• Poor air flow from Air Conditioner
• Condensation in walls
• Moisture in upstairs bathroom
• Wetness around metal wall switches
• Corroded electrical outlets
• After only 5 years, the AC condenser was freezing up
• Clogged coils
• Expensive AC bills in the summer

The entire system was replaced after a tropical storm in 2012. This is a house I stayed at for 15 years. In 2016 I began managing the house and proactively maintaining the HVAC system was at the top of my list.

We had always had the above problems and nobody ever knew why. The owner had multiple HVAC techs look at the unit, and I had even hired a couple myself in the summer when it was really hot upstairs.

Finally in July 2018 the condenser froze up. Within 40 minutes it was VERY hot in the house. Running the heat for 40 minutes unfroze everything, however, all was frozen up again within 6 hours. I called an HVAC repair company who came out and sprayed some foam on the coils and left me with a $150 bill. While the guy was lazy and incompetent he did at least tell me I’d want to clean the coils this winter.

I am not an HVAC tech but I am an Internet researcher. 5 hours later when the unit froze I knew it was due to low freon (already checked) or clogged coils. The unit is mounted upright in a small closet with NO FILTER. I was always baffled by the no filter. I reached my arm way up into the unit and began peeling away hair and dust. The task continued for about 2 hours. It was a dirty job. When done, I was able to reach about 75% of he coils, the unit ran great! There was great air flow, humidity went down, everything was working smoothly and ice cold air came blasting out of the vents!

The solution was simply keeping the coils clean.

Here’s what a coil looks like:

Not rocket science.

Now in this house there was no filter. There were no air inlets allowing filtered air to get to the air handler. The closet the air handler was in was just sucking in air from underneath a closet door.

I had an idea – make the door the filter! That’s what I did to fix all of the HVAC problems at this North Carolina beach house.

Back in the Raleigh area (where I live) I bounced this off of a friend who owns an HVAC company and he said “yeah, you have to put the filter in the door, otherwise you’ll get low air flow, high electric bills and humidity upstairs.” UGH!!!!

Here’s what the door looks like!

RECAP

• A lazy installer installed an air handler with no filter.
• With no filter, the coils got more and more clogged over time.
• Air flow was reduced to clogged coils.
• Due to low air flow, there was excessive humidity upstairs and the house couldn’t keep cool.
• Eventually we had a frozen condenser
• This was all fixed with clean coils and a proper air filtration system.

This is yet another example of something a previous property management company didn’t give a care about but I was eager to fix.

To learn more about property management be sure to visit my page about Topsail Island Property Management.

The post Excess Humidity and Moisture, Not Enough AC in Oceanfront Beach House appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.

On November 27, 2018, I was standing on the beach reeling in some Whiting and Spots and I heard a gigantic dump truck go by. Yes, it was sand finally being delivered to North Shore Drive in Surf City. The Topsail Island dunes are finally being restored.

I think they’ve been putting sand down south of here for a while.

I’m pretty sure at a recent CAMA meeting the Town of Surf City said that oceanfront homes can’t build stairs again until the dunes have been repaired.

Hopefully the beaches get sand also. There’s FEET of sand missing from the beach. Currently, at high tide, even in 6MPH winds, waves are rolling up underneath people’s houses. Apparently, FEMA has yet to even assign Surf City a point of contact, so at this point nobody knows when the sand will be put back onto the beach.

There’s a LOT of debris in the Atlantic, and that’s not expected to die down anytime soon. I didn’t find it too difficult to fish but I did reel in some branches. Pieces of decks, docks and stairs are still washing up on shore, along with trash and other junk. Today, a 15″ tire washed up at high tide.

The post Sand Dunes Being Restored to Surf City NC Post Hurricane Florence appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.

After weeks of attempting to contact them I was finally given the green light to enter the island in late September. On October 1, 2018, I arrived in Topsail with saws, chainsaws, wood and hammers to help out. Unfortunately, the house I stay at on North Shore Drive was CONDEMNED.

Speaking of a communication breakdown, this would have been really nice to know before sitting in a truck with my dog for 3 hours just to find out that I needed to turn around.

As a Topsail Island Property Manager (I manage a couple of oceanfront properties VERY reasonably), I arrived to see this sign stapled to the stairs letting me know that the house was inhabitable.

The electric was shut off and there was no running water or sewer. Thankfully, the beach house was fine, other than the deck being ripped off, the gazebo being out near the street, and the piping ripped off.

I was able to get a hold of a friend who is a plumber who will be going down to repair the pipes shortly.

Once I have the water and sewer systems back in working order, I will talk to the Town of Surf City and get the house un-condemned.

Speaking of condemned properties, if you hadn’t heard, the Surf City Town Hall building is condemned and there’s all kinds of drama surrounding the EMA (Ecological Marine Adventures) building which is also condemned.

If your beach house was also condemned I would love to hear from you in the comments section below. And, in case you were wondering, homes which were condemned will be opened back up once deemed habitable as per the building inspector’s satisfaction.

The post Beach Houses CONDEMNED At Topsail Island After Hurricane Florence appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.

The pier will be open 24 hours a day until the season ends.

The best way to stay on top of what the pier is doing is by visiting their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/surfcitypier/.

I can’t wait to get onto the pier and see what kind of upgrades they’ve done this year.

Originally built in 1948, the pier is a great place to take a walk for a small fee or go fishing for a few hours.

The post When Does the Surf City Ocean Pier Open in 2018? appeared first on Welcome to Topsail Island.