DALLAS, Texas (KETK) – Cleanup efforts are in full swing after 11 confirmed tornadoes ripped across Northeast Texas last week.
An EF-3 tornado destroyed home and multiple businesses in North
Dallas, estimating more than $277 million in damage according to the NBC-DFW.
One North Texas builder says homes he builds can withstand winds from an EF-5.
From the road, you’d never know one of his homes built in northeast Dallas is any different than a traditional wood-frame house.
Instead, the walls are made of concrete sandwiched between two layers of foam.
“It’s a giant Yeti cooler disguised as a house,” said builder Alan Hoffmann, owner of Hoffmann Homes.
Hoffmann said the foam creates a cavity that’s filled with six-inch thick concrete making it energy efficient and tornado resistant.
“It stops a 2×4 at 100mph, it just shatters a 2×4 when it hits a wall,” he said.
Years ago, researchers at Texas Tech University put construction to the test.
They shot a 2×4 out of a cannon watching it fly straight through a typical brick wall and shatter when it struck a concrete slab.
In theory, every room in the homes is safe but some even have pantries that double as safe rooms because they don’t have windows or doors that can be penetrated. The pantry door is made of steel, Hoffmann said.
Hoffmann says concrete homes are two to six percent more expensive than traditional wood-frame homes and take two weeks longer to build. He says the siding is also fire resistant.
Hoffmann is creating a new development made entirely out of concrete homes. He said plots of land go on sale in January.
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