Brick's lagoon, bayfront, and barrier-strip neighborhoods sit low against Barnegat Bay — prime candidates for a lift onto a new code-height foundation.
Brick Township sits in northern Ocean County where the Metedeconk River widens into Barnegat Bay, with the barrier strip at Normandy Beach across the water. It's a town built around the water. The lagoon communities Brick is known for line dredged canals where a bulkhead and a boat sit at the back door: Shore Acres, once marketed as the "Venice of the Jersey Shore," plus Baywood, Cherry Quay, Silver Bay, and Cedar Grove. That's also what makes them flood.
More than 10,000 Brick structures sit in the FEMA floodplain. Superstorm Sandy proved the risk in 2012, when bay surge pushed up the Metedeconk and over the low bulkheads and inundated Shore Acres, Baywood, and Cherry Quay. For a home that floods on storm tides, raising it onto a new engineered piling foundation above the flood line is the durable fix, and often the path to lower flood-insurance pricing.
Brick's lagoon homes are mostly 1950s through 1970s ranches, capes, and bi-levels. Some sit on crawl spaces, which lift fairly cleanly, and some sit on concrete slabs, which take more planning because the slab usually has to be cut free or the house lifted with it. Knowing which you have is the first question in any Brick estimate. Our rules & permits guide covers the approvals.
Lagoon lots are tight. Equipment usually comes in from the street, and the bulkhead side often can't take heavy loads, so the crew plans the lift, the cribbing, and where the new pilings go around it. Many owners also deal with an aging bulkhead at the same time, since the house is already up and the yard is already torn apart.
On the Normandy Beach side, homes face open-bay and ocean exposure, so VE-zone rules and open piling foundations are common. On the mainland lagoons, most lots are AE, where a raised block foundation with flood vents is often enough. Your exact zone decides which one you need.
Most of Brick's bay and lagoon properties fall in FEMA AE zones, with VE (wave-action) zones along the most exposed open-bay and barrier-strip edges at Normandy Beach. Your exact zone and Base Flood Elevation come from FEMA's flood map for your specific address. That's the number the whole lift is designed around.
New Jersey requires a home's lowest floor to sit above the Base Flood Elevation plus a freeboard margin, and Brick enforces its own flood-damage-prevention ordinance on top of the FEMA maps. Before any work in a flood hazard area, the Brick Township Building Department at 401 Chambers Bridge Road requires a development/construction permit, and the foundation elevation has to be documented in relation to mean sea level. The contractor builds from sealed engineered drawings and coordinates that permit, the survey, and the elevation certificate. Our guide to BFE, freeboard & flood maps breaks the numbers down.
These are the low-lying, water-adjacent parts of Brick where elevation questions come up most: the dredged-lagoon communities behind bulkheads and the barrier-strip homes at Normandy Beach. If your home is on a canal, on the bay, or near the Metedeconk, an on-site assessment is the fastest way to know your flood zone, required height, and what a lift would take.
Lift the whole home above the flood line on a new engineered foundation.
See detailsDriven timber, concrete, or helical pilings sized for your flood zone.
See detailsBring a settled, out-of-level house back true.
See detailsRelocate a home off a failing lot or out of a hazard area.
See detailsElevation certificates and FEMA flood-zone requirements handled.
See detailsCode-height piling foundations for new coastal builds.
See detailsWe'll check your foundation type, the lagoon side of your lot, and access, then lay out the options for your Brick home.