Windproof, Fireproof Homes vs. Double-Wide Death Traps

I got to thinking the other day about the spring tornados they had last week in Oklahoma. I grew up in Olathe, KS and remember visiting the Big Well and the huge meteorite in Greenville, KS before that town was leveled. My folks have had homes and cars wrecked by tornados, hail, and lightning. When I lived in Olathe we had a car zapped by lightning, and later the whole corner of the roof was hit by lightning and left a 10 foot hole. What we need are windproof, fireproof homes that would survive the worst weather the Great Plains can dish out. Many people live in double-wide death traps that even in good weather will only last about 20-30 years. Even well-built wood frame buildings will get blown down in Oklahoma weather.
I heard a story about concrete dome buildings promoted by FEMA for schools and community shelters that have been designed to resist winds of 400 mph that might be interesting to everyone. These suckers will last 100+ years and would survive almost anything short of heavy bombing. They don't burn, rot, get eaten by termites. They are a little plain, but with a little creativity and proper landscaping they can be very nice.

Here are some neat links and pics.

http://static.monolithic.com/
http://static.monolithic.com/thedome/wilson_fema/index.html
http://static.monolithic.com/thedome/whygreen/index.html

Visit the Mayan ruins along the Yucatan peninsula. Lived there in hurricane alley for hundreds of years. They died off, but structures still there.

This home in Palo Pinto County in Texas is 2400 square feet. Again a little ugly now, but with proper trees and gardens it should be fine.


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http://static.monolithic.com/gallery/homes/smith_palopinto/index.html

Located on an unincorporated, two-acre site, outside of historic Mineral Wells, Texas, Palo Pinto Dome has a diameter of 50 feet and a height of 20 feet, including a two-foot-high stem wall.

It has 2400 square feet of living space. The main floor embraces a master bedroom and bath, a guest bedroom and bath, an open design living/dining/kitchen area, and a laundry room. The very open loft, that Terry and Sharon use mostly for their hobbies, includes a bathroom, a storage closet, and a closet for their 3-ton heating/air conditioning unit.

"While we were under construction," Sharon said, "we lived on-site in a 900-square-foot apartment that we put in our barn. The ceiling and exterior walls of that apartment were well insulated. We used window units for air conditioning and small oil heaters for heat -- which we didn't use that often. That tiny apartment cost us more to cool and heat than our dome does. The dome's utility bills are about two-thirds of what we had to pay for the apartment."

The Smiths also enjoy the serene environment their dome provides. Sharon said, "It's been super windy here lately but you would never know it inside the dome. It's super quiet -- makes you feel peaceful and safe."

The idea of building more costly structures that will hold up to tough conditions, vs cheap disposable ones has a lot of merit. It takes a long outlook though, and folks who have that mind set. I imagine that lower insurance costs could partially offset higher construction costs, but here again, that requires long term thinking.

Long term thinking needs be only as far ahead as the next hurricane or tonado to level your neighborhood.

Rod H. Wrote:

Google ICF...insulated concrete forms..I built my home using one of these systems ( quad loc) and was totally impressed. It was less costly for me to build over wood frame, its fireproof, super insulated and being reinforced concrete can stand the wind. I added built-in roof top sprinklers as we live in a forested area. You can build these to look like any "normal" house.
Just my 1.5 cents (Canadian cents)
Ross

See also "rammed earth", traditional adobe (not the fake stuff sprayed on the outside of a wood frame ), and "subterranean home".

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/rammedearth.htm
http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/natural_building.htm
http://www.earthshelters.com/Index.html

Bet it's hard to hang a picture on the curved walls. Years ago I considered building a 49' dome. Learned that no insurance company in the area would insure it because it was non-typical construction. The curved walls would have been a problem there, too but I was willing to enjoy the truss pattern instead.

Gerry Wrote:

An amusing concept, but I'm pretty sure I'd be denied a building permit around here. Just a little too "off the wall" for me. I know my neighbours would complain if I built one, and I'd probable complain if they did.

I would like to build a 'berm house' if I was starting again. Three sides into a hillside and a south facing greenhouse type front. Cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

cfrench Wrote:

I went through an underground home just prior to it's completion in the early 80s.
The guy had all kinds of problems getting almost every step of the way approved. He was a neighbor of my dad's, and since my dad was a general contractor he was kind intrigued with it, but being kind of old school also considered the guy a nut. :) Would like to check on it and see how it worked out for the guy some time, but never did. If the house is still there it's probably with a different owner, as the builder was getting on in years.

Around here, every novel new home system go away in a few years. Conventional construction always comes back as the norm. A while bach there was someone building foam walled homes. The built a few then disappeared. Seemed like a good system to me. Before that it was steel frame homes. Before that it was some sort of inflatable balloon thing with foam between two membranes. It did not catch on either. Log cabins and domes were before that. Before those it was prepoured concrete panels assembled on your site, with flat roofs-a big no-no in the rainy south

Soyokaze 72MGB Wrote:

People who live in mobile homes around here do it for economic reasons, its not like they can really afford more substantial digs or they would. In the counties surrounding Dallas, you can easily buy an acre with a decent older MH for around $35,000, or an acre and a new double wide for $70,000 +/-.

My guess is it would be very difficult borrowing money to buy or build one of those domes as a homestead in this area. I've seen several of them of I-35 near Waco, even a dealer/builder in that area. Carls right about building into a berm, but we would put the entry on the north side to avoid the mid-summer sun.

Gerry Wrote:

There's a Russian proverb that goes something like: "The best is the enemy of good enough." I think it applies in this case. Mobile homes provide a cheap and effective means of housing to a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford their own homes. Sure, it would be nice for everyone to be able to live something a little more permanent, but at what cost, and who's going to pay for it?

I was going to put a 49' dome on a 4' subwall to recapture some of the lost space from the curvature but there were just too many obstacles in my path. Got interested in pole houses instead and ended up building a house on 8x8 PT posts

losmorob Wrote: