Florida’s buildings are fighting a losing battle against their own climate. Salt air, rising humidity, intensifying storms and decades of chloride exposure are corroding the steel inside concrete faster than almost anywhere else in the country — and faster than the inspection schedules designed to catch it.
The chemistry is simple and unforgiving: warmer, wetter, saltier air means faster corrosion means shorter building life.
Following the June 24, 2021, collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, state lawmakers took on one of the most difficult challenges in public policy: regulating the safety of aging private buildings without waiting for another failure to force action. The result was Senate Bill 4D, legislation that changed how structural risk is identified and funded across the state. Lawmakers established Milestone Inspections and Structural Integrity Reserve Studies that require condominium associations to evaluate building conditions and plan financially for long-term structural repairs…