Mercedes Homes is sought out for "Shelter from the Storm"

In the October issue of Professional Builder, senior editor Bill Lurz wrote "Shelter from the Storm" about Mercedes Homes and the technology it and its public and private partners spent eight years and millions of dollars developing — 6-inch-thick, cast-in-place concrete walls that can withstand hurricane winds of 200 mph.

Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and as of this writing, Wilma's threat, illustrate the wisdom of this investment. Hurricane season is far from over, and with exposure from the article and its "hurricane house" on the Bob Vila TV show, people from all walks and locales across the country are knocking on this Florida builder’s door.

“There has been a huge amount of interest,” says Stuart McDonald, Mercedes' corporate vice president of operations. “It’s become a full-time job for me just to respond. …Other magazines and newspapers, homebuilder associations, other builders and other engineers that have gone down a similar path have called, and we’ve shared some information.”

“How can we build a stronger, safer home? ” McDonald says. “It sounds like everybody has started to ask themselves what we did eight years ago. …All I tell them is that we’ve been building these homes and we have over 3,000 of them that are in the east coast of Florida. We withstood over two hurricanes last year and had zero structural failure.”

Many inquires have come from Louisiana, Mississippi and other places that suffered devastating hurricane damage.

“There have been questions and comments – how can we get this out into those areas and are we interested in coming into those areas,” McDonald says. “It has to make good business sense, and we have to be able to deliver on our promise. We don’t want to just go somewhere and set up shop and say, “We’re here. Come see us.” We’re looking at all different avenues right now, trying to figure out what makes the best business sense.”

“Right now I don’t know that there’s a clear direction on what has to or what will be put in place there,” he adds. “So that’s of huge concern, and on top of that, the ability to get the raw materials that we’ll need to produce the demand that’s going to be there. There are all kinds of guesstimates - anywhere from 275,000 to about 425,000 homes that will be needed. … So we’re trying to answer those questions right now.”

The Bob Vila TV show currently features Mercedes building a new, 2400 square-foot, four-bedroom, cast-in-place concrete home in Punta Gorda, Fla., for a couple who lost their home to Hurricane Charley in 2004.

“A lot of people saw it and they better understood what we were doing and said, “Wow. Can I get one of those here?” McDonald says. “And we had already started the process. The thing we don’t want to do is intermingle our neighborhoods. So we have new neighborhoods that are up and coming, and new areas around the state that will start utilizing this technology.”

When you have the right idea at the right time, word gets around fast.

“There’s such a demand even without us doing any marketing at all,” McDonald says. “There’s such a demand on the product right here in Florida. We’re meeting with all of our raw material suppliers to make sure that we can supply our demand right here locally.