Circular structure a perfect fit
Couple enjoys round, hurricane-resistant house.
Date published: 6/1/2007
BY RICHARD AMRHINE
For Terry and John Heib, the fact that the house they had built three years ago can resist hurricane-force winds is merely a fringe benefit. They just like everything about it, especially that it is round.
Well, make that two round units with a connecting foyer. And while there are similar homes sprinkled across Virginia, its floor plan is unique because Terry Heib designed it herself.
"It just feels good. We love everything about it," Terry Heib said during a tour of the Spotsylvania County home earlier this week.
She said the couple wanted to do something special for the sixth home they would own together, and considered log homes and other different sorts of houses.
Then they learned about Deltec, manufacturer of round, hurricane-proof homes, and decided to visit the company's Asheville, N.C., plant.
"We had a tour of the plant and we could see how meticulous they were," she said. "They had an aerial photograph from an area of South Carolina where a hurricane had come through. There was nothing left standing except a row of Deltecs," she said. "One of them had lost a roof shingle. That was the extent of the damage."
A visit to the Web site, deltechomes.com, explains why the homes perform as they do. Because they are round rather than having flat walls, wind tends to roll around and by them. Those built in coastal or otherwise particularly hurricane-prone areas can get a special package that supplies extra roof anchoring and other storm-proofing features.
Unlike conventional homes, the circular design requires the ceiling and floor joists to be laid out in a pie-like or wagon-wheel design that provides serious structural strength. In truth, the home is not actually round, but multi-sided--22 sides, to be exact. Because the design requires no load-bearing walls, the floor plan can be as open or as walled-off as one would like.
Fits the terrain
Heib said that after considering the topography of the six-acre building lot they had chosen, selecting Deltec was easy and immediate. Three years later, the house and setting seem to be a match made in heaven. Located on Bear Lake Drive in a gated, large lot community off of Robert E. Lee Drive, the house is built into a gentle hillside that leaves nearly all lower-level living space above grade.
Date published: 6/1/2007
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