How-To Understand Resiliency

Recently, at a conference related to sustainability and resilience, a number of high-profile builders, energy consultants, and insurance advisors were making presentations on the current market and the future of residential construction. All of these people represented the typical residential construction market of stick-frame homes. In a review of the presentations, there were two main focal points that are key items for the ICF industry to address and promote as major advantages:

The market is now using the word “resilient” in a similar way as in the 1980s when builders used the word “green.” To be recognized as a “resilient home” in this presentation, all that was required was one or two simple things: better roofing, hurricane straps, or possibly a sump pump in the basement, and hail-resistant siding. Nothing related to structural integrity above code minimum.
The insurance industry is seriously evaluating how to get out of insuring wood-framed homes. This is due to extreme climate conditions and devastating losses due to fire, floods, mold, high wind, and hail damage.

The first thing to understand is the meaning of the word “resilient,” which we can define as “the ability of a body to maintain or regain its original size and shape after being compressed, bent, or stretched.” This directly implies structural rigidity and endurance.
How does one build in resiliency? The ICF industry, since its conception, has been promoting the strongest structural wall assembly for residential and/or commercial construction. With simple reinforced concrete walls and a 6-inch concrete core, ICFs easily outmatch, in comparison, a wood- or steel stud-framed wall, or even a concrete block wall.

The ability of an ICF wall to resist high wind lateral loads and gusts of more than 200 mph has been tested in a lab and proven in the field through many hurricanes and tornados.

The ability of the expanded polystyrene (EPS) used in ICFs to withstand and recover from flood waters and not promote mold is a major recovery factor.

ICF wall assemblies have a fire resistance rating from 2 to 4 hours, meaning the flame will not penetrate the wall assembly within that time frame. Along with other non-combustible exterior finish materials, an ICF home may be constructed as a non-combustible building.

There is a mismatch in the thought process between the residential construction builders and the insurance companies. The builders are identifying resilient homes with minimum attention to all the eminent factors affecting the whole structure, while the insurance companies are dealing with larger claims or full replacement costs from fire, floods, high winds, and hail.

The insurance industry is a powerful entity with many individual players. The ICF industry has, for many years, been trying to get its attention and educate the industry to enable it to understand and properly evaluate ICFs as a resilient reinforced concrete wall assembly and a viable alternative with wood framing. Without this alternative view, the current price of home insurance will skyrocket or even result in home insurance being denied in some regions. This is already happening in high-wind and fire-prone areas.
Building a resilient home is an inherent feature of ICFs. Adding hail-resistant siding and non-combustible soffits and roofing along with hurricane-resistant windows and other choices creates a full package that needs to be recognized by your local insurance agency and promoted by home appraisers. The ICF industry, contractors, designers, and distributors must highlight these advantages in the marketplace. In comparison, the recognized insurance cost savings alone for an ICF build versus a wood-framed building should become an eye-opener for any homeowner. There are also builder’s risk insurance savings during the construction process.
There are some good videos by Insurance for Home Building Safety (IBHS, ibhs.org) on wind, fire, and floods. There are also a number of great agencies promoting resilient construction that are slowly recognizing ICFs as the better alternative, such as Fortified, FLASH, and others.

The key to understanding and promoting resiliency is not one little item in the whole scheme of things. It is really the whole structure that needs to maintain its original size and shape after an event. Upgrading a wood-framed home with shearwall ties, hold-down brackets, cross bracing, and hurricane straps considerably increases the wall assembly cost for material and labor. These still do not help with fire resistance or flooding that leads to wet wood, which leads to mold.

The ICF industry must be prepared for the new movement by wood-framing developers and builders, using the keywords “sustainability” and/or “resiliency” to identify wood-framed homes with minimum structural upgrades to be recognized as resilient.
As with all the other advantages of building with ICFs, this is one factor that the industry can promote and show results with case studies, testing, and proof of concept. Take the time to educate your local home insurance company or appraisers of this advantage and be able to identify cost savings for home insurance to the future homeowner by building the better way with ICFs.