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Engineers Design Tornado Proof Home
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Emily Badger writes at the Atlantic that it's not too hard to build a tornado proof home but it's pretty difficult to design one that's liveable. "If you made a perfect earthquake structure, it would be a bunker with 24-inch walls and one small steel door for you to get in," says architect Michael Willis. That structure would be based on the empirical measurements of structural engineers. "You could design it to be perfectly resistant. But it would not be a place you'd want to live." The task behind the "Designing Recovery" competition (PDF): was to design a liveable tornado proof home in a part of the country where the geology makes it impossible to build tornado cellars or basements. Q4 Architects designed a safe space within a home instead of a shelter underneath it, a kind of house inside of a house. The result is an idea that could be replicated anywhere in tornado alley: a highly indestructible 600 square-foot core of concrete masonry, hurricane shutters and tornado doors where a family could survive a tornado and live beyond it, with several more flexible (and affordable) rooms wrapped around it. "It's going to do it's best to fight the tornado," says Elizabeth George." "Part of your house might get torn away, but the most important parts of the house are safe. After the disaster, everything is not lost. You're able to keep the most valuable things, which are the people, the functions of the house, and maybe your valuables." The genius of this idea is that while it would be significantly more expensive to build out the same tornado precautions for the entire home, the CORE house is meant to be constructed for under $50,000."
Bring it on !!
Guess what? You can already build a concrete dome for around that much money. It will protect the whole house. OMGWTFBBQ this is a solved problem.
I have an even better solution, though. Fucking move. Anyone who bought a house on a floodplain in tornado country is a goddamned idiot.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It's going to do "its" best, not "it's" best. Argh!! At this rate, they will become interchangeable in a few years, because nobody knows how to use them anymore. :(
You're able to keep the most valuable things, which are the people, the functions of the house, and maybe your valuables
Just putting that out there.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
"The Surprising Reason" houses don't have underground facilities? Maybe surprising to the provincial readers of The Atlantic, but obvious plain logic to everyone else. You'd think educated people would be aware of basic facts like clay soils and what they mean, but evidently that's no longer true. Saying things like "why didn't they just go to the basement, stupid Oklahomans" is like saying "idiotic famine victims, why didn't they just buy some food from the store?" Surprise, my ass.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Living in tornado alley I must protest that one does not make a tornado "proof" home, one makes a tornado resistant home. The idea that you can make a home tornado "proof" is greatly misleading and like saying you can make an armored vehicle bomb "proof". You can only make things resistant to a given degree - this in important technicality on a tech site.
Tornadoes are these machinations of nature that are perfectly capable of lifting the foundations of a freeway out of a ground and flinging semi trucks through the air. When the news covers an area that was hit the word used to describe the people that lived is always "survived". Bad headline, bad headline.
The walls may help shield from debris in the event of a EF-1 to 3 (which granted is the vast majority of tornadoes). But there isn't much on this earth (above ground, anyway) that's going to survive a direct hit from an EF-5 tornado.
My dad saw the track left by one that hit in Alabama years ago. The thing sucked up everything, including grass, in a 1/2 mile wide path. The only thing left behind was orange clay. There wasn't a single intact structure left, not even foundations.
Closest thing humanity has to a EF-5 -proof structure is probably the pyramids in Giza, and I'm not sure about that either.
"But it would not be a place you'd want to live."
If you live in tornado alley, you might beg to differ with the above statement!
I should thing that a heavily reinforced, hardened concrete structure could have mush thinner walls.
A lot of third world countries tend to build their homes in concrete or adobe brick. I think that's pretty impressive. Sure, it doesn't look as elegant as a spanish suburban home but who really cares about modernization when you have practicality? Plus, give me a home without windows and I'll be really happy. I really hate windows, and it's much better to not have them than to have them at least IMO. Maybe I just have a thing for dungeons, I don't know but what I do know is that if I want to see outside I go outside. So give me a practical house that is cozy and I'll be a happy camper. Oh, don't live in a camper in tornado valley, everyone knows what happens to campers during tornado season.
wake up usa, whatever you do, you are still retarded.
Not a surprise that a piece about dgging a storm-proof hole is written by someone called Emily Badger.
"Cock Up Your Beaver" does not mean what you think. This sig is intended to clog filters and annoy do-gooders
I met a guy who built homes by pouring concrete into Styrofoam forms with rebar. After that it was brick veneer or siding outside and the usual stuff on the inside. He said they also tied the roof using the same materials they do in hurricane prone areas. He said homes like this had been hit dead on by tornadoes and other than broken windows and superficial damage were essentially unharmed. This building technique also make a very energy efficient home.
Greed is the root of all evil.
The almost new public library near my house has the restrooms designated as tornado shelters. I suspect that means the walls and roof is heavily reinforced.
It should also be possible to create a core room that's protection from a variety of evils from crazed killers to poison gas and bombs exploding nearby. The Israelis build such rooms into a lot of new construction.
...and the engineers said almost the same thing but their design was a strucutr that looked like a pyramid
Well, the pharaoh's still there sleeping, isn't he?
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller had built several that are tornado and hurricane proof. He made several concrete dome homes that have taken the worst that nature can dish out and only need minor repairs.
Heck they are sharknado proof.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
It's an interesting challenge, and forces architectural 'entrpreneurs' to think through some of the relevant issues.
However....I'd guess that the best that will come from this is a few decent ideas that *may* make things a little bit better. I hope so anyway.
For example: it's a market fact that people are willing to spend very little $ on pure safety features. Witness the great swathes of country where a basement or even simply storm cellar would radically increase the chances of tornado survival....and yet people still don't use them. A storm cellar is a TRIVIAL cost; with a backhoe and some 4x4's or larger timbers, one could be built in a couple of hours. With a couple of strong backs and shovels, a couple of weekends (digging sucks).
Of course, the idea being out there that there is a "tornado proof home" has a couple of drawbacks; most certainly these homes are carefully specc'd and designed....meaning an unscrupulous developer could build homes that 'look a lot like them', sell them as 'tornado-resistant' but in fact using substandard parts that make them even more lethal. Further, there's always the 'false sense of security' problem: instead of sensibly taking cover when timely warning is received, an owner of such a house is likely to rationalize "Ah, my house is tornado proof, I'll just stand out here taking youtube video until the last second!"
Finally, the fact is that almost nothing above ground is tornado proof. At best, you're buying yourself some percentages against small and medium tornado activity...which for a given house, in reality, is a vanishingly unlikely occurrence even in tornado ally.
-Styopa
Does anyone know if this type of soil is why houses don't have basements in San Diego? I don't live there, but even locals don't seem to know why.
I watched a video some time back about a hurricane proofed house. It looked pretty much like a standard house. But when that thing shuttered up it was sealed TIGHT. And I do know that Stanley of all companies designed a nail that would not just tear out of wood, thereby lessening the chance roof components could be lifted.
You can build a structure to combat hurricanes and tornadoes - but it isn't going to be THAT cheap. Given that fact I have no intention of living anywhere beyond the northeast U.S. None! Sure, we get a little geologic action from time to time, and hurricanes get here about once every 30 or so years though the cycle seems to have been shortened lately.
My cave does just fine already. Free AC and heat year round too. Mold is kinda a problem. And bears.
"If you made a perfect earthquake structure, it would be a bunker with 24-inch walls and one small steel door for you to get in,"
I call bullshit, concrete is to brittle. You need something to absorb the energy.
Where you would use THEM (or HIM, HER) you use WHOM
Give it to them (him) (her).
Give it to whom?
They (he) (she) did it.
Who did it?
My grandma bought a house 20 years ago in Topeka, KS, and had the entire thing reconstructed. She still couldn't get a basement, so she had steel-reinforced concrete put around her closet. Bam. Tornado-proof-house-in-a-house. This is a non-story.
This is bullshit. They guy talks like someone who doesn't have a single clue about what he is talking about. This, on a guy who boasts having designed a structurally sound home, is clearly a sign he is incompetent.
There are whole civil and structural engineering departments dedicated to studying and modelling dynamic actions on civil structures, whether from earthquakes, wind and even bomb blasts. No one who has a clue about designing structures to face those kinds of actions relies on "empirical measurements". Technologies such as the finite element method and boundary element method are a standard part of any curriculum for decades now, and the only time a civil/structural/mechanical engineer comes close to an empirical measurement is to validate and corroborate results obtained from numerical models. You know, the kind of stuff supercomputers and workstations were developed for, and still are. /structural engineer, whose curriculum included courses in structural analysis, finite element method, structural dynamics and building structures, and both earthquake and wind actions were extensively covered.
You want the freedom to live anywhere in America? Go for it, and pay full price for it. No disaster relief, no insurance subsidies. FEMA should annonce phased withdrawal of tornado support in known tornado regions, wildfire suppression in scrub country, flood insurance in known flood prone areas, or hurricane relief in known hurricane prone coastal areas. Emergency relief is only for areas where the disaster is very infrequent. It is not a routine operation.
Probably the right solution for tornado country is to stop the stupid urban sprawl, create towns with a nucleus of concrete condos, two or three stories tall, tightly built in a circle with a pool and courtyard in the middle. Windows with aluminium shutters that can be closed, cars parked at ground level below these condos. You need concrete structures to survive tornadoes and do the compromise necessary to do it. Or pay full price for freedom. I am sick and tired of supporting your unnatural life style choice to live in plastic and plywood boxes in tornado country.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Why does anyone need a tomato proof home?
paying tens of thousands of extra dollars for something that probably won't happen is a waste. better to play the odds and have low cost houses, sometimes a minute amount of people will die *shrug*
Presumably intended to handle hurricanes and flooding instead of tornadoes, the kettle house in Galveston TX is an inverted metal dome, (although I don't know why it has a door at ground level).
FEMA has, as described in other posts, published "ready to use" construction drawings for a variety of safe rooms.
They've also made funding available for people to retrofit them in their houses.
This has worked fairly well. Moore OK had a lot less loss of life than would have been the case in earlier tornadoes because a LOT of people were in their safe rooms.
old 60s era schools with no rebar in the concrete block walls did collapse with catastrophic consequences. But that's more a problem of political will: Unlike Joe down the street individually applying for a FEMA grant, the funding for school district capital improvements is much more complex and politics laden.
They probably have some Minuteman Missile Silos being decommissioned , they would be tornado proof.
just put it in the ground. Issue solved.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
SIMPLE SOLUTION hAve somebod7 just Is dying.Things a GAY NIGGER
all parties it's log on Then the when done playing (Click Here Arrogance was bureaucratic afnd
It is $50K for the entire house, not for the improvements to build a tornado-proof core.
Wind has nothing to push against.cheap.
like in science-fiction movies. I envision a hardened shell, coffin-like (but they could be spherical or any shape really), whose entry is flush with the ground. Each would be anchored or chained at a number of points to galvanized stakes (like fence stakes) driven deep into the ground. When a tornado approaches, you climb into your escape pod and latch it shut until the storm passes. This could be cheap and effective for all but the claustrophobic.
Protect yourself by climbing into the pipe.
It would have to be buried or anchored and topped with earth/asphalt/gravel/concrete to streamline air flow over the pipe.
Normally a culvert pipe is laid horizontally and could hold a number of people. Or you could use short sections and set them in the ground vertically. When trouble comes you climb in with a built-in ladder. Although these would be more trouble to maintain because:
Just as in a pinch, an underpass or a culvert pipe is a safe haven in a tornado, so this could cheaply save a group of people. And it wouldn't be as difficult as escape pods for those with claustrophobia.
Build a monolithic dome. These survived hurricane Andrew and having telephone poles thrown at them in tornados...
And the overall cost is similar to a conventional house, of the same usable square footage... But they are cheaper to heat and cool, and easier to have open plan styles as the shell is self supporting. Wind blows over them, not through and under them.
Add steel roll shutters and real wood or steel doors and even the openings are storm proofed. Add low pressure opening vents and that relieves the pressure differential...
A lot less than an additional 50K to a conventional house, and all your stuff is safer, not just you.
This strategy is described in detail in the FEMA "safe room" documents. they even tell you what kind of concrete pipe to go get.
Oddly enough, this is an area where a lot of fairly smart people have given some serious thought to. There's several hundred pages of useful manuals and documents, along with construction ready drawings, cost estimates, etc. ready to go.
Of course, there are those who think that government money is being wasted on such things, and that "god will provide" or "the free market with come up with solutions", but this is a fine example of where probably less than a million bucks came up with something everyone can use.
People most at risk of tornadoes are the people living in trailer parks, not the ones living in homes. Sure, maybe the homes aren't tornado proof, quite a few of them get blown away every year and every year, people living in them get hurt or die when they get blown away with their homes when they are in them. But, they are a minority when it comes to people that die in their homes compared to when a tornado hits a trailer park. A trailer is about the worst place to be when a tornado hits and casualties are much bigger when it comes to people living there. It's not just the density of a trainer park, way more people per square foot, but also the even weaker construction of the "building". Building a brand new home for not a lot more money that is much better at sustaining a tornado is a good development, but it won't save that much more lives and futures. Come up with an affordable, tornado proof trailer and you have a true life saver and a real novelty.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
If part of your house can be blown away by a tornado, you do not live in a "tornado proof" house.
There is no need to spend $50K. I designed and built a masonry (steel reinforced concrete, ferrocement and stone) small (252 sq-ft) home for our family for $7K. It is great to live in. It is also tornado proof but that is merely incidental. Because of it having a high thermal mass inside an insulating envelope it also stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter which saves more money every year on energy costs.
When a tornado swept through Barneville Wisconsin, it flattened nearly the entire town. But the water tower remained standing. Now water towers are pretty heavy but their center of gravity is obviously very high. Traditional construction techniques favor rectangular homes or homes with right angle flat sides. Tornado survivable buildings should be another shape, something more like the domes used in Antarctica.
Here is a simple fact: wood houses fly easily in tornado alley.
Here is another fact: cement houses don't
Sure, when hit by an F5+ the speed of the debris can destroy almost anything. But F5 tornadoes are rare and well built cement houses (not brick ... that is just a debris making homes) can survive with little to no damage.
And cement is CHEAP compared to anything else. The key is building thing RIGHT from the beginning.
Just build a hobbit hole like Bag End.
It is possible to place precast box culverts on the ground and then pile earth on them. Placing it on a property line cuts the price per home owner almost in half assuming legal terms could be drawn up. Schools with bleachers could place them under the bleachers. Then add sturdy doors.
It sounds crazy but they make a lot of sense.
1. Heating and cooling is less of an issue. The earth holds a pretty consistent temperature and you can regulate your home by exploiting it.
2. Winds, hurricanes, etc are less of an issue because you're either flush with the ground or nearly so.
3. The roof can more easily be used as a garden or expansion to your property. All natural light comes in through skylights.
4. The major problem will be flooding. There are a variety of ways to deal with that from simply building on high ground to building some sort of double wall into the foundation so that water can collect there and drain away without entering the home. Pumps... etc.
I don't know... maybe its a dumb idea but I'd like to see some people try it. Imagine if your full property foot print could be turned into a backyard while your home rested below the ground. Every room with a skylight. Cool in the summer. Warm in the winter.
I just think its a nice idea.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
I don't understand the need for this. Tomatoes are simply to small and soft to pose much peril to a house, even in large numbers. The only way there could possibly be a danger is if somehow they were exposed to large quantities of radiation, clearly impossible.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This is an old idea.
Houses in the North West of Australia have been built using an inner safety core for at least 35 years.
I know, I've lived in one.
It's called a storm cellar, stupid.
Damage due to a tornado is still a pretty low risk and is covered in a basic insurance policy, unlike damage from an earthquake, flood, or hurricane. Nearly everyone who loses their house to a tornado is covered and can rebuild with the insurance money. For those of us that grew up in tornado country it's not that big a deal. Shelters and insurance are pretty cheap and the probability that you will be hit is low.
all ya need to do is to pull the house underground