Martin County had 158,431 residents at the 2020 Census, and Stuart is the county seat. The county was created on May 30, 1925, from the northern part of Palm Beach County and the southern part of St. Lucie County. It stretches from Hutchinson Island and Jupiter Island on the ocean to the shore of Lake Okeechobee, and the St. Lucie River joins the lagoon near Stuart.
West of the coast, Indiantown became an incorporated village at the end of 2017 and counted 6,560 people in 2020. Along the coast, housing leans toward the 1970s and 1980s: Census ACS estimates date about half of all Martin County homes to those two decades, find roughly 22 percent in larger apartment or condo buildings, and count about 12 percent as held for seasonal use.
Two landfalls three weeks apart
National Hurricane Center reports put the eye of Hurricane Frances (early on September 5, 2004) and then Hurricane Jeanne (September 26) over the south tip of Hutchinson Island, a short way east of Stuart. It is fair to ask what a new floor can and can’t take on a coast like this.
Our answer is plain. A waterproof floor handles spills, leaks and a damp slab, and a rigid SPC core stays flat through a drip or a burst line. Standing floodwater is a different matter; FEMA Technical Bulletin 2 doesn’t class vinyl as flood-damage-resistant. See water-damaged floor replacement for how we sequence the work after a leak.
Housing from the 1970s and 1980s
With half the housing from those decades, a typical Martin County job starts on a slab that has carried two or three floors already. The installer checks flatness, looks at how the tile is bonded, and decides whether plank can float over it or whether it should come out.
Tile and mastic laid in those decades should be tested before it is disturbed. Where removal makes sense, we haul the old material away and prep the slab. Our tile removal page walks through both options.
Island condos and seasonal owners
Buildings on Hutchinson Island and along the river usually have an association with flooring rules. We help with the association’s approval paperwork and install the sound-rated underlayment your building requires, without promising an outcome the board hasn’t given.
For owners who spend part of the year elsewhere, we can measure while you’re here and install on a date that works around your travel. See condo flooring for what boards typically ask for.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · census.gov · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · censusreporter.org · censusreporter.org · censusreporter.org · nhc.noaa.gov · nhc.noaa.gov · fema.gov