Building the Superhouse

Jonathan and Katie MacLennan’s new house doesn’t look much different from any other home in West Point, P.E.I. But standing in the living room (still without furniture), watching the trees bow in the strong wind outside, you realize that it sounds different. “In most houses, you can hear the wind whistling around windows, joints and cracks,” Jonathan explains. “But this house is so solid and well-sealed you hear nothing at all.”

This is Canada’s first safer living home, and it is nothing if not solid. It is the first product of the Designed… for safer living program. The initiative is a joint effort between The Co-operators and the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) with an aim to build houses to “better-than-building-code standards.” The homes are designed to be resilient to natural disasters and weather-related perils in a given area; they are independently inspected before achieving the designation of safer living homes. In P.E.I., where strong winds and harsh winter conditions pose the greatest challenges, the house was engineered to withstand wind speeds of up to 200 km-h and severe winter weather.

The completion of this home is an important milestone for the insurance industry. The ICLR’s sister organization in the U.S., the Institute for Business and Home Safety, has been partnering with homebuilders in a similar program for about six years. The Canadian program represents the first time anywhere that an insurance company has invested in designing and building homes of this type.

The Co-operators, the MacLennans’ insurer, went beyond its contractual obligations and footed the bill for the engineering and construction costs required to meet safer living home standards. These costs added close to 20% to the final cost of the home. It’s an expense the company sees as an investment in safety research; it expects such costs to come down significantly as safer living homes become more common in the months and years ahead.

“Sourcing the special materials needed for this project presented some challenges and, as we expected, added to the cost of the first home,” says The Co-operators claims manager Glen Oxford. “But we expect to get those expenses down to 5-10% of the total cost, matching the success of the program in the U.S.” The company’s goal is to build four homes a year in different areas of the country that present different weather-related challenges.

PROGRAM CANDIDATES

Finding good candidates for the program can present a challenge in itself. First, there must be a claim in which a client has suffered a catastrophic loss, since safer living homes must be completely rebuilt from the ground up. Location is an important consideration – not only because of regional weather patterns, but because building a network of safer living homes throughout the country will help raise the profile of the program and the issues it addresses. The program’s stakeholders include all levels of government.

When a total loss claim is received, the home and clients are assessed. Clients determined to be a good fit with the program might be offered a chance to participate in the program – at no cost to them. Of course, clients must be willing to participate in the program. Although the resilience of a safer living home is attractive and increases the value of the home, some clients may be dissuaded by the restrictions the program places on some options. Options for selecting doors and siding, even landscaping in some cases, are limited: they must meet the program’s strict standards.

Some clients may be concerned about the length of time the design and construction may take. This really wasn’t a factor in the construction of the home in P.E.I., and shouldn’t add more than a couple of weeks to any project. But the engineering does take time; some construction methods involved are more tedious and time-consuming than normal. Some special features that meet the prescribed standards may not be available for purchase locally, and in some cases must be brought in from the United States.

HOUSE CONSTRUCTION

The house in P.E.I. was engineered so that the pressures of high winds are spread throughout the structure and absorbed by it as a whole. Technically, it’s called “continuous load path.” A series of straps, connectors and bolts tie the roof to the walls – and the walls to the foundation – creating a fortified, seamless building. One-inch thick steel rods anchor the floors together and the first floor to the cement foundation. The trusses are secured to the frame with steel braces; gable ends are braced to withstand high winds.

Special shingles rated for 200 km-h winds were installed over heavy roof sheathing, secured using a tight nailing pattern. Adhesive weather-resistant strips were placed over every joint in the sheathing to protect against water intrusion. Water-resistant sealing protects the windows and doors, all of which are impact-resistant and rated for high wind pressures. The siding, fascia and soffits are all highly wind-resistant.

No detail was overlooked during the construction of the house, down to the type of nails used to secure the roof sheathing (ring-shank, in case you’re wondering). The end result is a better built, more resilient home. In the United States, where homebuilders (rather than insurers) are partners in a similar program, anecdotal evidence suggests people from the insurance industry are purchasing many of the resilient homes. The level of consumer interest is naturally higher in areas of the U.S. that are prone to hurricanes, but there is great potential to build interest in Canada.

LONG-RANGE PLANNING

The Co-operators will take some time to build a network of safer living homes and observe how they stand up to Nature’s wrath before considering new premium discounts. At this stage, key goals include raising awareness and encouraging other stakeholders to get involved in this sort of project. “It is incumbent upon us to do all we can to promote safer living, and we hope this will encourage all stakeholders to embrace safer standards,” said The Co-operators president and CEO Kathy Bardswick, who is also a member of the ICLR’s board of directors.

A long-term goal is to influence planning officials and encourage revision of building codes to reflect today’s weather, which is not the same as it was 20 or 30 years ago. “The cost of damage from natural disasters has doubled every five to 10 years since the 1950s, and more and more people are living in vulnerable areas,” said Bardswick. “This is an alarming trend that is not sustainable and must be confronted.”

In the months and years to come, safer living homes will be built in various regions of Canada. The homes will be engineered quite differently, depending on the weather perils and potential for natural disasters in the various regions. Perils for which the houses may be designed include earthquakes, prairie wildfire, tornadoes and hail storms.

As the network of homes expands, the hope is that stakeholders will become more aware of the program and recognize the need to embrace safer standards and build resilience in Canada’s infrastructure. And the insurance industry, through the ICLR, is well positioned to initiate the changes necessary to meet that need and secure a safer more sustainable future.