Page 26 - Green Builder's Resilient Housing Design Guide 2019

Texas tough. This home,
built with Amvic’s ICF
blocks, survived powerful
winds and storm surge,
supported by details such
as Fiberglass doors and
SMART VENT engineered
flood vents, which helped
clear water when flooding
was finished, along with
weep holes in stone
masonry.

CREDIT: AMVIC

The ICF Advantage

Properly installed, insulated concrete forms (ICFs) demonstrate

superior performance when exposed to flood or high winds.

EDITED BY GREEN BUILDER STAFF
Katrina. Several ICF buildings not only withstood the tremendous
N THE AFTERMATH of a major hurricane or tornado, wind gusts, but also the force of the storm surge.
you’ll commonly see images of a neighborhood in total Most builders or home owners, however, do not initially choose
disarray—blown-off roofs, stripped siding, exposed interiors ICF systems for disaster resiliency. They use ICFs because of their
and collapsed foundations. Then you spot a sole residential well-known energy performance. After experiencing extreme
I structure that incurred only minimal damage to its roof, weather events with an ICF home, however, their perspective often
windows, doors and landscaping. That contrast in resiliency often changes.
stems from early decisions made in the critical design/build phase. Here’s what Randy Robbins, a survivor of the Attica, Kansas,
One of the smartest decisions a home owner can make is to use tornado of 2004 said about his family’s decision to go with ICFs:
Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) as an innovative building envelope “Safety was a secondary consideration when we chose to build with
alternative to traditional light-wood frame or light-gauge steel. ICF. For us, the greatest benefit was its energy efficiency. Yet we’re
Consider some of the structures that survived the wrath of Hurricane alive today because of these walls.”

26 GREEN BUILDER MEDIA Resilient Housing Design Guide www.greenbuildermedia.com