Tornado Resistant Eco-Home

[Normandy]

Hey guys,
I entered a design competition this summer that you guys might be interested in checking out. Its for the town of Greensburg, KS which as you all know, was leveled by an EF5 tornado. The competition called for the design of a sustainable home for the resident. I included tornado resistance in my design as well as sustainability. Below is the link for you guys to check the design out. Project boards, pictures, and a description of the house are all available for viewing. Public voting is now open, and I would appreciate s2k's support! Comments are appreciated on the design itself as well.

http://www.freegreen.com/greensburg/pla ... spx?id=144

[vbhoutex]

I would gladly vote but it doesn't allow me to when I go to the link. The Vote Now in the upper right of the page is not useable, at least for me. Am I doing something wrong?

[SaskatchewanScreamer]

I tried opening this file but was told it was damaged.

"Shows the sustainable features and statistics, environmental diagrams, HIB Wall System Diagrams, Project Budget, and other detailed sustainable/building diagrams. The bottom of the board shows the elevation view of the design juxtaposed against one of the vernacular precedent houses given in the registration packet. Renderings of the design placed in the future community are also shown. "

[Normandy]

Vbhoutex, you have to click the "vote for this design" button right under the thumbnails. its brownish.

SaskatchewanScreamer,
I just downloaded it and Adobe Reader allowed me to open it. Did you save it to your harddrive first or just open it from the web?

[vbhoutex]

Vbhoutex, you have to click the "vote for this design" button right under the thumbnails. its brownish.

SaskatchewanScreamer,
I just downloaded it and Adobe Reader allowed me to open it. Did you save it to your harddrive first or just open it from the web?

It's not like it wasn't big enough to see! Time to get the eyes checked.

[CajunMama]

I voted for you. But why aren't you shown on any of the other pages. I looked in "most voted", "most viewed" and "by style (modern)" and i never saw your design in any of those. I looked by the name of your design and also the design # (0135).

[Normandy]

I have no idea CajunMama. I guess thats yet ANOTHER thing I need to square with them. They have been absolutely horrendous with my design, uploaded it LAST when i submitted it early, and even when they uploaded it they still did not do it right. My design was put up about 4-5 days after all the other designs. Hopefully they will fix this soon.

[Dionne]

I voted for you. Primarily for your framing clips detail. Very similar to what we're using since Katrina. Nice job.

I thought about your design and application several times today. I'm on a construction site right now that is dealing with lift issues. We're using 6X6 PT posts incorporated into both the foundation through to the roof headers.....top plate is a continuous 2X10.

What are your plans for securing this design home to the foundation? I see a clip on the base plate to the stud. Am I missing a foundation detail somewhere?

[Normandy]

Hey Dionne,
It looks like I failed to show that detail of construction in the final submission. The connection of both the HIB Wall System and the stud walls are via bolts to the concrete foundation. its great to hear from someone knowledgeable in construction, as this was a project that was really the first time I investigated structural design (Im still a student at USC, so not a pro yet). What ways do you guys connect your walls to the base foundation? I wondered what the best method would be to do this.

[Dionne]

Wall to foundation connection on a slab is usually a J-bolt set in the concrete. Problem is that most just set the J-bolt in fresh concrete. For a sure enough connection the J-bolt should be tied into the rebar in the footer. I prefer using VSM's (vertical support members) from below slab line to roof line.....one continuous post with framing clips at every intersecting framing member.