Florida Cracker Housing Style

If you are looking for home with affordability, energy performance, and informal lifestyle, Florida Cracker style may be the answer.

Florida Cracker style is an architectural style that is appropriate for the region known for hot, humid, bright sunshine, damp ground and yearly storms.  General characteristics of Florida Cracker style are the influence of the climate:  Deep pitched roof; wraparound porches; plenty of windows; built off grade; and without basements.  Consult with a designer or your local architect to develop your own home design that take advantage of your lot’s natural aspects or unique features and to determine the orientation of your building site.

Florida Cracker houses often built on brick piers, off grade, to avoid flood water and termites.  Traditionally, the crawl space beneath the house has many benefits.  First it provided air circulation under the house helping to keep the house cooler during summer.  Second benefit of the crawl space was to provide shelter for hunting dogs and chickens.  The dogs, used for hunting for deer meat and games, also kept snakes and wild raccoons and rodents away from the house.  Chickens provide eggs and meat and help to keep the roaches and bug infestation somewhat under control.  The roofs were pitched high and often vent hot air through cupolas or clerestory windows.  It had plenty windows for cross ventilation.  Cooking area was often away from the living quarter to minimize the heat build-up in the main portion of the house.

The state of Florida requires that an energy code calculation be done for all new homes.  The energy performance index (EPI) of each house must be lower than 100 points. By including important energy efficiency design features such as radiant heat barriers, ceiling fans, air distribution systems, and structural shading of windows in your new Florida Cracker style home, your home EPI could be a little as 60 points.

Here are some features of Florida Cracker style with ecological twist for your consideration:

1. Roofs.  Hip or gable with a slope of 8-12 pitch to keep the hot air away from the ceiling of the living area and at least 10 feet high ceilings and deep overhang to shade the windows and glass doors.  Select light color roofing material for heat reflection.  Utilize all the new guidelines for energy efficiency such as the correct type of insulations and sustainable roof decking materials. 
2. Windows and glass doors.  Use high quality casement, awning or double hung windows with metal cladding to add natural light and to take advantage of cool breezes.  Install skylights, big and stylish windows, height-gaining transom and French doors.  The perfusion of glass also floods the house with natural lights while making the living spaces bright and airy.  Extremely energy efficient windows keep heat from flowing into and out of a room.
3. Porches.  Incorporate in your house plan the amenities such as screened porches, patios, decks, outdoor showers, outdoor dining area, and open air fireplaces-anyway to help your family enjoy the outside.  To reduce solar heat gain, most of the Florida Cracker style houses have a large overhang on porch on the east-west side of the house, and in some cases, an open veranda which extended completely around the outer perimeter of the house.  This way you can build a house with less square footage, using minimum resources, and gaining in outdoor living.  Pay attention to proper engineering and building codes so the porches and outdoor structures would not be vulnerable to high winds.
4. Site.  Harmonize with your building lot.  Preserving tress and other natural feature.   Design your house plan to its site and orientation of your building lot.  An attractive yard goes hand in hand with outdoor living space.  Use native plants in your landscaping.  They are much easier to maintain than import varieties.
5. Ceiling fans.  Install fans in all living spaces and sleeping areas to assist with cross ventilation.
6. Central heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system.  Select the appropriate heating and cooling system to be installed correctly by qualified technician.  Consult with your local energy company for the best products in term of initial money paid and subsequent maintenance.  Being able to switch to back-up cool is a major relief.  No matter how shaded and cool your house is.

Florida Cracker style house is designed to weather the heat and humidity and to take full advantage of the year round sun before the day of any electricity.  It is an energy efficient type of home style for the climate for economical energy bills.  In addition to the design, lot selection, building orientation, landscape shading, construction practices and home appliance options all play a role in determining the energy consumption level of your home.  It is important to recognize that no matter how well design a house is specific energy savings and energy bills depend to a great degree on your day to day actions.