Concrete Homes - Your Fortress in a Natural Disast

If the area you lived in was subject to earthquakes, insect infestation and wildfires, and you could live in a type of housing that could withstand all those perils, why wouldn't you? Concrete homes have an amazing resistance to all of the above and are commonly used in Florida and other hurricane ridden locations, but their popularity hasn't spread to the west coast.

Due to their unique construction, a number of homes have survived the wildfires in California. Pat Callahan owns a concrete house outside Escondido that only suffered smoke damage during the October Witch Creek fire. Although the vinyl windows were melted, the house remained standing.

Another success story was that of Lorraine Aledort and her 5,500 square-foot concrete house near Ramona. The upgrades in her home included:

Concrete roof tiles, glued-down to resist high winds.

Interior fire sprinklers (now a local building requirement).

Oversized wood beams to withstand exposure to heat longer than their smaller counterparts.

An emergency power generator.

A 10,000-gallon water tank to be used in a fire emergency.

Commercial grade aluminum windows with extra thick tempered glass.

Exterior walls were one foot in thickness including reinforcing steel placed in the concrete forms for protection against earthquake damage.

After spending 3 1/2 years building their home, Lorraine and her husband had only lived there a few weeks when the wildfires struck. The landscape was blackened, but the house withstood only minor smoke damage. The cost of building compared to a comparable wood home was about twenty percent higher; Lorraine considers this money well spent

Structural engineer, George Easton describes concrete construction similar to assembling Lego blocks. "The ?blocks? are polystyrene forms, called insulated concrete forms, into which the concrete is poured. The forms then are left in place to serve as insulation and the backing for stucco on the exterior or drywall on the interior."

The walls can provide up to an R-50 energy rating and require approximately 44 percent less energy to heat and 32 percent less energy to cool compared to a traditional wood home.

If concrete houses are so effective against natural disasters, why aren't they widely used? Part of the problem is the lack of knowledge in the building industry regarding concrete construction. Even though concrete construction has national code approval, there are many inspectors with little knowledge of how to inspect the structures.

Many builders feel that the future of widespread concrete housing requires a dominant player in the building industry to come forward and say "we can do this", and others will follow suit.



Posted by IRENE GOROS on December 13, 2008 at 12:00 AM

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Local Information for Plano, TX

Latitude: 33.050374 -- Longitude: -96.745935


ZIP Codes for Plano, Texas 75023  75024  75025  75026  75074  75075  75086  75093  75094 
Area Code for Plano, Texas 972
Time zone for Plano, Texas CST



Other Area Cities:   Bedford, TX  Coppell, TX  Colleyville, TX  Flower Mound, TX  Irving, TX  Keller, TX  Watauga, TX  Pleasant Valley, TX  Plano, TX  Addison, TX  Allen, TX  Carrollton, TX  Dallas, TX  Garland, TX  McKinney, TX  Richardson, TX  Rowlett, TX  Murphy, TX  Rockwall, TX  University Park, TX  Buckingham, TX  Frisco, TX  The Colony, TX 

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Plano is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas, mainly within Collin County, but also extending into Denton County. It is a suburb of Dallas, Texas. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 222,030, making it the ninth largest city in Texas, and the seventieth most populous city in the United States; it had grown to 250,096 in the 2005 census estimate. Plano is within the Dallas–Plano–Irving metropolitan division of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, a title designated by the U.S. Census, and is colloquially referred to as the Metroplex. The city is home to many corporate headquarters, including Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc., Electronic Data Systems, Frito-Lay, Cinemark Theatres, and JCPenney. -- Source: Wikipedia.com




Texas 2000 Census Population Profile Map

Plano Texas United States
Population 222,030 20,851,820 281,421,906
Median age 34.1 32.3 35.3
Median age for Male 33.5 31.3 34
Median age for Female 34.6 33.4 36.5
Households 80,875 7,393,354 105,480,101
Household population 220,906 20,290,711 273,643,273
Average household size 2.73 2.74 2.59
Families 60,578 5,247,794 71,787,347
Average family size 3.18 3.28 3.14
Housing units 86,078 8,157,575 115,904,641
Occupied units 80,875 7,393,354 105,480,101
Vacant units 5,203 764,221 10,424,540

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IRENE GOROS - Southern States Reatly
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Southern States Reatly


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Plano, TX 75093

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