They are currently using straight up formed and poured concrete for some homes in most size categories in TV.

Don't understand why they are allowed to do exterior wall framing with 2x4, In NJ the builders who had to meet insulation requirements used 2x6 for their framing

Another cost factor is painting stucco-was told if you et 7 years with builder line paint you're doing good

A lot of homes in the warmer states are framed with 2x4. This allows for nominally R-11 insulation, which is apparently within code in FL. I assume NJ requires R-19, which requires 2x6 framing for enough space. You generally need to custom build a home if you want something beyond the building codes and lowest cost. For example, open or closed cell spray foam insulation.

Yes, block homes will need to be repainted at some point. Choose a top of the line paint and it should last a long time.

One of the first things we plan to do when we move in our TV home full time later this year is have our windows tinted on the side of the home where the sun hits it all day long. It makes a huge difference with interior comfort (and fading of furniture)

If we have a hurricane your plastic home will become a kit! We went through Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and what used to be wooden frame homes became slabs for new homes. It's worth it to buy a cinder block home!

Wouldn't the block also be considered some sort of insulation? You mention the walls but nothing about the block itself.

Block is not solid. The lintels when pumped are not solid. You will have air exchange in the block.

Now if you have or are buying a poured wall house, then different deal. That house is poured solid with a cage of rebar it it. The concrete has steel fiber mixed in the concrete.
Here is link to a artice from Terry Yoder owner of T&D


T&D Concrete - Terry Yoder | Helix Steel

We've built many homes and purchased block here. We added more insulation to the attic when we enclosed the lanai. Our electricity bill for heat and air is very low. We often turn off the ac on hot days and it holds the interior temperature well. We have also insulated our garage door and plan to tint west-facing Windows.

I'm sure some people who buy frame or block will afterwards justify their purchase and there are features of both to consider. We prefer block...and if the paint the builder used is not up to snuff, there is a 20-year coating out there.

The block homes have an R-5 board of insulation attached on the inside. The cavities in the block will hold air that also may act as insulation. I believe they fill the cavities of every 5th column of block with rebarb and concrete (or something like that).

The framed homes have the 3.5" space between the 2x4 studs filled with fiberglass insulation that is nominally rated at R-11.

Typically the largest heat gain is from windows. The windows the builders use are not the most energy efficient windows you can buy ( look at the U-factor and SHGC ). I believe the new homes they are building now use better windows.

Carl.....I was going by radio reports while this was happening. It only lost 10 kts from coast to coast around the center, and that was estimated but you have to realize the forward speed of the storm has to be added to the wind speed on one side and subtracted on the other side that is moving away for a true wind speed. As this storm picked up forward speed so did the wind damage on the southern side of a counter-clockwise storm moving easterly.
This was always reminded to us during hurricane broadcasts by meteorologists.
You are right that storms lose intensity when the eye moves over land but this is a much narrower part of Florida where we live. Wilma was very large with feeder bands extending out over a lot of water after the eye came ashore.
Our best bet, if we had to have one, would be a strike from the south where the storm has to travel over much land. Our worst bet would be if it came in from the Gulf.

If these wood framed houses were sided with hardi plank instead of vinyl I would consider a purchase. Vinyl, not so much. The heat gain through the sidewalls is minimal, windows are more important in the calculation. Most heat gain and loss is through the attic. Energy savings are minimal with a wood framed house. Driving through a neighborhood of vinyl sided houses is a very different aesthetic feeling compared to a block constructed neighborhood.

Hurricanes.
 

I wouldn't want to give anyone a false sense of security, but having reviewed the NOAA interactive map of all hurricanes to have struck Florida in the past 170 years, I find only three weather events that struck Lady Lakes/The Villages. They were:

1910 - An unnamed Tropical Storm that passed East of Lady Lake.
1944 - An unnamed Category 1 Hurricane that struck The Villages area.
1968 - An unnamed Tropical Depression that struck Wildwood and passed to the Northwest of The Villages.

All of these came onshore from the Gulf of Mexico in the general area of Tampa, which has not sustained a direct hurricane strike in over 100 years.

This is not to say that severe weather associated with a hurricane would not disrupt normal activities in The Villages, particularly if electric power were to be lost for a while. During hurricane season it is prudent to have adequate stocks of water, food, flashlights and other items which we are cautioned to obtain every time a hurricane threatens.

Now, the point of this is that the thread wandered away from a discussion of energy use differences between stucco and frame houses. I repeat what I have been told before, The Villages developer claims that all of their houses, of both types of construction are built to the standards to resist a Category 2 hurricane.

Hurricanes are fairly predictable in the short term. If The Villages was to be threatened there would be plenty of warning to evacuate, with I-75 quite close, and I-95 a reasonable distance away.

I've said this before. When hurricanes threaten, people along the coastline are told that they might want to consider evacuating to inland locations, such as ours.

Seems to me, I would be more worried about Tornado threat more than hurricane. Especially since we took a direct hit in 2007.

I purchased a stucco home here in 2006. The interior temperature stays pretty consistent. To date I have not discovered any creaks appear
ing on the exterior walls. I did not need the home painted but painted it in 2014. The reason, I had a painter do some interior painting for me. He was really exceptionally and so I asked if he would return in the fall of that year to paint the exterior.

My neighborhood told me she watched him paint and was very impressed as to how meticulous he was in application and clean up. I assure you it didn't cost me what some have previously quoted as the going rate. The painter used expensive rubber based paint which the manufacturer claimed had a lifetime guarantee. The painter laughed and said noting is for a lifetime and you will probably get 15 year utility from this paint .

I had a stucco/brick house up north and the problem in that state had to do with moisture intrusion. there was one home all stone built for $5 million that experience heavy water damage so price didn't make a difference.

Ergo my concern was water intrusion, especially around the windows. Well so far I haven't found any sign of a problem and trust me I inspect often because my home north was one of those experiencing this problem. In my situation it was the interior seal in the window that separated the interior wood potion of the window from the aluminum

I suspect a variable in all this is your builder. It appears the builder of this home took great pride in his product .....Hope I haven't spoken too soon:D

I have the home washed once/twice a year depending

House painter
 

Please provide the name and number of your exceptional painter and the exterior paint used.
Thx, Jimmie

We lived through Hurricane Charlie. Never having been through a hurricane before (hubby had one go over his house in Miami decades earlier), I laughed and said he didn't need to bring in the heavy BBQ. The next day the newspaper said the fire truck had lifted inches off the ground. All the block homes on the street had their screen rooms gone, decks gone and everything including sheds out of sight. Frame and mobile homes were often missing and just a slab left. On Main Street, weak buildings were destroyed ...the wind blew out the windows and took off the roof. Our friends left their block home in Port Charlotte and fled to Orlando but the hurricane went that way. They escaped safely and found their home intact. You never know. What people there did was buy hurricane shutters for their windows. It had been decades since a major hurricane came way in the harbor. I worked at SMH and on our hurricane map there was hardly a spot in Florida where a major storm has not hit. It doesn't matter where in the world you live there is always something if you are prone to fixate on it. We just do what we can and then let it go. By the way, our block home was fine minus a birdcage. We had no shutters.

Back in 1995, I was involved in a major restoration of a house that was on the national registry in Summit,NJ

The master bedroom which was rather large and directly above the dining room was totally out of level.

The correction was made by pouring ultra light concrete on the bedroom floor, on end was 4" higher than the other.

No structural reinforcement was need.

This was done by James Downs of the Downs Group

Go to Downs Group and take a look @ some of the projects he & I did

[QUOTE=Chatbrat;1212881]Back in 1995, I was involved in a major restoration of a house that was on the national registry in Summit,NJ

The master bedroom which was rather large and directly above the dining room was totally out of level.

The correction was made by pouring ultra light concrete on the bedroom floor, on end was 4" higher than the other.

No structural reinforcement was need.

This was done by James Downs of the Downs Group

Go to Downs Group and take a look @ some of the projects he & I did[



WOW. These homes are impressive.

The Downs Group - Trump Bedminster- Bedminster - club front.jpg


I am nosy. What model did you choose here in The Villages?

Alive vs dead? Tornados in Florida are usually on the small side f1 or f2s. If if come over either house good change you will die ( small or not) But, IMO changes are greater you might live in concrete/ block structure. Hence safe room built out of concrete/cinder blocks.


Agreed, Who cares about the roof., house going to be total loss anyway. At least you have walls for some protection. Slab built frame houses are gone, nothing left except slab. When direct hit by strong tornado.

According to Massey sprayed attic come with life time guarantee.:thumbup:

I personally like frame home better. Easier to make changes or modifications with wood structure. Concrete you have to have masonry bit to just hang or mount something on the exterior walls.

I was here for the tornado in 2007. Block or concrete the only way to go.

I've lived in block/stucco in all 3 houses in Florida,
and am very happy with that type of home.

All I can say we sleep with the temp @ 69, I raise to 74 for during the day @6AM when I, usually wake, it takes 1 hr to get to 74, our house is block

Frame no way.... Termites and vinyl siding. Both are bad. Block will also hold up better in hurricane winds. Vinyl siding will be gone with the wind!

As to energy efficiency in addition to Carl's reference to windows other factors that may apply include the HVAC unit and how the house is positioned My home in Minneapolis area faced east and since our kitchen was on the west side we got a of of sun at supper time and was unbearable

Our stucco home here faces south. The thermostat stays a constant whether we are running the air or heat. While there was still no need to my wife and I decided to repaint the house using a rubberized paint that is suppose to provide a lifetime warranty but with a laugh my painter said if we got 15 years out of it consider that good. there were not any cracks and both the painter and I looked for cracks including micro cracks. Perhaps they will eventually show themselves?

One poster wrote in another thread that snakes were getting in between the vinyl siding and the exterior walls on his house.... that would be enough for me to go to stucco:eek:

....and the Moore, OK tornado in 2013 collapsed the concrete walls of an elementary school that killed 7 students.

And what would've been the outcome if it was built of two by's? Any better?

Finally some words of common sense.
As my husband said which he has done calculations of heat gains (manual J) for 40 years, everything is considered in heat gain calc's and air gaps are also part of thermo dynamics. as insulation packed in walls do not work either, it is the air between the insulation fibers is what gives you your insulation factor's,
God i sound like my husband now. L.O.L

No it would of probably Been a lot worse. Schools not good place to hide from OK tornados Unless they have safe rooms, which are built out of concrete. IMO in OK the only safe place is under ground when tornado in the area.