Following the 2004 hurricane season, Florida-based Mercedes Homes paired up with researchers at the DOE's Building America program to design and build a truly hurricane-resistant home. But as researchers and builders have come to understand only too well, a home that provides complete protection from an intense tropical storm must offer not just superior structural strength but also afford both greater resistance to wind-driven rain and improved post-storm recovery. William Zoeller explains the science behind the cast-in-place concrete Solid Wall System (SWS), and why it offers significant improvements over CMU construction.
