"It's good until it breaks". So true. Made me laugh when you said that! Your videos are very interesting. Thank you.

Love the music choices during the video😂🌮🇲🇽

It's great to see how others do things in different climates, and to hear an expert explain the details! Thanks for the video.

They need this in Hallandale Beach beautiful city beautiful beaches and growing businesses and communities.

3:15 my jam no cap! 🎶 🎵 🪕 🎼 💿 🎸 🎶

Boy that brought back old memory's. Grew up in Sarasota and was a mason in the 60's and 70's there. Those long lintels would break you some times. And we use to pour those homes with a bucket and wheel barrel. Plus wheeling your mortar through that sandy ground was a real bear. Three back surgerys and 50 yrs later i don't want to even think about trying that again. :-) Cheers mike, always great content.

You’re just around the corner from me and it’s nice to see you talk about the construction here. I watch all your videos you do a great job.

I hope you youngings realize this guy mike is a master craftsman and a great teacher as well. Oh did I forget sailer too.

When I talk to my parents (they live in Cuba) about the way that we construct in Florida, they can’t believe it nor trust it. I graduated as a civil engineer last year but I am still trying to figure out stuff by myself since practice is much needed. Thank you very much for this informative video.

Thanks for the video. Hope to have my own concrete block home one day.

I'm glad to see that you finally did a Florida video. I wish you would've commented on the new construction of driveway and how come they never place separation joint in them and showing all the cracked up driveways in the neighbourhood.

It's interesting to see the homes being built in Florida. I'm from India, and most of India has the same climate as Miami and we get lots of terrible monsoon storms. We would never use wood for anything structural. Even the roof would be made of concrete+rebar and be flat instead of sloping. And you would be able to go on the roof. Other than that and the plumbing part, the methods used seem very similar.

Thank you Mike !

Mike, Thanks for taking us on the tour, you sure do get around. TP

Mike, you are a working class hero. God Bless You and thank you for all that you do.

Beautiful home Greetings from Jordan 🇯🇴 good work

Thanks for the insights Mike. Great video.

Mike you need to move down their and enjoy!

Great video Mike. Always new and fresh material. Many thanks.

A very informative video like always. Thank you, Mike.

Thank you Mike 🍀🍀🍀

Mike that tree looks like a good place to take a rest. Thanks for showing the different building techniques.

Thank you mike for taking the time to put this video! Very informative indeed

Great video. Very informative.

Great informative video, thanks for these videos

Great video mike !!!! 👍

Very interesting and I'm sure the weather has a great bearing on everything!!

good insight on building practices in florida

Thanks for this video and explanation!

That was very interesting mike

Great video !!!

Another great demonstration of your knowledge Mike, and the reality that flexibility is essential in everything especially masonry and construction... Thanks for your all of videos....

Hello from Fort Myers :) Born and raised Floridian, this is the only way I know for home construction, appreciate the insights to how others do it up north.

Once that plumbing breaks your in serious trouble. Damage and financial disaster. Great video thanks for sharing.

Great Video!!!!!

Hi Mike. Always great to learn better ways. Faster ways to complete my jobs. Many thanks.

Looks like some good quality houses being built. The job sites certainly look clean.

4:30 to 4:58 , very useful for me to see that septic tank and drainage field, since I will be needing to do that next year for a new house. Thanks, Mike. Good job as usual.

Really interesting stuff to see mate👍

Thank you very much , very educational. I’m in California and agree with you on the building codes. Thinking of retiring in Venice ,Fl

Nice vid, thanks!

thank you

I agree with you about the pipes buried in concrete, as a plumber there's nothing worse than doing this technique, it's just as as easy to rough through walls above ground with piece of mind knowing if and When it fails its accessible

Nice camera work, Mike! And excellent commentary, as usual.

Enjoy. We went to Anna Maire Island last year. Great vacation. Hope yours is too!

Great video! Love your work. I just did a 4foot pad at my door thinking wow I can just poor it on the sand here in Floridia! I’m going to tile over it and make it pretty! No freeze issues like upstate NY or Pennsylvania! Thanks for your videos “No big deal”!

Thanks brother

THANK YOU!!! I'm waiting in the walls and appliances... then landscaping.... it's been a year already. So many delays AND HOLIDAY BUILDER refuses to notify me of next steps.

Have lived in South Florida 64 years. The construction you saw is production line home construction. You are right when you say it is very shortsighted to pour a concrete slab over the plumbing, but that is the way it is done because it is cheaper and the buyers know nothing about construction. 4 of 5 Florida homes I lived in, were stem wall foundations with a crawl space where all the plumbing was accessible for repairs or changes. The sewers in my homes were all city sewer lines not septic. It looked to me like the fiberglass insulation you showed was just for the interior partition walls. For the block walls, they likely used aluminum faced 3/4" high density boards between the furring strips on the block walls, with the block/foam/sheetrock I think it is R-11. In the old days it was just block/ 3/4" air space/ sheetrock. A really big foolishness is that they have the air conditioning ductwork and returns going through the attic which can be like 140F+++ degrees, the ducts are like heat exchangers fighting with the air conditioner and practically all the houses are built that way. A big difference between Florida and PA is that they've been building houses in PA for 300+ years, and people lived for generations in those homes, things were built to last. In Florida, it's only been like 70 years and people move every 5 years.

Such an educational video. I see stuff like this all the time but interesting to hear you break it down. We call those concrete tubes 5:07 culverts. For the insulation at 5:43, I wouldn't be surprised if they hang some R-13 insulation there. Keep up the good work.

I liked that video.

Hi Mike great video of course we have the same weather in NH as you but that's some easy living down there, no worries about frost lines and such just dump everything on the sand! It's funny my mother is still alive and kicking and lives in Ft Myers's hello from the Granite State!

as someone that lived in FL (tampa/St Pete) for a decade and from MN this was a wonderful video. also always like you doing a recap at the end of the videos. Thursday, April 29, 2021. 443 thumbs up and 0 thumbs down.

Really good video, educational to see how things are done in other areas. Wow that sealed in plumbing will be a nightmare to repair "It's good until it breaks" with my luck it would break 2 days after I moved in. Here in the Boston area where I've lived all my life 99% of houses have basements only low income places are built on slabs.

Me encantó.

ft Myers is nice. I always like the fresh seafood rite off the beach with the live music. I stayed at Point Estero last time I was down there. it's a beachfront condo. great place

A hint from someone who is a native of Florida but lives out on the west coast now. Putting the plumbing, (hot & cold) water is foolish! True, unlike copper, the PEX tubing will last a long, long time. BUT, if there is a problem in the future you will have to break the slab for repair. Do like we do it in the west for homes built on a slab: Run the plumbing through the attic and down the interior walls to each location. Also, due to seismic and soil issues, post tension slabs are pretty standard here and since the homes typically are of wood frame construction, anchors about every 24 inches to keep the house on the foundation. Interesting to see that they have cheaped out by using asphalt shingles instead of the standard masonry tiles like we have here.

Interesting,thanks.

Mike, really enjoyed your video. Thank you for your comments and totally agree. We’re from Jersey and what works for Jersey May not work for Florida haha.

Nice video Mike very interesting to see how they do things else where , it looks a lot simpler in Florida and i would think much less expensive .

Mike - I've learned a ton from your videos. I've used some of your information towards other projects. "Start in the back, where its not so visible."

We love that saying... what works here won't work there. We used it and gave Mike credit for it in one of our brick videos where we were using lime mortar.

I have built over a hundred homes in Ohio and I can tell you that pressure plumbing under slabs is the absolute standard. Zero call backs

Cool. My home town

Great video! Being from Ohio, I was curious about the foundation and block houses in Florida. I’m going to invest in land in Florida.

I enjoyed this video, thank you. I live in a Florida home built in 1955. I want to know every little detail about it. The day I learned it has a slot in the bathroom for old razor blades that allows you to just drop them into the wall, I lost my marbles!

Looks like a quality product, the music was good ( andes )

Thank man having a house built and I'm from NY. It's different but like you said it depends on the environment. One thing I thought was interesting, was the vapor barrier techniques and whether to use or not due to doncdensation. As you know up north there is a big debate on when and where to use vapor barriers. Thanks for the video sir, well done

Surreal to see how its done in California, being used to scandinavian building codes, and the Maestro of Pennsylvania. On the other hand, it is a different climate, so kinda interesting to see what they can get away with. Had some thoughts about some of the things they did, but its there future issues. Sir. I stick to watching your skills. My good, putting sement straight on sand for an driveway. Not sure if I'll be able to sleep tonight. Enjoy California Sir.

Well Mike you might remember me from talking together several years ago. My background as yours was masonry, we ran a home building business for over 40 years in Bucks County Pa. As you know, there are no licensing requirements in Pa. for builders. Other than some local governments (townships), charging for an occupational license annually in order to work in that particular township. Building codes can vary somewhat from township to township depending upon the whims of the building department of that township, and possibly even the building inspector of that township. There is no standard statewide building code as there is in Florida. Ive been living in Florida full time now for 23 years. I have built 2 homes for myself during that time frame. Not all homes here are built with the mono slab method like the ones you visited. An optional method is what they refer to here as a stem wall system. Which is an excavated trench with a traditional concrete footing, and then several coarses of block to the slab level. Or the block wall can continue from the footing to the roof truss level, with the floor poured after the roof is installed much like is done in Pa. The top coarse of block is required to be a bond beam block with a rebar installed as well as the truss straps, and rebars installed in the block cavities on both sides of every door and window opening, as well as every 4 feet apart for the length of each block wall. I chose to build my house using the standard footing and stem wall method, with a separately poured concrete floor. So again, that option is permissible, but also a bit more expensive, which is why most development type homes arent built that way. All the permits and inspections here are on a county level, according to statewide building codes. There are no townships in Florida, only county wide government. Which eliminates much of the local dog and pony show politics. I have one regret Mike, and that is that i didnt run away from my Pa. home when i was about 18 years old and come here. Fortunately, i was able to convince my youngest son to move here about 15 years ago while he was in his late 30s. He worked on my license untill he was able to secure his own state level building contractor license. His son is in his final year of college here, and will be obtaining his license as soon as possible as well. They are moving here in droves Mike, and i need not explain the reasons why that is happening. And guess what else, about 15 minits after a pouring rain, you can back in the concrete truck with no fear of it getting stuck. And you can do that for 12 months of every year with no worries about it freezing tonight. How much is that worth over the period of a lifetime?

It’s nice they have block houses in Florida unlike the junky wood ones they build in Phoenix. That plumbing is terrible though. Here it has to be run through the attic not underground.

Hi Mike, your videos how day do tings in different areas is nice

Florida has the highest home insurance rates in the country because of hurricane damage payoffs. I could see block construction as better able to withstand hurricane force winds but if the hurricane straps aren't installed correctly off goes the roof. Big scams in hurricane re-roofing lawsuits also driving up insurance costs

Fort Meyers is beautiful and that house is great!"

Bought a shirt. A lot of youtubers put the links under each video. I had to check your channel description to find it.

Mike, you might remember me from a prior comment on your basement wall parging post. Anyway you mentioned Pa, as i stated earlier i started my working life as a plasterer. My father was born in 1906 and at age 14 became a bricklayer apprentice. As you probably know there were no block back in those days. So if a wall was 16” thick, it was a solid brick 16” wall. But only the outer areas were what we call face brick, which were of a higher quality than the brick used as fill on the inside of the wall. They were known as Salmon brick, and can be distinguised by their salmon color. So Mike, with used brick being popular in all parts of the country, what happens when a mason picks up a salmon brick in Pa? It goes in the wall dosent it. About 1958 drywall had put many of the plasterers out of work in places like where i lived in Bucks county Pa. So with my father being well rounded in his construction background we became home builders. And i continued to be a home builder there untill 1990 when i moved to the Florida keys to fulfill a dream of being a charter fishing captain. I built my own home in the keys as an owner builder, which dosent require being licensed. I later took the test and became a certified Florida builder. Now as for the various building methods here in Florida, you can still dig a trench and pour a footing same as is done in Pa. That is known here as a stem wall foundation as opposed to the mono poured slab as in your video. I chose to use a stem wall in both of my personal homes i have built here. I used 12” block in the trench which gave me a 4” ledge to rest the slab on. The codes here are more ridgid than those we had in Pa. But frankly i find that the quality of the tradesmen are lacking when compared to those i knew up there. There are in fact some good ones, but by and large not as good. Block masons could be the exception however, as i have encountered some very good ones here. As for the filled areas you mention prior to pouring the slab, a major difference is the type of soil here which is very sandy and due to the fact that they really go all out on the compaction of the fill as opposed to what they generally do up there. As for the licensing here as opposed to really none up there, by and large it is just more government BS. It creates a very large government agency, and ends up costing average Joe homebuyer more cost for a home not built any better than those areas like Pa that dont require contractor licensing. But all that said Mike, i only wish i had most of my life to live over. Because guys like us could have done much better in the construction industry here than we did up there. It can rain like hell for hours, but when it stops you can back in the concrete and block trucks when it stops, and you can do that all year long.

Other than the occasional hurricane they have much more even weather in which to do their layouts, staging of items and have more uninterrupted time to do the outside work. Not like Maine!

5:58, yes, they called hurricane straps.

Looks like a solid house with the blocks. Seems like they could treat the rebar with some kinda coating that would slow down or prevent the rust and corrosion. Maybe galvanized rebar?

Very interesting. I guess all that plumbing in the ceiling didn't work out too good for the people in Dallas this past winter, when the temperature went to zero degrees.

My city!

Mr Haduck , Have you ever had any weather desasters ? You know jobs runt by rain or any other catastrafes ? and how did you fix them ?? a video on this topic my help more people then the way to do a job in the first place !

u should do a video of your state typical houses,

Not an apples to apples comparison on the gravel part, railroads are built on crushed rock ballast specifically so that it CAN shift with load.

Hi Mike. Another fantastic video as always. I have already told you on occasion that I am building a house with stone and cement and it is beginning to take shape. Inside I want to finish it with plasterboard and I had thought of rock wool as an insulator but I have doubts with the polyurethane foam. It is an area of ​​Spain with cold winters and hot summers. What do you recommend me? Thank you very much in advance and thank you for sharing the videos with which I am learning so much. A greeting from Spain.

Im on the east coast in Vero Beach Mike.

Thanks Mike. Do they use fiber glass rebar and lath in home construction? What techniques do they use for building on the water front?

What do you think of the homes being built out of block? Do you think it makes the homes much more sturdier than the typical wood frame home in the north? Do you know what the main reason for them building out of block is? Is it for the actual hurricanes or is it because of wood destroying insects?

@2:00 - As a retired plumber/fitter, I roughed in plenty of houses with plumbing under the concrete slab. If it were a house I was building for myself, water pipes would not be under the slab. But, when I had to do it, it was sleeved copper pipe, type L, which means it was a heavier pipe than would be installed in the walls of a house, and all joints under the slab had to be brazed instead of soldered. This new plastic tubing for waters is a sin. In order for the manufacturers to get this plastic pipe approved, they had to butter the palms of crooked politicians.

My sister in law and family moved from Maryland to a house in Wellington Florida that they rented to make sure they liked Florida and the area. I went down there to visit and was looking around the house and like most houses there the common areas of flooring were all tiled and across the kitchen and great room there was a very long crack clear across both rooms. They were considering buying house from the landlord but I talked them out of it. If the tile is cracked then so is the concrete and the broken tiles go under the cabinets and the base plates to the walls so how do you remove and retile the floors? They actually found a much nicer home within a half mile and had no visible flaws to have to correct as it would have been an expensive undertaking. Nice video Mike, would you ever move from Pennsylvania? I’m so tired of cold weather I want to leave New Jersey.

Hi Mike, what do you think of stone homes? Particularly stone homes in hot and humid weather like Florida or Texas? Maybe you’ve made a video on this but I couldn’t find it.

Mike, I think they raise the houses up like that to get them above sea level. 😆

Hi,! I'm really know how much the spend on that house $$$ , I live in Florida and a really know because I'm planning to buy a house or make my own house odviesy with you if is in my pocket , thanks so much 😁 I really learned with you video 😁👍🏻

Cool shirt id like to buy one

Looks like high density for septic. The foundation looks more like light-duty sidewalks. Storm damage waiting to happen. I built a 12 x12 shed in New England, still standing after 30 years, that was better built. The next cat 4 hurricane in that area will be the test.

Hey Mike, Merry Christmas to you and all! How much do you think is to build a house like this one you showed?

You’re going to retire to fort Meyers aren’t you, last video was a sailboat. Beware of city code enforcement and HOAs, they’re both where tyranny starts lol.

Awesome video. Mustve taken months to record this

Whatever works!

Hi Mike. With the SWFL code, Do they pour concrete down all of the cinder blocks or just the ones with the rebar? When you showed the top view it looked entirely covered with poured concrete?