The views from the lot were so spectacular that she had the idea of building a round house, so that every room would have a unique view of the stunning surroundings. Rodriguez began searching the Internet for designs and soon came across Deltec Homes, a North Carolina company that makes prefabricated round homes. Best of all, Rodriguez realized as she scrolled through the company’s marketing materials, the structures—with their tightly sealed roofs and walls attached to foundations—were designed to withstand hurricanes. “I feel like I’ve hit gold,” she says.
It took years and a lot of hassle with local builders and contractors, but her home was finally completed last year. It wasn’t low-cost. The wall sections, roofing and other major components from Deltec cost nearly $360,000, and the Rodriguez family spent another $980,000 on permits, foundation, assembly, plumbing, HVAC, finishes and utilities. Considerable difficult work and savings helped the family achieve this, Rodriguez says. Building such a home in a dream location has become a “life goal” for the couple.
Hurricane Ian hit while the house was still under construction. The structure was undamaged, although one patio door was ripped off its hinges. The real test came with Idalia, a Category 4 hurricane that arrived in tardy August 2023. As it approached Florida, universities and airports were closed, the National Guard was mobilized, and a space launch at Cape Canaveral was canceled. The Rodriguez family hauled what they could to the upper floors of their up-to-date home, packed up their car, and drove to an Orlando hotel.
Their home never lost power during the storm, which meant Rodriguez could watch the aftermath as the hurricane drew closer. The nighttime outdoor area was initially dimly lit by security camera lights until the sun rose and the full force of the hurricane arrived around 7:45 a.m. By then, Idalia had made landfall about 180 miles to the north.
“We could see the floodwaters coming into our garage,” he recalled. But overall, the live footage didn’t look all that bad. A relief. When they returned to survey the damage, they passed neighbors’ homes that had parts of their siding missing or immense sections of their roofs destroyed. The Rodriguez homestead remained relatively unscathed. The flooding on the lower floor quickly subsided, and while the family lost some of their belongings stored there, the house itself recovered from the flood—as designed.
“We’re OK. We’re going to be OK,” Rodriguez remembers thinking the morning they evacuated. “And we were,” she says.
Rodriguez explains that steel rebar runs from the home’s foundation, through the walls and into the roof. The balcony’s ceiling beams run straight into the property’s core. And the windows, made by door and window manufacturer Marvin, are designed to handle hurricane-force winds and rain.
“Our survival rate is 99.9 percent,” says Steve Linton, president of Deltec Homes. “We’ve had two homes that have structural damage in our history.” One was built decades ago, to slightly lower standards, he explains. The other “had some builder defects” and was destroyed by a Category 5 storm. The company has produced more than 5,000 properties to date—mostly in the U.S., with some scattered across 30 other countries around the world. Prefabricated Walls and Roof Sections at their factory in North Carolina can be sent virtually anywhere.