Severe storm threats have been unusually high over the past few years, with “rare” occurrences happening more and more frequently. These extremes have been experienced in all regions – from massive flooding and snowstorms in the upper Northeast, to super hurricanes along the Gulf and Florida Coastlines, to strong tornadoes and flooding in the Midwest.

Although climate change is merely a pragmatic inference, one thing seems certain – the resulting extreme weather trend is here to stay, which is why our customers are seeing an increase in demand for stronger, stiffer homes.

Taylor Design & Construction, located in Yelm, Wash., is one such company. The design/build firm delivers safer homes that exceed building code requirements to their clients. Yelm, a D1 seismic zone (D2 being the highest), is located up the fault line from Mount St. Helens.

“We engineer homes to withstand worse case scenarios,” said Brent Taylor, owner of Taylor Design & Construction.

Taylor specializes in earth-sheltered homes, although he is also currently working on a monolithic dome structure – all of which utilize Reward ICFs.

“I was initially attracted to ICFs eight years ago because the system kills two birds with one stone,” said Taylor, “it insulates and builds a strong wall.”

Wind-Resistant

The steel-reinforced concrete walls created from an ICF wall assembly provide exceptional protection from tornadoes and hurricanes. It’s a fact that structures built with ICF walls are more wind-resistant than traditional wood or steel stud walls. In fact, Reward built structures have unmatched structural strength and wall stiffness, exceeding all building code minimums.

Tests at Texas Tech University show that concrete walls can withstand the impact of debris hurled at an intense velocity by tornado-force winds. To duplicate tornado-like conditions in the laboratory, researchers shot wall sections with 15 pound 2 X 4 lumber missiles at up to 100-mph, simulating debris carried in a 250-mph wind. Reward walls, like all other concrete wall systems, survived the tests with no structural damage.

In May a Reward built home in Parkersburg, IA survived a confirmed EF5 tornado. The home belonged to Reward customer Jeremie Nagel of Advanced Building System.

“Although there was superficial damage to my home, there were 353 wood framed homes in Butler County alone that were completely destroyed,” said Nagel.

To learn more about how Reward built structures can survive devastating storms, including EF5 tornados, email reward@rewardwalls.com and request the Wall Assembly Comparison Chart.

The photos below show the homes mentioned in the article. The last one is an aerial taken of the devastated area.