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Concrete Home Stands Up to Tornado

1st December 2006

ICF Home still standing amidst the rubble.

Stoughton , Wisconsin , residents picked up the pieces after a tornado recently leveled most homes in the area. One home is still standing amidst the rubble: a concrete home, currently under construction in an upscale Stoughton neighborhood, built with insulating concrete forms (ICFs) from Reward.

When the F-3 tornado tore through town, the home was only partially constructed.
The structure was under roof, with windows installed, and brick cladding had begun.
First reports were that the only damage the home sustained was to the garage roof.
It was stated later that the screened-in porch was lost, and all windows were broken.

These reports were confirmed when Boyd Coleman, a structural engineer, was called
in to inspect the damage. "Although I’m familiar with ICF construction, this was the
first I had seen of an ICF building that had gone through something like this.
"Coleman added, “I was surprised to see so much debris stuck in the foam."
Coleman found that the ICF walls did not move. There was damage to the top plate
where the garage roof was blown off, but none to the concrete.
Where Simpson hurricane clips were used, the roof trusses were intact.

Debris from the storm was found 75 miles east in Milwaukee.

Construction resumed on the 3-story, almost 5,000 square foot house.
The roof and porch were replaced, and the entire roof had to be reshingled.
Windows and doors also needed replacement, but construction was set to be back
to pre-storm progress two to four weeks after the event.
According to the builder, Randy Settersten, "I’d really like to get these folks into
their home before Christmas."

Featured in the PCA Newsletter  (Concrete Homes) Nov/Dec 2005


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