All week, NPR is looking at climate solutions, covering ways our homes and communities can be more resilient and offer solutions in the changing climate.
Increasing tornadoes in Ohio created a housing shortage in Indian Lake last year. Ohio companies are looking to different materials to build a more extreme weather-resilient future.
Adriana Martinez-Smiley, environmental reporter for member station WYSO in Dayton, joined The Ohio Newsroom to discuss the possible solutions.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
On what companies are doing in Ohio
Jems Homes is a central Ohio-based company. They specialize in custom home building and it is co-owned by Steve Boone. Their specialty is using insulated concrete form blocks or ICF. Sustainable Concrete Innovations, which was founded by John Smoll [in Northwest Ohio], uses 3D printing technology to lay down a majority of the infrastructure on their homes.
ICF blocks are these stackable hollow blocks made out of a foam. When building with ICF, Jems Homes fills concrete in the hollow areas of the blocks, and then those are reinforced with steel. And so that's what makes up the frame of the house.
As for the 3D printing, it also uses some similar materials like concrete, foam, and steel. The difference here is the mud, which will dry into concrete, and this sort of serves as the ink in the printer. So a predetermined code is put in to establish what shape it will print in, and then the pump on the printer will actually push out the mud.
On the advantage over traditional wood-framed homes
Since both of them use materials like concrete and steel, they're heavier, so that makes them more resistant to things like high winds, which you'd see in tornadoes. That is something that both companies are very confident in, is that they'll fare better in those circumstances as compared to wood-framed homes.
On the barriers to adoption
Some of the downsides of ICF are the fact that they are more expensive. Boone says that they can cost 10 to 15 percent more to build compared to wood-framed homes just because the cost of concrete is high.
“That's the change that I see as the interest has went up, but not many people can afford to do that. They wanna do it, but reality sets in and they've gotta meet their budget,” said Boone.
3D printing is more affordable, according to Smoll, but what might be its downside is the fact that its strength and durability is not studied all that well since it's a newer industry. Smoll says that they're coordinating some durability tests now to see how they hold up in situations like high winds. He's even planning to move into one of their homes to get the whole experience of some of those benefits.
On the future of the tech in Ohio
Both technologies are just starting to take off in Ohio, especially as people see more severe weather like tornadoes and want some sort of safety net for where they live. Boone says, for the right client, even if it costs more, they'll be willing to make the investment just because of the context that we're in. And then Smoll echoed a similar sentiment.
“I think the biggest convincer is probably not going to be me, but when a tornado goes through a community and the 3D printed homes are standing and the other homes are gone, I think that's going to convince a lot of people,” Smoll said.