Only an American would put "bullet resistant" at the top of the list of benefits (or indeed ANY WHERE on the list of benefits)!
Yeah, that gets more attention than: - water is wet ! -
I've even said it to a New York State Trooper a time or two, with about the reaction I'd have expected. Nowhere near as nefarious as I know it seems. They seemed comfortable with that once I offered them the following explanation.
Quite simple, and innocent really.
The land the tower is built on is hundreds of acres inside the Adirondack Park. It's prime deer-hunting forest, and during hunting season it's awash with poachers. Part of the problem with owning hundreds of acres of prime hunting land is, it's too much for a 70 year old man to successfully patrol. Even my next-door neighbors poach here.
- Trespassing is illegal.
- Trespassing with a deadly weapon, a deer rifle, essentially a sniper rifle, is far more dangerous still. And if they're crooked enough to break the law to hunt here in the first place (they are, I find their spent shells, coffee cups, and potato chip wrappers out there) I'm not prepared to bet my life they'll simultaneously be careful enough to not shoot in the direction of the house.
A direct shot with a 50 cal would probably penetrate the tower. Problem is, they'd have no aim. They'd have to guess at the target, and that's at best a low odds gamble for them.
The bullet resistance is mainly intended to deflect the errant shot, the missed target, from one of the more common 30 cal deer hunting guns.
Might not seem a concern at all, but every few years I read a newspaper story about a woman who finds a bullet hole in her infant's bedroom wall, etc.
It doesn't cure cancer or bring world peace. It's merely an exercise in caution. I could have picked vinyl, and risked having the home melt at the first wild fire.
Or I could go with concrete and steel, including steel roof, and find something else to fret about beside wildfire, or poachers that are also mediocre marksmen.
"concrete has awful thermal properties" m
So one might think! It's not all that spectacular in the dead of Winter. BUT !!
In the Summer, and on the fringes of the thermal bell-curve Spring and Autumn, when the days are hot but the nights are cool, there's enough thermal mass in the 3 poured slab concrete floors (basement slab well insulated w/ extruded polystyrene) to maintain a comfortable temperature inside most of the time. On summer evenings I turn on a fan, exhausting air out a top floor window, and open a screened window on the floor below.
The air filters in through the screened open window, brings fresh air, comfortable.
The concrete is 10" thick, plus 4" extruded polystyrene. So the walls are over a foot thick, and I find it comfortable. BUT !
I've learned some things. I'll add an extra chase or two in the concrete floors. I added a few before the pour. I'd add a few more, for unanticipated wiring, etc. I've drilled through the concrete. A pre-cast chase is easier.
