Salt air and a Flagler Beach house, month by month
A house on the Flagler Beach barrier island lives with salt in the air every day of the year. Most of what it does is slow, which is exactly why an owner who visits twice a year misses it.
Close to the dunes
The houses along A1A sit a few steps from the dunes and take the wind straight off the Atlantic. Salt spray settles on everything that faces east, and blown sand drifts against garage doors, steps and fences.
Metal goes first
Railings, stair hardware, light fixtures, hinges and the fasteners on a deck all corrode faster here than a few miles inland. Rust stains running down the siding below a fixture are often the first thing a photo shows.
Paint, screens and siding
Sun and salt chalk the paint and fade the siding, usually first on the ocean side. Screens on porches and lanais loosen and tear in the wind, and a torn screen shows up plainly in a photo from the street or the grounds.
Raised houses and what sits underneath
Many newer Flagler Beach houses stand on pilings, with parking and storage underneath. Photos of the ground level show the stairs, the pilings, the parking pad and anything stored there.
Seeing slow change
Because salt works slowly, the useful view is two dated sets a few months apart, side by side. What a quick look in person would miss, two sets taken in March and in July often make plain.