Changing Habitat for Humanity’s Work for The Better
By: K.M. Robinson | Photos by: Ashlee Glen
Two Habitat for Humanity homes built with a new construction method in our region will provide future homeowners with affordable, energy-efficient houses.
In collaboration with Amherst County Habitat for Humanity and Lynchburg Ready Mix, the team is working together to provide a technique that is revolutionizing affordable housing. This method provides resilience against weather while creating lower insurance costs, faster installation time, noise reduction for the occupants, and helps create exceptional fire resistance.
Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) construction is designed to be strategic against many issues that homeowners face, particularly when it comes to weather. Concrete is strong. When storms hit the region, concrete will be more durable than many other types of construction materials. This is especially helpful in the face of severe storms such as those Central Virginia faced in 2018 when Elon endured six tornado touchdowns, including a strong EF-3 twister. Buildings created of concrete could allow houses to withstand storms in a life-changing way by offering greater protection due to their construction.
Debbie Habel, the Amherst County Habitat for Humanity Executive Director, served as the Construction Manager for the 2018 Elon Tornado through the Amherst Disaster Recovery Group formed by FEMA. She said after seeing the impact the destruction had on local families, “There were 130 building permits with 48 homes destroyed and 30 of those were either uninsured or under-insured. It was impossible for me to ignore the safety and security of an ICF home when this product became available to us. Our volunteer crew is now fully certified.”
Additionally, concrete doesn’t burn the way wood does. It offers a 2-hour minimum fire rating, which improves as the thickness of the concrete increases. This fire rating relates to how long the material lasts when exposed to fire, meaning occupants will have a greater chance to get out of a burning building while the building itself will last longer, resulting in less structural damage as help arrives. This can also dramatically help lower insurance costs, while the cost of insurance on wood frame homes has increased up to 80 percent recently.
Robert O’Brian, President of Lynchburg Ready Mix and Vice President of the Virginia Ready Mix Concrete Association, said, “Fire resilience is important to keep homeowners safe and to give them peace of mind.
Wood burns; concrete doesn’t. A concrete home increases the survivability of the occupants exponentially and can help slow spread of the fire to other structures.
For example, a 6-inch ICF wall has a minimum fire resistance of 2 hours, which is twice that of wood framing.”
Benefits to this type of building also include excellent noise reduction.
The combination of solid concrete and insulation results in a structure with a Sound Transmission Class rating of at least 50, while wood frame buildings have a rating of 40-43 for floors and ceilings and interior walls have a 37 rating. This means loud sounds are barely audible and normal speech can’t be understood through the walls of the home. The quality of life benefits of this are substantial, from having a quieter space to work from home or reducing sound so little ones or pets can rest.
“ICFs have been used effectively near train stations, downtown metropolitan areas, and even in movie theaters.
As urban sprawl continues to be a reality, the more we will see increased development proximity. Developers focus on maximum density. With that in mind, the more you can block sound, the more viable the integrity of the development,” O’Brian explained.
Construction of these buildings uses cast-in-place concrete walls, created right on-site. Two layers of insulation materials are placed with braces between them, allowing construction crews to pour the concrete between them exactly where needed. These are frequently used for low-rise buildings in both the residential and commercial spaces. This method can even be used to create large developments, and has become popular for apartments, condos, hotels, retail venues, and can also be found in movie theaters due to the benefits of working with concrete in structures.
Additionally, with the safety of working with concrete for buildings, insurance companies are beginning to offer savings of about 45 percent to owners, making it not only affordable to build, but easy to maintain. These buildings are also energy efficient with insulation R-values of at least 24—the higher the R-value rating, the better the climate control within the building—giving the home better cost-effectiveness in the long term.
Habel’s faith in the ICF process is so strong that she’s currently planning her own personal home with this method, noting that on the Habitat for Humanity projects, the homes took just 16 hours to go from footers to the concrete embedded roof anchor system, compared to previous timelines of two months for construction. The process also required significantly fewer volunteers on the Habitat for Humanity homes, making them much more manageable projects.
“For Central Virginia as a whole, insurance rates are based on the ‘normal’ loss ratio for the area. I would think if ICF becomes a standard practice, rates overall could decline,” Habel said of how this could impact the entire Lynchburg region in the future.
In terms of savings, O’Brian adds that research shows, “There is an estimated 44 percent less energy to heat and 32 percent less energy needed to cool structures with ICF exterior walls compared to wood frame structures.” Studies have also shown these structures could save as much as $200 per month on electrical bills during extremely cold months.
Not only are these homes built for superior strength and sustainability, but they’re also designed for faster installation timelines. The forms that the concrete is poured into stack easily and quickly, reducing the time on-site for the construction crews, meaning nonprofit housing organizations like Habitat for Humanity can help build faster, lower-cost housing for the community. This will allow them to make an impact for communities in a much faster capacity.
