How the heights are built
BarrierX® systems are built in plank courses. Each plank adds 8 inches of height. Systems run from 3 planks to 9. The formula is 8n + 1 inches where n is the plank count. There is no ten-plank system. Above nine planks we supply raw material and the customer fabricates to their own design.
| System | Planks | Height |
|---|
| 3PS | 3 | 25 in · 2 ft 1 in |
| 4PS | 4 | 33 in · 2 ft 9 in |
| 5PS | 5 | 41 in · 3 ft 5 in |
| 6PS | 6 | 49 in · 4 ft 1 in |
| 7PS | 7 | 57 in · 4 ft 9 in |
| 8PS | 8 | 65 in · 5 ft 5 in |
| 9PS | 9 | 73 in · 6 ft 1 in |
The full stack always deploys
You cannot install fewer planks than the post height. The tensioning plate seats at the top of the post and clamps the entire column of planks down against the seals below it. Removing a plank removes the compression that makes the whole stack watertight. So the choice of height is made once, at installation, and the posts are cut to suit. Specify the height you want for the worst event you are protecting against, not the average one.
Working out your number
There is no single correct answer, and anyone who gives you one without looking at your property is guessing. These are the four inputs that matter.
- Your base flood elevation and finished floor height. Florida’s building code works to BFE plus one foot of freeboard for new construction in most flood hazard areas.
- What actually happened last time — a tide line on a wall from Ian, Helene or Milton is real data.
- Where the water comes from: surge is shorter and more violent; rainfall ponding can sit for days; riverine flooding hangs around longest.
- What you are protecting. A garage with a concrete floor tolerates a few inches getting past. A finished ground floor does not.
What most Florida homes end up with
The five-plank system at 3 ft 5 in is our most common installation, and for a lot of Southwest Florida properties it is the sensible balance between cost and coverage. Properties closer to open water, or those that took significant depth in 2022 or 2024, commonly go to seven planks at 4 ft 9 in. Going taller is not automatically better. Hydrostatic force rises with the square of the depth, so a six-foot system pushes roughly twice as hard as a four-foot one. Above about three feet, dry floodproofing becomes a question about whether the building can take the load. That is worth an engineer’s opinion rather than a salesperson’s.
Openings are priced on the measured width
Systems are quoted on the measured opening width, not on a rounded product code. A 92-inch opening is 7.67 linear feet, and that is the figure that gets priced. Fabrication codes round up to the next three inches because that is how the parts are cut. They are a workshop label, not a billing basis.
