MEMBER NEWS House vs Hurricane By Leigh Overland and Gene Braunstein I n the 1967 Oscar-winning movie, “The Graduate,” Benjamin Braddock, played by a very young Dustin Hoffman, reluctantly attends the big college graduation party his parents throw for him. A family friend takes Ben aside and offers him some sage financial advice. “One word,” the man pointedly tells him, “Plastics.” If that conversation were to take place today, Ben might very likely be told “Plastics…and concrete.” While it doesn’t sound like the kind of investment that would rocket anyone to the top one percent, it is the blueprint for constructing new housing that is many more times hurricane resistant than the default method of just using wood. It’s called ICF, or Insulated Concrete Forms. How much better than traditional wood framing is an ICF house? When super storm Hurricane Sandy struck in 2012, the beachfront houses in Union Beach, NJ, as in countless other communities, were irretrievably destroyed– ripped apart, flattened by rising tides and the nearly 80 mph winds. Where nice houses once stood, condemned property and foundations remained. Only one building was left intact–an ICF home with the owners and their family safely inside. Their home withstood the rising tide and would have been able to weather more than twice the wind speed that caused so much destruction around them. Although some damage was done to the exterior of the house, it was minor and easily repaired.1 While the degree with which we have been able to predict and track storms has given us more than ample prep and/or evacuation time, there has been very little talk about minimizing or even preventing the catastrophic aftermath. There’s not only the physical toll. There’s the emotional, psychological and financial ones as well. Other than nailing 4×8 foot plywood sheets over our windows and doors, the only options at this point are still pretty much fight or flight. Hope is not a strategy, but unfortunately, that’s all that many victims have left to cling to. They want to rebuild, but the specter of more super storms will linger. Clearly, it’s time to rethink our castle-making and take a serious look at Insulated Concrete Forms. The key to the effectiveness and strength inherent in an ICF-built home is its simple, ingenious technology, which has been used in Europe since shortly after WWII. The insulated concrete forms start out as two rectangular pieces of 2.5-inch thick, high-density Styrofoam. The two pieces are connected side-by-side by plastic spacers leaving a 6- to 8-inch gap, depending on their placement in the structure. These hollow blocks lock together, end to end, forming the foundation and exterior walls, creating a “shell” of the house or building. Once all the blocks are locked in place, the entire gap is filled with concrete. Think of ICF as a concrete sandwich consisting of two slabs of Styrofoam “bread” with concrete in the middle. And hold the mayo. It’s no wonder that there’s always such widespread, heart-wrenching devastation after an extreme weather assault. Wood-based structures simply can’t hold up under such extreme conditions, which, scientists tell us, are going to increase in frequency and intensity. Read More Statement from NAHB Chairman Granger MacDonald on Imposition of Canadian Lumber Tariffs G ranger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Kerrville, Texas, today issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Commerce Department’s final decision to impose countervailing and anti-dumping duties averaging 20.83 percent on Canadian lumber imports: “Today’s move by the Commerce Department to impose duties averaging 20.83 percent on Canadian lumber shipments into the U.S. could not have come at a worse time. Home builders and home owners are already dealing with the monumental rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of the devastating hurricane season and California wildfires. This tariff only adds to the burden by harming housing affordability and artificially boosting the price of lumber. It is nothing more than a thinly-disguised tax on American home buyers, home builders and consumers. “This is particularly disappointing given that NAHB met recently with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to express our concerns on this issue. Unfortunately, the administration is taking protectionist measures to support domestic lumber producers at the expense of millions of U.S. home buyers and lumber consumers. This is an especially hard blow at a time when the housing sector is still struggling to regain its footing and grappling with rebuilding efforts following these natural disasters Read More 24 HBRA of Fairfield County | NOVEMBER 2017
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