SEARCH RESULTS FOR “shelter”

For­ti­fied home con­struc­tion refers to using mate­ri­als and tech­niques in com­bi­na­tion with one anoth­er to make your home stronger and more resilient as a shel­ter.

For gen­er­a­tions, the con­struc­tion of exte­ri­or walls has fol­lowed tra­di­tion­al prac­tices that have pri­mar­i­ly involved wood or steel fram­ing. These meth­ods have been the back­bone of res­i­den­tial and light com­mer­cial con­struc­tion, by pro­vid­ing shel­ter, sta­bil­i­ty, and a cer­tain lev­el of insu­la­tion.

The steel rein­forced con­crete, which can cure stronger than nor­mal con­crete because of the foam insu­la­tion, can with­stand winds of over 200 MPH, and pro­jec­tile debris trav­el­ing over 100 MPH. There are dozens of eye wit­ness exam­ples of ICF homes tak­ing EF5 tor­na­does head on with the walls still stand­ing.

Research by Texas Tech Wind Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing Research Cen­ter has demon­strat­ed that ICF walls bet­ter pro­tect occu­pants of hous­es from wind­blown debris, than frame walls. Being hit by wind­blown debris is the most com­mon cause of injury dur­ing tor­na­does.

We face envi­ron­men­tal pol­lu­tion every day we step out­side our door.

This build gave 30 high school stu­dents hands-on expe­ri­ence build­ing a home with Fox Blocks ICF from the ground up.

After los­ing their home to a fire in 2017, the project own­ers aimed to build a replace­ment that was sim­i­lar in design but stronger and more fire-resis­tant. The fire had exten­sive­ly dam­aged the site, which neces­si­tat­ed a com­plete demo­li­tion of the old struc­ture, includ­ing the for­mer base­ment, pri­or to the con­struc­tion of the new ICF home.

Home­build­ing trends large­ly reflect the demands of the Mil­len­ni­als — the largest home-buy­ing group enter­ing the hous­ing mar­ket as first time home buy­ers.

Ash­bury Hills Ele­men­tary School is the first com­plete school built with ICFs in the state of Nebras­ka, and its gym­na­si­um was built to full height with Fox Blocks.