The house behind ours burned to the supporting timbers last night at about 1:30. The flames took hold in minutes -- so fast, so incredibly fast
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There's actually a law in Montreal that all buildings must be built of non-flamable material. It was written up centuries ago to stop the fires. (And makes good sense, really).
Brick and concrete are a lot more resilient to a lot of problems you find in America... termites and tornadoes being a couple as well as fire. [add a good solid cellar and fire-proof internal doors and you could prevent a lot of deaths.]
I think at that point I would start looking at cement stabilised rammed earth structures with a lightweight terracotta tiled, or solar PV shingle, roof. 4-5 ft thick walls in a single story building would be earthquake resistant, and be fire-proof.
Concrete walls, metal roof, hurricane shutters, hurricane-rated garage door, generator, cell phones, batteries, radios, guns, ammo, boat, fishing equipment, camping gear, four cases of water and a month's worth of nonperishable food.
And friends wonder why I'm not too terribly worried about hurricanes.
Horses for courses.. i.e build to local conditions...
which means a concrete pad 3-4 thick, set with steel rebar and micro-piles [steel bars] set into the underlying bedrock, and vertical stuctural beams every 6-8ft with concrete block walls between and cross braced with more rebar welded to the structural beams running horizontally.
If it's nearer to the coast or any other area subject to flooding, then place the entire house on a concrete pad resting on pillars with steel beams in the core, surrounded by wire-mesh 'cubes' filled with compacted hardcore. [Gabisons I think they're called.] Ten or fifteen feet would be enough for most storm surges I think.
Not cheap I grant you...but cheaper than replacing the entire house every ten years or less.
I do wonder if maybe we should stop building our homes out of what amounts to chunks of starch.
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[add a good solid cellar and fire-proof internal doors and you could prevent a lot of deaths.]
They're also better at retain heat..or cool.
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And friends wonder why I'm not too terribly worried about hurricanes.
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which means a concrete pad 3-4 thick, set with steel rebar and micro-piles [steel bars] set into the underlying bedrock, and vertical stuctural beams every 6-8ft with concrete block walls between and cross braced with more rebar welded to the structural beams running horizontally.
If it's nearer to the coast or any other area subject to flooding, then place the entire house on a concrete pad resting on pillars with steel beams in the core, surrounded by wire-mesh 'cubes' filled with compacted hardcore. [Gabisons I think they're called.] Ten or fifteen feet would be enough for most storm surges I think.
Not cheap I grant you...but cheaper than replacing the entire house every ten years or less.
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