stick built or other ??????

[Beavis]

My in-laws have purchased some land in central kansas and are wanting to move into the country. The question is: do they go with a stick built home (regular wood frame 2 x lumber), Morton type metal building and finish the inside like a home, or styrofoam forms filled with concrete.

Stick built: almost any contractor is comfortable with this type of construction, fairly affordable, could be built with 2x6 with spray in insulation.

Metal Building: the metal building itself is fairly reasonable in price, but then cost add up quickly when finishing the inside. Not all contractors will be as comfortable with this. Don't have to worry about exterior maintenance.

Styrofoam forms: Again, not all builders in our area are familiar with this building process. Would be extremely quiet and the entire house would be like a safe room; remember we are in tornado alley. Just in the last couple of years we have lost Greensburg Kansas and Chapman Kansas to mother nature.

I am open to pretty much any input you may have so that we can make the most educated decision possible.

thanks

 

[warhammer]

The only comment I have is I once saw a metal building completely finished out on the inside with a stone exterior facade on the front and it was a really nice place!
What really made it for me was the huge shop area in the rear two thirds of the building.

Warhammer

 

[EddieWalker]

It's very hard to build a house better then a traditional stick built building. With tornado's being a concern, build it to Florida code. They have learned the hard way how to build homes that will hold together in strong winds.

The concrete homes have their issues and in my opinion, not quite up to the hype you hear about them.

The metal building won't hold up to the tornado any better then anything else, and probably be the first building to go. I don't know of any code for them that address's strong winds. Some are built to withstand 100mph winds, but I know allot of them that have lost metal on 40mph winds.

Eddie

 

[kennyd]

If I was building in 'hurricane alley" as you say...there would be only one type of construction I would use, and that is the ICF's.

Besides the safety factor, there is also the benefits of:

R-value
quietness
possible insurance breaks due to fire and hurricane resistance.

 

[framer]

Being a framer i would have to recommend stick built.Several reasons cost its
cheaper than other two methods.Safe rooms can be on main floor or basements.Like you mentioned contractors are more experience in stick
built. Framer

 

[woodlandfarms]

Try and get a bank to give you a loan on anything but stick built right now is going to be a major challenge. Heck, just trying to get a loan to build a house but that is another story.

We have been mulling a modular home, steel built with lots of glass, and banks are not talking to us at all. Too crazy, not conventional enough in this market... no resale (Again, I am not talking manufactured, I am talking pre-fab modern).

 

[Mike Costello]

Another possibility: Log home. I built one in 2004 that had 8" thick exterior walls anchored into the foundation with 5/8" all thread each torqued to 200 ft. lbs. The walls carry an R41 value and the outside noise is reduced to almost nothing. Very energy efficient.
Went through a couple of earthquakes--the home didn't make a sound!

 

[patrick_g]

Don't confuse Florida's hurricane codes with tornado protection. Hurricane winds are not even close to tornadic speeds. For example: you can buy storm shutters for your windows for hurricane protection but they are a bad joke for tornado protection.

Stick built homes will be destroyed if hit by an energetic tornado.

If cost of ICF construction is too prohibitive, even after you factor in the energy savings, then consider building your master suite in ICF, I did. ICF construction is not rocket science and is not beyond the scope of DIY.

Read up on the "stud cannon" used at the university in Texas. It fires a stud end wise into test walls of various construction ranging from traditioinal stick (2x4 and 2x6) to those but with brick veneer, ICF (with and without styrofoam insulation), and others as well and you will quickly see what is needed to safely survive tornado tossed debris.

Traditional stick construction (2x4 or 2x6) with OSB sheeting and vinyl siding with sheetrock interior is penetrated like a hot knife through butter. As little as 3 inches of steel reinforced concrete stoped the flying studs cold with no compression cracks or spalling of the concrete.

There are waffle grid as well as post and beam pattern ICF's which are quite economical in concrete use. I was personally concerned that debris hitting a "thin spot" would penetrate the envelope. After I spent the $ to go for 8 inch solid walls I read a year or so later of more recent tests on the waffle and post and beam pattern ICF's which would have saved me significantly in concrete costs.

For really complete tornado protection you need sufficient barrier all the way around with no exceptions. This is easy in a closet, just line it with sheet metal and install a good FEMA shelter type HD steel door and frame with 3 deadbolts. It is more difficult in a larger room like a master bath or bedroom, especially windows.

Windows will NOT BE tornado safe with Florida Hurricane approved shutters! I chose to go with DIY interior steel shutters with decorative cloth covers. Covers may be attached with magnets/velcro and can be changed to coordinate with bedspreads or whatever.

The statistics put forth by the severe weather folks at NOAA for the center of tornado alley is that on average a residential structure will receive significant tornadic damage on the order of once per 4,000 years. Significant damage is way more than a broken window but less that a slicked building site. Think danger to life and limb. Once in 4,000 years? Why all the fuss???????

Because this (or next year or the year after) might be your year!!!!!!!!!!

With our master suite as a safe room we just go to bed and ignore the weather alerts for tornadoes and such. IT gives great peace of mind. A secondary use for the shutters is to really darken the room for sleeping if long days interfere.

My house building experience is partially documented on the sister site, countrybynet.com, in the Home Building topic of Country Projects. Its title is South Central Oklahoma Farmhouse. That post got nearly 140,000 views.

Pat

 

[carpenter383]

What ever you decide make sure you build a garage the same way so your tractor can sleep safely!!!

 

[DANOCHEESE]

I have a 4 year old ICF two story. Love it. No issues. Have not seen any issues with the eleven other built in the areas. I'm going to build a small heated work shop 20X40 out of ICF. makes more sense than trying to wall off a portion of the machine shop and insulating everything. Now if concrete would jsut drop in price.