How Concrete Rebuilt the Smith House After Hurricane Sandy: Lessons in Coastal Resilient Construction

When Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Jersey Shore on October 29, 2012, the four-foot tidal surge destroyed countless homes, dislodging them from foundations and sweeping them into the bay. Among the hardest hit was the 1953 bungalow owned by Susan and Walter Smith. It took them three weeks just to reach their property. When they arrived, the front door was swollen shut, contents were destroyed, structural foundation damage was extensive, and the electrical and mechanical systems were beyond repair. Their home, and Walter’s mother’s house next door, were completely destroyed. Faced with new base flood elevation requirements from the government, the Smiths made a bold decision: they would rebuild with concrete, creating a home designed to withstand future extreme weather events. Their story offers powerful lessons for anyone considering concrete house construction in coastal or flood-prone areas.

The Case for Concrete in Coastal Construction

As an architect and owner of Education Lab Architects in Stamford, Connecticut, Walter Smith had always admired concrete as a building material. The destruction of their home presented an unusual opportunity to build from scratch with concrete at the center of every design decision. The decision to build with concrete was not merely aesthetic, it was a survival strategy for a site vulnerable to flooding, high winds, and storm surge.

Structural Resilience Against Natural Disasters

Concrete offers distinct advantages in coastal environments. Unlike wood-frame construction, concrete does not rot, warp, or suffer from termite damage when exposed to moisture. Its mass provides exceptional resistance to wind-borne debris during hurricanes. The Smiths’ new home was designed with three key structural features that set it apart from conventional coastal housing:

1. Deep foundation pilings: Building codes in the Jersey Shore area now require foundation pilings to reach 10 feet below the surface due to a water table just three feet deep. The Smiths went further, installing 31 wood pilings driven 25 feet below the concrete grade beams for added precaution.
2. Elevated first floor: The first-floor deck sits nine feet above ground elevation, supported by eight concrete columns each one and a half feet in diameter. These columns rest on grade beams that transfer loads to the deep pilings below.
3. Highly reinforced structural deck: The elevated concrete deck uses epoxy-coated rebar with heavy reinforcement. This deck serves as a primary structural component, tying all columns together and providing the house with lateral rigidity against wind and seismic forces.

Sustainability Through Longevity

Sustainable building is often misunderstood as being only about low initial energy consumption. The Smiths understood that true sustainability comes from building structures that last. While concrete requires considerable energy to produce, this initial energy investment becomes minimal when buildings have long life spans, especially compared to materials with lower upfront energy costs that deteriorate quickly in harsh environments. A concrete home that stands for a century or more is inherently more sustainable than a wood-frame home rebuilt every few decades after storm damage.

Architectural Concrete: Form, Texture, and Light

For Walter Smith, concrete was not just a structural necessity but a design medium. The project became a showcase for what architectural concrete can achieve when creativity meets technical precision. The Smiths wanted concrete to be visible on both sides of walls and ceilings, which drove every major construction decision.

Board-Form Concrete Walls

The decision to create board-form wall surfaces influenced the entire construction approach. Board-formed concrete involves placing textured wood-grained boards inside wall forms as formliners, creating wood-patterned impressions on the finished concrete surface. The Doka USA forming system used plywood-faced panels, allowing workers to nail picket fence boards to them. After testing many wood types, the team determined that standard fence boards produced the best board-form texture. At some locations, the Smiths wanted the board-formed look on both sides of walls, which required the use of the Thermomass wall insulating system, placing rigid foam insulation in the center of walls so reinforced concrete remained exposed on both faces.

Creative Details and Finishes

The Smiths used the concrete surfaces as a canvas for creative expression:

• Light spikes: Wall-tie holes, normally patched over, were fitted with acrylic light spikes that project glowing points of light. During daylight, exterior light creates patterns on interior walls. At night, interior light creates glowing patterns visible from outside.
• Diamond-polished floors: Every floor in the home features diamond-polished concrete. This finish enhances the sustainable nature of the home, improves heat transfer for the radiant floor heating system, and provides an easily maintained concrete surface.
• Sanded finishes: Various sanded textures complement the board-formed walls and polished floors, creating a cohesive material palette throughout the home.

The Shipping Container Master Bedroom

One of the most distinctive features of the Smith House is the top floor master bedroom. Three 20-foot-long steel high-cube shipping containers were placed side by side over an open part of the floor. The interior steel walls were removed to create one large room. The steel doors at either end can be opened to allow ocean breezes to flow through and provide unobstructed views of the Atlantic. An open 650-square-foot concrete-fenced terrace surrounds the bedroom, blending industrial reuse with coastal living.

Overcoming Coastal Construction Challenges

Building in an environmentally challenging coastal area is inherently more difficult and expensive than conventional residential construction. Finding contractors experienced with concrete housing added another layer of complexity. The Smiths found Claudio Ripoll of Compass Path HC in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, to manage construction. Ripoll brought 32 years of concrete construction experience to the project, and his son Ryan of JRR Masonry performed all concrete work.

Concrete Mix Design for Coastal Durability

Clayton Concrete of Lakewood, New Jersey, supplied the ready-mix for the project. Territory manager Cole Fischer designed 3/8-inch aggregate mixes that could flow around congested reinforcement and fill the intricate board-form textures. The mix requirements varied by structural element:

Clayton Concrete is one of the few ready-mix producers in the United States that manufactures its own admixtures. Several were used on this project to address the unique challenges of coastal concrete construction:

• Viscosity modifying admixtures (VMA) to minimize segregation during placement in columns and around the insulation sandwich in walls
• Retarding admixtures to extend placement time, especially in cooler weather when concrete was batched with hot water and during traffic delays
• Air entrainment for exterior slabs to resist freeze-thaw damage from coastal winter conditions
• Polycarboxylate super plasticizers to increase placing slump without adding water
• Hycrete corrosion-inhibiting and waterproofing admixture to minimize chloride attack from salt-laden air and create a water barrier

Forming and Placement

Doka USA supplied the forming systems, including column forms, wall-form panels, and deck forms. Dan Kent, a technical sales manager for Doka, reviewed the architectural plans and provided Ripoll with detailed form layout drawings. Nearly all concrete was pumped, with a maximum pump height of 32 feet. Ripoll used a combination of stationary form-mounted vibrators and internal stick vibrators to ensure proper consolidation of fresh concrete around congested reinforcement and within the narrow cavities of the insulated wall system. For more on proper consolidation techniques, see a guide on how to consolidate concrete in congested reinforced concrete members.

Quality control was unusually rigorous for a residential project. Concrete was monitored at the batch facility and on site for air entrainment, water content, and slump criteria. Cylinders were taken at the site and tested for strength at 7 and 30 days to confirm proper strengths.

Energy Efficiency and the Road to LEED Platinum

The Smiths pursued LEED Platinum certification, the highest rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. Their concrete-centered approach delivered energy performance that conventional wood-frame construction struggles to match.

Thermal Performance of Concrete Construction

Concrete offers three distinct thermal advantages that contributed to the home’s energy efficiency:

1. Thermal mass: Concrete absorbs and stores heat energy during the day and releases it slowly at night, stabilizing indoor temperatures and reducing heating and cooling loads.
2. Air tightness: Unlike wood-frame construction where air can leak through gaps, concrete walls are inherently airtight, eliminating uncontrolled air infiltration.
3. Continuous insulation: The Thermomass system places rigid foam insulation at the center of walls, creating a 14-inch-thick wall assembly with 4 inches of interior concrete, 4 inches of insulation, and 6 inches of exterior concrete.

Mechanical Systems and Renewable Energy

The Smith House incorporates several advanced mechanical systems that work in concert with the concrete structure to minimize energy consumption:

• Hydronic geothermal heating and cooling: A ground-source heat pump system extracts energy from water circulated through deep ground loops, providing both heating and air conditioning with minimal electricity consumption.
• Radiant floor heating: The diamond-polished concrete floors incorporate radiant heating tubing. Concrete’s thermal mass ensures even, uniform heat distribution throughout the living space. See pour new concrete over old concrete surface for considerations when adding radiant heating to existing concrete slabs.
• Domestic hot water from geothermal system: The geothermal system also supplies domestic hot water, eliminating the need for a separate water heater.

Project Metrics at a Glance

The Smiths’ decision to combine decorative concrete elements with structural resilience created a home that is both beautiful and exceptionally durable. Their use of colorful concrete tiles a complete guide to decorative finishes throughout the home demonstrates how concrete can serve both structural and aesthetic roles in residential construction.

The Smith House stands as proof that concrete residential construction can meet the highest standards of sustainability, resilience, and design. At a time when many homeowners dream of oversized wood-and-drywall houses, the Smiths built something built for the ages: a home that keeps its occupants safe from natural disasters, consumes minimum energy, and embraces creative ideas. Their new home, with its clean modern lines, natural simplicity of concrete, and resistance to the forces that destroyed its predecessor, wins on all counts.