We need to admit when climates are changing and new threats either arise or intensify. That means changing how we handle a whole range of things, from moving or conserving water to how we prepare for disasters. One of those things must be what materials we use build houses.

We need to do this because the old model isn’t working for anyone but, possibly, contractors and developers.

Traditional Wooden Construction

Contractors build homes from materials that cannot withstand flame or high winds. Typically, these houses have wooden frames, plywood walls, and wooden clapboards. When I see such a structure being built, as I did this morning, I think they are really being made of Popsicle sticks and toothpicks.

Look at what happens to a stick-built plywood house in a tornado: It blows apart. In a fire it goes up with a whoomp. A wooden home lets flood waters in when they rise high enough, leaving toxic mold growing between the walls. Or the flood lifts them right off their foundations and sweeps them away.

Think of the photos we have seen of the Los Angeles fires. They show a forest of wood-framed houses burning, fanned by hurricane-force winds. The fire leaps from one house to another and races ahead of the winds, burning whole neighborhoods.

Equal Opportunity Destroyers

It doesn’t matter whether the house is owned by a celebrity or worth multiple millions. A wildfire has no concern for fame, wealth, race, education, or merit because fires are equal-opportunity destroyers.

Now think of pictures (or places) you have seen where a tornado has struck a neighborhood. The houses seem to have exploded. Wooden beams and walls lie scattered everywhere like pick-up sticks.

Thirdly, think (or remember) a hurricane striking towns and cities. Wooden roof trusses with whole roofs attached go flying off in the wind. Storm surges flood homes and entire houses float away.

A New Way of Building Houses

Now ask yourself, “What if those homes were made of something more substantial than wood?”

New house in France

When I was in Europe one year, a local person sneered at American building methods. He commented how Americans build homes with plywood and charge outrageous amounts for them. That made me think. I began to look at construction sites in France and noticed a significant difference. Homes there were being built out of stone, brick. or concrete blocks and faced with brick or stone.

They seemed more solid than the houses I saw and lived in here in America—built for centuries and not decades. Also, these homes are cooler in summer and warmer in winter, as well as easier and cheaper to heat and cool.

Yet in America we not only continue building with wood, contractors are taking wood-frame structures bigger and higher. The construction trend known as “tall wood” takes wooden construction up to heights previously achieved only with steel beams and metal infrastructure. As in skyscrapers.

Wooden beams layered on top of other wooden beams. A forest of wooden roof trusses. Acres of plywood walls. What could go wrong? Well, just watch the news.

Building Houses to Survive Wildfires

We all know the definition of insanity yet we continue building as we have always done in America without thinking much about consequences. We need to throw that pattern away and start thinking differently.

We know how to build homes that will survive wildfires. Here are a couple of websites that tell you how:

• Designing Your Home to Survive Wildfires
• Fire-Resistant Building Materials: 9 Ways to Build the Most Fire-Resistant Home
• The Fire-Resistant Home is Coming to California

Even a quick scan will show that they advise replacing wood with other materials that resist fire.

Minimizing Tornado Damage?

No home will survive a Category 5 tornado—or the wind-blown materials that might hit it. Your house might survive a direct hit by an airborne cow but less likely to do well if a semi-truck lands on the roof.

But it is possible to build a home that’s resistant to the winds of a less-vicious tornado. Some suggestions follow:

• What Would It Take to Build a Completely Tornado-Proof Home?
• Construction Tips for Creating a Tornado-Proof Home
• Are Tornado-Proof Houses Worth the Investment?

Once again, these sites recommend against traditional wood-frame houses precisely because they come apart so easily.

So Why Don’t We Change

In two words—construction costs. Building materials that resist fire, wind, and water cost more than simple wood construction. Contractors can’t build houses like this and sell them for a price most people can afford.

Oh, sure, if you’re a multi-millionaire building a hunting lodge in the forest or a beach house on the ocean, you can use steel, concrete, bullet-proof glass, stone and anything else that will make your place safer. If. you can afford a McMansion, you can pay the cost of stronger materials. Most people, however, would find such homes unaffordable.

So folks replace one wood-frame home with another and hope for the best.

This is not, as they say, sustainable. The solution will not come from developer or contractors. Nor will it come from government. I think insurance companies will force a solution simply because they can’t survive the losses that climate change brings. More homes and cars flooded, burned and demolished bring greater payouts that companies just can’t afford.

The Insurance Solution

Insurance companies have responded by refusing to insure homes in places like Florida, which gets hit by hurricanes on a regular basis. I recommend a different approach: sliding scales of premiums based on what materials were used in construction.

If you have a house hardened against these climate-driven catastrophes, your insurance premiums come in at the low end of premiums. The more vulnerable the house, the more expensive the home insurance.

After a while, houses with expensive premiums will cost more than the market will bear. Building houses like that will no longer make economic sense and construction methods will change.

In the meantime, try to do the best with what you have. Plan for the worst and your outcome will be better. The climate is changing and we need to change with it or suffer the consequences.