This building material can protect homes during natural disasters, and the US is missing out

There’s a building material that could keep houses intact during hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and fires. While it’s been widely used around the world, the U.S. is a laggard in adopting the construction technique.

One company trying to change that is RSG 3-D, which is bringing a building material known as 3D cementitious sandwich panel for mass production in the U.S.

“Housing economists will tell you that 77 percent of homes built in the United States are at extreme risk for some type of natural disaster,” said RSG 3-D CEO Ken Calligar. “The East Coast is primarily hurricane, the Midwest is tornadoes, which we will also survive, the Rockies and the West are wildfire plus seismic events. We are resistant to all of that.”

Last year was the costliest year on record for climate disasters in the U.S., with over $300 billion in damages, according to NOAA.

Each panel made by RSG 3-D consists of fire retardant foam sandwiched between two wire mesh faces. The two faces are connected with reinforcement wires that run through the foam and the whole thing is enveloped in concrete.