special report

Showing the Way
Builders see the value of adding storm protection to the homes they build.

Peace of mind is the feeling homeowners get from knowing they and their families are safe, secure and healthy. This sense of comfort is what every homebuilder aims to offer its buyers, and with the Peace of Mind Home, the 2006 NextGen Demonstration Home at the this year’s International Builders’ Show in January, builders found a one-stop showcase of the industry’s best offerings and best practices in storm resistant construction, green building, energy efficiency and home automation.

The 2,500 square-foot home constructed at the International Builders’ Show (IBS) at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL, by custom homebuilder BrownStone Builders & Associates, was built to the Institute for Business & Home Safety’s (IBHS) Fortified . . . for safer living® program, a program designed to raise national awareness of the need to build more disaster-resistant homes.

And, for the first time this year, the NextGen demonstration home serves not only as a show home, but a model home for the first NextGen Certified™ planned community, Porte de la Mer, to be built near Tampa Bay, FL. The community, also built by BrownStone Builders, will provide visitors with the opportunity to purchase their own Peace of Mind home, complete with all the features and technologies showcased at IBS.

STORM RESISTANT CONSTRUCTION
Storms of every sort provide a very real threat to homeowners no matter where they live. But the question that the 2006 Peace of Mind home was built to answer was, What if a home could be built to withstand many of these threats?

Using IBHS guidelines, construction methods and products used for the Peace of Mind homes increase its resistance to natural disaster from the ground up through better connections from the roof to the foundation and the use of superior building products, including more than 15 new technologies approved by PATH (Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing).

Chief among these products was the use of hurricane protection shutters and panels on the exterior. This year, four of the industry’s top manufacturers supported the Peace of Mind theme and gave builders a firsthand, hands-on demonstration of the added value hurricane protection provides. What’s more, four different products were featured by Eastern Metal Supply, Town & Country Industries, Wayne-Dalton Corp. and Cameron Ashley Building Products.

Other features included in this year’s model are hurricane-rated windows and doors, a power generator that starts up automatically within 30 seconds following an outage and tests itself weekly, a residential sprinkler system integrated with the home’s cold water line, high performance structural wall sheathing that reduces or eliminates altogether the need for wall uplift hardware, fire resistant joists, and a storm resistant garage door—all topped off with a stone coated, steel roofing system.

If all this isn’t enough, the Peace of Mind home also featured an in-home storm shelter reinforced with a material five times stronger than steel, designed to protect a family from winds equivalent to those seen in F5 tornados and Category 5 hurricanes.

OTHER FEATURES
The Peace of Mind home also addressed topical issues such as green building, energy efficiency, and today’s changing lifestyle needs. Among the home’s features were:

• A DuPont™ StormRoom™ with Kevlar, a residential in-home storm shelter, to give people a place to hide during tornadoes and major hurricanes.

• The Icynene Insulation System®, which insulates and air seals in one step, helping homeowners save up to 50 percent on energy bills every month.

• Multiple products from REHAU, including a residential fire protection system.

The home also brought attention to new technologies such as electronic faucets and tankless water heaters—providing homeowners with the peace of mind that comes from knowing energy bills will be lowered. The home also addressed the market’s growing turn toward green building and healthy homes, including innovations such as no VOC paint and natural organic ornamental plants and turf.