With the severe weather events occurring across North America, it is more important now than ever that you have a house that can stand up to nature's worst. Whether it’s tornados, wildfires, floods, hurricanes or earthquakes, you want to know that you and your family are safe and protected in your own home.

This means making sure your home is built with quality products that can withstand wind, hail, fire, and flying debris. One of the best disaster-resilient building materials on the market are insulated concrete forms (ICFs) from Nudura. ICFs are used instead of traditional wood or steel framing for a structure's exterior walls to provide superior strength, safety, and durability against extreme weather conditions.

It also offers lower utility costs over the lifespan of your home. Here are just some of the reasons to consider building your next home with disaster-resilient ICFs:

1. Fire Protection
   Concrete is tougher and less flammable than wood. Nudura ICF walls, with a concrete core and non-toxic, fire retardant expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam provides a fire protection rating of up to four hours, whereas wood framing is only rated for 45 minutes. So in the event of a fire, you and your family will have more time to safely exit. Watch this video case study to see why this father and son chose ICF construction over stick framing to rebuild their California home after a devastating 2017 fire. 
   
   
    
   
   
   
2. Wind Resistance
   ICF homes can be designed to withstand winds of up to 250 miles per hour (402 kilometers per hour), equivalent to an F4 tornado. In fact, a concrete beach house in Florida constructed with Nudura ICFs was still standing after Hurricane Michael tore through Mexico Beach in 2018 and destroyed most of the neighboring structures. ICF technology can built hurricane-proof and tornado-proof buildings, which is why ICFs can be used as part of FEMA safe rooms and storm shelters.
   
   
   
   
3. Increased Stability
   Over the years, an increase in seismic activity has led to more earthquakes in the United States and even in Canada. An ICF wall system provides better anchorage for your house thanks to the concrete core and the forms’ flexibility, which allows the builder to add and accurately position vertical and horizontal steel reinforcement. This 19-story student housing building in Ontario, Canada was built using ICFs and rebar due to seismic concerns and saved the builders 5 months of construction time. 
   
   

When you build with ICFs, you can rest easy knowing that your family, belongings, and home are secure in almost any situation. Plus, with costs to repair damages of natural disasters on the rise, a disaster-resilient home is a smart investment for your wallet, too.

Learn more about how Nudura can help protect what matters most by checking out how ICFs help create disaster-resilient homes.