 06 '25

People want BIGGER houses, not better.

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u/maidenhair_fern Jun 06 '25

Replacing the rotting wood and the eventual fall of the house sounds more expensive to me but capitalists can see beyond the next quarter so

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u/ShiftE_80 Jun 06 '25

The wooden piers are pressure treated so rot and termites aren't usually an issue.

Houses along the Atlantic and Gulf coast regularly get wrecked by hurricanes, so they aren't built to last. This video is pretty unusual; typically the piers are the last thing standing.

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u/maidenhair_fern Jun 06 '25

I see, thanks!

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u/cubgerish Jun 06 '25

Sand is still sand, no matter what's on top of it.

Concrete might do a little better, but if you take the houses shown here for instance, it's still going down.

At the end of the day, the bedrock just isn't there, and if you went deep enough to where it was, it's not worth it.

There's a reason you see the same thing literally all over the world in coastal places.

It's just way too expensive.

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u/Plaidfu Jun 06 '25

Wooden pilings are cheaper and easier to install than concrete or steel, especially in soft, sandy soils common near beaches.

In places with many smaller or seasonal homes, the budget often doesn’t justify concrete or steel foundations especially since they are often having to make repairs due to the situation - wood is much easier to replace and repair.

in more hurricane heavy and wealthier areas you will find more steel and concrete being used but usually its just not cost effective

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u/Cayke_Cooky Jun 06 '25

If you are lucky they survive intact and wash up on the beach in a day or two so you can rebuild with the same wood! Or at lest someones posts washes up on your beach.

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u/becausenope Jun 06 '25

My parents just lifted their home so I can actually answer this question; the reason they don't use concrete pillars is generally because of the sandy soils. It's not just about cost.

Basically, you don't want to use something really heavy and inflexible where the ground is constantly shifting because of erosion. Wood is flexible, easily repaired and easily modified to accommodate erosion. That's why.

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u/PleasantStatement521 Jun 06 '25

Wood or concrete don’t matter: the ocean is taking those houses.

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u/Crafty-Interest-8212 Jun 06 '25

It will last longer, but the rebar inside will be corroded eventually. The steel will expand and contract cracking the concrete. That will allow more salt water to go in and continue the corrosion. So my guess is that you can change a wooden pillar easier than a concrete one.

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u/747WakeTurbulance Jun 06 '25

Because concrete is porous and has rebar inside of that will rust, expand, and crack.

Spalling - this is an issue all of us that live close to the ocean have to deal with. Spalling repairs run from the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix.

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u/footdragon Jun 06 '25

I'm familiar with these pressure treated 8x8 wood pillar homes. The posts are buried as much as 15 feet under ground. the soil at that depth is very firm.

the first step after the posts are set plumb is to cut each of the posts to level. from there, girders are set, and the pressure treated floor joists are exposed to air.

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u/starvetheplatypus Jun 06 '25

Lots of dummies here saying dumb stuff. Wood is better when tall and and thin, and also replaceable. Concrete is porous and needs steel reinforcement which when submerged won't do well. Wood can bend and vibrate, but concrete is brittle. So coastal stilts, as a GC, id take Wood. Granted id reinforce the shear value of the stilts and the waves would really only ever come from one direction. Its also pretty easy to treat (creosote) Wood for coastal stuff. Case in point, 2 of my favorite surf spots have stairs, one is concrete one is treated Wood. Wood one is super ancient treated lumber while concrete is a little newer but the rusting rebar has already expanded and broke off he concrete exposing the rebar which will now rust faster

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u/m240b1991 Jun 07 '25

So, concrete isn't a horrible solution, except for this location. So, think about erosion and the evolution of the coastline of the OBX over the last century. The wood pilons (or stilts) have a level of flex and give in many conditions. This isn't a bug. It's a feature. The idea is that the obx has the potential for very hostile weather. There's hurricanes and storm surges, there's nor'easters, and these houses are meant to withstand all of this. If concrete were used rather than wood, the cost to build would be exponentially higher. Additionally, all of the wind force would be on the house itself rather than more evenly distributed over the pilons and the house. Lastly, the population of the obx nearly explodes between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Most of the residential dwellings in the region are rentals. Folks buy them for lots of money, and then they rent them for up to $5k/week (or more). Or investors build them for lots of money (Google Outer Banks mcmansions), and then rent those for exorbitant weekly fees. The weekly rental prices cover mortgage, insurance, maintenance (including the weekly cleaners and cleaning inspectors), and then what's left over goes into the owner's pocket. They're essentially short- to medium-term investment properties that bring in revenue weekly, rather than monthly.

Source: i grew up in kill devil hills, left for the army, went back, and then got fed up with the seasonal economy. In the summer, you're drowning in work, and in the off season, it's still a sleepy small town that has ghost town vibes because the proportion of people you see to houses you see is stark compared to the chaos of summer rush. For my fellow current and former food service workers, its like being slow for 3/4 of the day, then for about a quarter of the day the line is (literally) out the door and wrapped around the building. Traffic sucks because nobody has the foggiest idea of where they're going, and will cut from the center turn lane (with left turn signal on) to go to a store or restaurant on the right, until you get to the off season, where occasionally there's nary a soul on the road. It's frequently balls to the wall and you have to be paying attention to the shit drivers who stop when they have the right of way because they don't know if they took a wrong turn and can't figure out how to do a 3 point turn. I get that that happens everywhere, but in a tourist town, it's a regular occurrence.

Sorry that got so long, I miss my hometown

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u/ManOfTheCommonwealth Jun 06 '25

You’re from that area and don’t realize none of the factors you mention are applicable? The pilings are so heavily treated that they a) degrade over centuries, not decades, b) are far less flammable than the structures built upon them, c) impervious to terminates relative to structures built upon them, and d) so what? The pilings absorb little water and the water that is absorbed is salt - minimizing the foregoing 3 factors.

To use concrete pillars would require excavation and shoring into soft wet sand to depths of 14 feet or more which is inherently dangerous. Once backfilled, the fill material does not compact back as well as removed reducing lateral stability. These wood pilings are driven (really hydro-driven now-a-days with a giant pressure washer rather than pile driver) negating excavation and backfilling and are quite stable - as much or more-so than concrete alternatives. In fact, the few concrete houses down there are usually still built on wood pilings ;)

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u/Heatedblanket1984 Jun 06 '25

You meant to tell me some random redditors didn’t just solve an entire industries problems with two comments?

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u/Electronic-Jaguar389 Jun 06 '25

“Cement! Why didn’t I think of that!”

Somebody with most likely decades of building knowledge.

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u/Plenty_Rope_2942 Jun 06 '25

As an ex-resident of the OBX (North Topsail before it became a resort town when folks on the island still had job descriptions besides "ex-wife of a corporate contracts lawyer") I love hearing people argue about "stilt houses" that are getting sucked out to sea. It never gets old, and it used to happen pretty much annually.

The house. Survived. Being surrounded by hurricane-level storm surge. For days.

Meanwhile, the asphalt and cement roads and driveways up to them disappeared and crumbled into the sea within the first 30 minutes.

https://preview.redd.it/wu6szmlwld5f1.png?width=2293&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf6d0801344e89eff14c6b2db5ad6d279f52d525

Look at the images from Hurricane Fran, where basically every roadway, cement structure, and pad was ripped clean off the island in minutes. Anything not lost was condemned. What's still standing, almost untouched? The lumber piled buildings (less siding and roofs, of course.)

It's the best solution anybody has EVER come up with to living with the sea as your front porch.

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u/JollyToby0220 Jun 06 '25

It is very common to use wood over concrete, but some structures have used concrete and they are expensive. This area isn‘t a really trendy area so they use wood

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u/David-S-Pumpkins Jun 06 '25

You sound like an expert and I will assume you are. Is there any way they could like, put more down in 30 years/replace similar to a lifespan of a roof? Kind of cycle out older pilings to mitigate this type of shit?

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u/ManOfTheCommonwealth Jun 06 '25

I’m no expert, just have a family home in Rodanthe. I saw this house fall from my deck. We lose houses every year on the Outer Banks, that ain’t no big deal. It’s the rapidity of loss in this area at issue.

The problem isn’t the pilings - they last for centuries - the problem is beach erosion heightened by the movement of off shore sandbars which previously protected this area by dissipating wave energy before hitting shore. Now we’re on the edge of these shoals so receiving the brunt of wave action like a dagger to the heart. Couple this with extreme sea level rise and historic westward migration of barrier islands and BOOM -crick done rise.

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u/TheLizzyIzzi Jun 06 '25

Lifting houses can be done but it requires some serious engineering, which means $$$$. Still, if it’s every 30 years, it’s doable, even if you have to pay with equity or include it in the original mortgage.

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u/rabel Jun 06 '25

This guy pilings

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u/Khantoro Jun 06 '25

You can use or should probably use another back fill material that compacts well. Also, you can drive concrete piles, just different method (drive steel pipes first, excavate inside, pour concrete inside) but it is more expensive. I’m not from the area so maybe there are more things to consider.

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u/alaskan_Pyrex Jun 06 '25

Not to mention how damaging salt water is to concrete! Concrete is porous.

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u/Shrowden Jun 06 '25

Termites in salt water soaked logs?

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u/RD_Life_Enthusiast Jun 06 '25

Yeah, I didn't mean all of that to run together. And outside of storm season, the pier and beam structure isn't underwater...

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u/Too_Ton Jun 06 '25

Would the concrete even help when the sand would just shift and the whole thing comes down anyway?

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u/MediumRay Jun 06 '25

All of Venice is on wooden piles 

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u/Searloin22 Jun 06 '25

You're welcome!

  • Beach

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u/TEOsix Jun 06 '25

I don’t know that termites have come up through wet sand before. Hmmm. I could be wrong. I know they can fly but don’t think they all fly.

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '25

Fun fact, Venice, Italy is all built on stilts/logs. All of it. 

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u/Mattna-da Jun 06 '25

Pressure treated posts are pretty resistant to degradation and fire and can be driven right in to the ground - and is a fraction of the cost so there you go. And in this case concrete might not have helped, the waves are lifting the house and pushing it, and the sand under the pillars is gone

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u/cheapskateskirtsteak Jun 06 '25

Post Katrina a lot of the houses that get raised here in southern Louisiana are on concrete bricks, subsidized by FEMA. The gym I go to had a guy who owned a company that raised houses, he was telling me he had to go out of business in the next 6 months without the FEMA money

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u/AbueloSalcedo Jun 06 '25

What's are the names of these places? I wanna see pictures

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u/PokeRuckus Jun 07 '25

There’s a lot of houses I surveyed like this in Florida but they’re on concrete

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u/InternetExploder87 Jun 07 '25

Those were a specific tree in Venice (can't remember specifics) but they would essentially petrify and turn to stone IIRC

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u/lord-dinglebury Jun 06 '25

I’ve always thought the same thing about the houses built on coastal cliffs. Didn’t these people learn about erosion in third grade like everyone else?

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u/Snafoo88 Jun 06 '25

Erosion? Sounds like woke propaganda to me!

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u/RangerFan80 Jun 06 '25

What do you think the E in DEI stands for?!?!

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u/lord-dinglebury Jun 07 '25

ONLY THING THEY’RE ERODIN ON THE COAST IS OUR CHRISTIAN VALUES

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u/DemIce Jun 07 '25

https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookup/2011/h819

A controversial law in North Carolina, known as House Bill 819 (S.L. 2012-201), bans state and local agencies from basing its coastal policies on scientific models indicating an accelerating rise in sea level in favor of historical linear predictions.
https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/culr/2016/03/21/north-carolina-denies-and-defies-science-in-house-bill-819/

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u/Open-Preparation-268 Jun 06 '25

Or Mel Gibson with a big ole 4wd

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u/mst3k_42 Jun 06 '25

Or earthquakes.

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u/Hawks_12 Jun 06 '25

I’m sure it won’t erode during my life time, so no problem.

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u/Aggravating_Wheel297 Jun 07 '25

This is region dependant, but in some areas insurance companies are forced to insure you at a certain price. So even if your house gets blown down every 10 years, the insurance company has to build up a new one and can’t raise your premiums.

This is usually forced through state legislature, but sometimes models predict the cost to insure a region is greater than what the company can charge, and then companies have been known to pull out of entire states.

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u/GypJoint Jun 06 '25

That’s like the place where Flapjack lived.

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u/APigInANixonMask Jun 06 '25

I'd seek out Candy Island too if I lived in a house on stilts in a raging sea.

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u/They-Are-Out-There Jun 06 '25

If only someone could have warned them about building a house on the sand being a foolish thing to do…

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u/Soggy-Beach1403 Jun 06 '25

And so castles made of sand

fall in the sea eventually

J. Hendrix

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u/SuperPussyFan Jun 06 '25

What about sandcastles in the sand?

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u/Thesmuz Jun 06 '25

Hood classic

"Let's go to the mall" was her peak tho.

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u/IAmtheHullabaloo Jun 06 '25

Easy top 10 best poem songs ever.

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u/TraditionalLaw7763 Jun 06 '25

lol, the Bible even warns about it… too bad no one remembers and builds houses anyway.

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u/Queue37 Jun 06 '25

Well, it might look kinda nice, but you'll have to build it twice! Yes, you'll have to build your house once more.

Thanks for retriggering that childhood horror.

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u/LarrySDonald Jun 06 '25

Psht, like Texans are going to read the Bible..

Drove around Galveston about 10 years ago, lots of these everywhere. They seemed pretty stable. It’s not like some rando invented this a few years ago or anything, they do have some past experience with it.

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u/OwslyOwl Jun 06 '25

It wasn’t that they built the houses ON the beach, but rather after decades of erosion, the ocean continued to creep up and washed away the vegetation and roads.

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u/FirstDukeofAnkh Jun 06 '25

‘When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England.’

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u/GueroBorracho3 Jun 06 '25

Cheers from Port Aransas

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u/JoKir1982 Jun 06 '25

I could only begin to imagine the cost of renters insurance though. Nightmare fuel.

2

u/psycubi Jun 06 '25

Taxpayer dollars will subsidize it.

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u/JoKir1982 Jun 06 '25

Privatize profits while socializing losses.

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u/Broad-Writing-5881 Jun 06 '25

Local builder in Houston rebuilt his house with a "flow through" garage/storage as the first floor after Harvey.

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u/Jo-18 Jun 06 '25

Been going to OBX pretty much every summer since I’ve been born.

I figure I’ll buy a house down there now that’s like 150 yds back from the oceanfront. By the time I’m able to retire, there’s a decent chance that house will be oceanfront. It’s a win win, until the next hurricane comes through.

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u/The_YangZing_Guru Jun 06 '25

There’s entire towns all built like this on coastal Texas waters

"A testament to mankind's arrogance"

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u/Select_Factor_5463 Jun 06 '25

If you buy there, I'm sure the insurance rates are sky high!

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '25

I lived and vacationed on that barrier island for years. Originally, there was a lot more beach there. But, it's a barrier island that shifts. There has been beach renourish efforts, but 1 or 2 good storms will and has washed it away. .

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u/temporary62489 Jun 06 '25

beach renourish efforts

Just keep feeding the ocean more and more sand hoping that it eventually gets full?

111

u/rabid_spidermonkey Jun 06 '25

It's worse than that. It's building jetties and relocating sand, both of which have been shown time and time again to speed up the migration of coastal barrier islands. So yeah you've got your summer beach back, but come winter that shit is gone again + interest.

40

u/GirchyGirchy Jun 06 '25

We're an incredibly selfish and stupid species.

26

u/RangerFan80 Jun 06 '25

Also arrogant to think we can tame the fucking ocean.

3

u/Orpa__ Jun 07 '25

We Dutch are doing a pretty good job at it I'd say.

5

u/FUCKINHATEGOATS Jun 06 '25

Don’t forget they are funding all that by having paid parking all over the islands now. What was once a cheap family outing is now not feasible for some. I’ve seen $100/day for parking in some areas.

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u/fatkiddown Jun 06 '25

Stupid question: so it's not rising oceans due to melting the ice caps, it's just building a house in a place that's known to be ground (sand) or ocean at any given time?

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u/omniverso Jun 06 '25

not a stupid question. in reality, its both of those things.

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u/rabid_spidermonkey Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

Not stupid at all. Rising ocean levels are also accelerating coastal erosion and barrier island migration. With more water, everything is happening faster and affecting higher elevations than it would without human caused global climate change.

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u/rekkeu Jun 06 '25

Probably dredging sand and dumping it on/close to shore. They do that to NJ beaches around where I am. 

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u/Chickadee12345 Jun 06 '25

I see it happening in NJ all the time. I think it's funny that Ocean City keeps losing their beaches. All the sand washes down to Wildwood. Because there is that big jetty they built to protect the intercoastal waterway. Or maybe some other reason, I am actually not sure why. Wildwood Crest used to be a really reasonable sized beach. Now it takes so much longer to get to the ocean.

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u/rekkeu Jun 06 '25

I don't go there anymore but I used to frequent LBI in the Beach Haven area. Every time the beach would look different from the last, either 1/3 the size or rebuilt and a football field wide again. I remember asking my parent what the huge ships were as a kid and they told me about the dredgers. I'd see them personally maybe every other year. 

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u/He2oinMegazord Jun 06 '25

Its only one ocean Michael, how much could it eat? 10 sands?

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u/Gecko23 Jun 06 '25

The sand washes out and starts building new dunes further out, basically the barrier breaks down as it moves inland and a new one forms behind it as it goes. It’s interesting because you can often find that the water a couple hundred feet off shore is only a few feet deep because of the submerged dunes.

The replenishment method they’ve been using has been to dredge that sand that’s piled up offshore and pump it back to the beach. It’ll just wash right back out to where it was, and if they haven’t given up they’ll try it again.

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u/bustersuessi Jun 06 '25

When there were 4 100 Year storms in 5 years, that's when we decided to sell our house

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u/MayIServeYouWell Jun 06 '25

That a barrier island shifts should not be a surprise to anyone. That's the nature of these islands. There shouldn't be any houses out there. The whole thing is just stupid from top to bottom.

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u/nickiter Jun 06 '25

People I know with houses there say "one good hurricane" and that's it for big chunks of the OBX.

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u/orange_sherbetz Jun 06 '25

Beach renourish lmao.

Yah bc the tides will somehow stop tiding....

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u/ZantaraLost Jun 06 '25

These are more than likely 40 plus year old homes and once were QUITE a bit further back from the Ocean.

This is also a karma bot posting stuff from at least a year ago if not longer.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Day2809 Jun 06 '25

Thank you for stating what I've been silently screaming through my eyes as i read these comments.

So many good memories down in OBX. Glad we rented and never bought.

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u/The_MadStork Jun 06 '25

Yep. This happens every year in the Outer Banks when hurricane season rolls in. Climate change is exacerbating it, of course, but these homes have been there for a long time.

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u/Brawndo91 Jun 06 '25

It's natural erosion from changing tides. One end of the island narrows while the other widens. My family vacation has been to similar islands just north of the outer banks and some of them will try to compensate for this by pumping sand from the ocean floor onto the problem end of the island. I don't know how much of a part climate change plays in it, but nothing in nature is static, with or without human involvement.

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u/CrankinThatHog Jun 06 '25

I made a comment elsewhere in the thread about this, but you're probably right. My grandparents are ocean front on the Texas gulf coast but when they bought 60+ years ago it was like 1/2 mile from the ocean.

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u/ZantaraLost Jun 06 '25

All I'm absolutely positive on is that this video is geriatric in internet years..

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u/CrankinThatHog Jun 06 '25

Yeah for sure. Just looking at the iPhones it looks like 10+ years old.

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u/tomster_1 Jun 06 '25

What idiot would build a house there 😂

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u/Corporation_tshirt Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

House wasn’t that close to the shore when they built it. This is probably built on a barrier island, which would naturally shift and be moved around by changing tides, but people build houses there and then try to protect it through artificial means. Here they’ve decided not to protect these houses any longer and make more room for the sands to move naturally. This was several years ago BTW

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u/BobsOblongLongBong Jun 06 '25

So you're saying they chose to build a house on a barrier island where they knew the sands would shift and cause exactly this to happen.

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u/ecmcn Jun 06 '25

My family’s been going to a barrier island beach for 80+ years. There are thousands of houses on the island, and percentage wise only a handful have had this happen. Yes, it’s a risk, and nobody buys one of these without understanding that fact.

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u/Corporation_tshirt Jun 06 '25

They probably expected the state to build a seawall or those ugly spines that reach out into the water to protect the shore. The problem is, all of those things disrupt the natural movements of the island and you get to a point where you have to take dramatic steps to save the entire island. Whereas if they had just let it do its thing, it keeps the island healthy and in tact

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u/BobsOblongLongBong Jun 06 '25

You're probably right. 

To me that sounds like more support for the idea that people shouldn't be building houses on barrier islands.

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u/Corporation_tshirt Jun 06 '25

Exactly. Unfortunately, people just see it as potential beachfront real estate

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u/cl0wnp3n1sd0tfart Jun 06 '25

Seriously. They needed to build it with at least 3 more sticks

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u/ForayIntoFillyloo Jun 06 '25

Or 5 less sands

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u/No_Look24 Jun 06 '25

And 10 more boulders

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u/BobbyDig8L Jun 06 '25

And 1 less ocean

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u/Frodobjo Jun 06 '25

And my axe!

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u/ThatITguy2015 Jun 06 '25

May I throw it at some of the remaining pillars?

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u/irish_horse_thief Jun 06 '25

Angle iron and stick welding

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u/_Meehoy_Minoy_ Jun 06 '25

It's not just a boulder, it's a rock 🥹

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u/dalivo Jun 06 '25

There are millions of people who go to the Outer Banks each year. A lot of them stay for a week or more at a time. They could literally have to re-build the entire seaboard every 10 years and people would still pay for it.

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u/Jean-LucBacardi Jun 06 '25 edited Jun 06 '25

Not only that, this house probably got at least 50 years out of it, much longer than the original owner probably even owned it for. The original owner got to enjoy it and most likely make money off of it so it served its purpose. Beaches constantly are migrating (in terms of centuries and decades not years) and it was always going to happen. This particular beach is just the first to go. The bigger issue will be when beaches like Kitty Hawk and Suck start to go (where all the stores and hotels are). Doubtful it happens in the next 50 years though.

Edit - Duck, not Suck.

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u/knucklesmalone Jun 06 '25

Hee hee Suck

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u/Imbendo Jun 06 '25

The person that built this house sold it and profited handsomely a long time ago. The last person to buy it is a different story.

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u/ShiftE_80 Jun 06 '25

They were likely renting it out until it became unsafe to do so.

Notice the house doesn't have any stairs to the front door; it was probably abandoned years ago.

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u/geekpeeps Jun 06 '25

I’m guessing it wasn’t that close to the ocean when they built it.

If the area was subject to flooding 100 years ago, stilts are a decent idea (see the rest of the world where stilts are usual).

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u/msproles Jun 06 '25

These are barrier islands which absolutely move and shift over time due to current. I’ve been to many of them and actually walked over asphalt in the surf from a road that used to be on dry land.

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u/Eternal_210C8A Jun 06 '25

Darn, should've put the road up on sticks.

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u/DudeInTheGarden Jun 06 '25

But it's not climate change. It's ... um... a cycle. I don't know what causes it, when it's going to end, and what comes after.

I mean, what temperature is the planet supposed to be at? And why can't I get insurance in Florida, California, Texas, or The Carolinas any more? And where did FEMA go? And why is it so hot.

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u/OtisDinwiddie Jun 06 '25

I hear you loud and clear, but this might actually be one of the few cases where climate change isn’t necessarily to blame. These homes were built on barrier islands. Barrier islands move with time.

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u/OtisDinwiddie Jun 06 '25

Just to illustrate my point, this area was known as Chicamacomico by the Native Americans, which literally translates to “land of the sinking sands”. You build a house on a sand bar, expect for the ocean to drink it eventually.

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u/a-dog-meme Jun 06 '25

That’s a damn good fact for today, I’m here for it

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u/DudeInTheGarden Jun 06 '25

Fair enough. But higher water, more powerful storms, and they probably move more now than they did in the past.

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u/Positive-Wonder3329 Jun 06 '25

It’s called “island rollover” and is a perfectly well known and understood natural process. When that home was built 60 years ago they knew it wouldn’t last forever. Can’t really blame this on climate change

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u/CC-2389 Jun 06 '25

I also heard that when presented with documentation and evidence that climate change and scientifically observed phenomenon could contribute to situations like this Carolina lawmakers addressed the situation by saying you are no longer allowed to use these studies or mention these factors. Sort of an adults plug fingers in ears and go Nyah Nyah I can’t hear you.

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u/MotherFatherOcean Jun 06 '25

Yep they actually passed a law against discussing it in official government documents

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u/Strostkovy Jun 06 '25

One who could easily get flood insurance that paid for periodic rebuilds

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u/KEN_LASZLO Jun 06 '25

It was probably a pretty safe house at one point. It was probably not even oceanfront until more recent years. This looks like a nice beach house, it's probably on the 2nd of 3rd row as people usually build cheaper houses on the 1st row/water

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u/Test4Echooo Jun 06 '25

People with more money than sense.

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u/ManWithoutUsername Jun 06 '25

It's that simple

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u/Trex4444 Jun 06 '25

Someone who can get insurance 

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u/OogieBoogieJr Jun 06 '25

People who can afford to lose it without shedding a tear, I guess. That was probably their dog’s vacation home

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u/Waylander0719 Jun 06 '25

They said I was mad to build my castle in a swamp but I did it anyway!

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u/Commentor9001 Jun 06 '25

There used to be land there...

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u/Eledridan Jun 06 '25

Worked in Venice.

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u/EldritchMacaron Jun 06 '25

True, but have you seen the Mediterranean tide ? Yeah, me neither

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u/ProgressBartender Jun 06 '25

There’s the real possibility that those houses were one or two rows back from the ocean a few years ago. The coastline on the outer banks shifts pretty steadily but really disappears when there’s a direct hit from a hurricane.

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u/CaptainMoonunitsxPry Jun 06 '25

Yeah such properties require repainting and replacing wood FAR more often than an inland home. It's sad cause the way things are headed, the outer banks might flood over permanently rendering it uninhabitable.

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u/dinnerthief Jun 06 '25

Yea this has been happening for decades now in the outerbanks, the islands have always been moving and don't stop because someone built a house on them.

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u/TigerTerrier Jun 06 '25

Not the wise man I sang about in Sunday school for sure

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u/TheBugThatsSnug Jun 06 '25

I could be wrong, but the waves getting high enough to hit the face of the house probably did most of the leaning, the sticks are what kept the house up for as long as it stood.

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u/BodillyQ Jun 06 '25

Wood doesn’t corrode…..the fasteners however are another story. Nothing wrong with pressure treated timber piles when they are properly engineered.

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u/Shatalroundja Jun 06 '25

Most houses in the southern part of the Outer Banks don’t have first floors.

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u/mosquem Jun 06 '25

This is the same level of helpful as “don’t build houses where there’s huge fires every year” in CA.

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u/iamgr0o0o0t Jun 07 '25

https://preview.redd.it/m2zapc9qkg5f1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f85172e6e30d946018a9836aceb193887513228

I’m just adding a photo here because so many of the responses talk about the stilts being permanently submerged in salt water and the shifting of the sand. I think people who don’t live in an area with a lot of these houses are picturing them in flood conditions or the less common scenario where they are actually built over water.

Most stilted houses in my area (Texas) look something like this. They are built on a concrete slab which is then used for parking. They are elevated to avoid damage from storm surges during hurricane season. I also think about them during termite season lol. I always wonder if the owners are nervous.

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u/SevroAuShitTalker Jun 06 '25

I have very little compassion for these people. My mom grew up in SC, and there was an island in Charleston that all the houses would get destroyed every couple years. Insurance companies finally refused to insure anything there because they got sick of the bullshit.

With enough money, you can build a house practically anywhere. But don't complain when it gets destroyed because you were playing icarus

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