Due to devastating wildfires, residential construction in California has reached a tipping point. The Los Angeles-area wildfires earlier this year—a mere 14 that burned 57,500 acres and resulted in more than $62 billion in damage—underscore the critical need to reconsider how homes in fire-prone areas are constructed.
This is not an isolated incident. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, as of mid-October 2025, there have been 54,615 wildfires in the United States, burning approximately 4.7 million acres. In California specifically, the numbers are 7,519 wildfires and 522,306 acres burned for the year to date. That means the Golden State accounts for nearly 1 in 8 fires and more than 11 percent of acreage burned nationwide.
It’s also no fluke. In 2024, California experienced 8,024 wildfires, scorching almost 1.1 million acres, according to Cal Fire. The nation saw nearly 65,000 wildfires for a total of 8.9 million acres burned, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
Engineers have long advocated for an increased use of fire-resistant materials in residential construction, but the higher costs when compared to wood have slowed widespread adoption. But various innovations are dramatically lowering the cost of utilizing concrete in residential construction. Adding fireproof doors, windows and a metal roof can transform homes into fire-resistant structures.
These advancements in residential concrete construction extend beyond fire defense. Concrete has long been viewed as a greener option because it lasts two to three times longer than a wood-framed home, and they are not vulnerable to external factors such as insects, moisture, mold or wind, all of which can result in structural damage and safety risks.
“Concrete is, by its nature, a very durable and resilient material regardless of the hazard,” explains Evan Reis, a 30-year structural engineer and executive director of the U.S. Resiliency Council, a California-based nonprofit that advocates for well-engineered structures built with resilient materials. “From the performance side of things, concrete homes make a ton of sense.”
With more people moving to hazard-prone areas and an increase in natural disaster-related losses, Reis stresses that “something has got to change.”
Constructing homes out of concrete has long been viewed as a superior option if costs could be brought in line with wood-framed designs. New building methods are promising to do just that. In fact, when lifetime upkeep, insurance, and other expenses are factored in, concrete homes are expected to greatly reduce the total cost of ownership.
The latest advances piggyback on the tilt-up designs common in commercial construction. For residential construction, the cost savings materialize with the use of small, prestressed sandwich panels, which don’t require expensive cranes. Instead, the panels can be maneuvered by forklift—which also cuts down on labor costs.
“An entire house can now go up with just 3 or 4 people onsite to tilt up the panels and set them in place,” says Alonso Forcado, an engineer from Palacios, Texas-based Nonquit Homes, which helped design and build the first residential home outside of Atlanta using this style of construction.
The panels can also be poured onsite, which eliminates the need to transport heavy panels from a precast manufacturer, where every mile increases their cost, Forcado notes.
The construction time associated with building concrete homes can be greatly reduced when compared to traditional wood-framed designs. For example, depending on the size, a wood-framed home can take 6 to 12-plus months to complete. But once a builder can properly train a crew on the new concrete building process, construction times can be reduced to as little as 120 days, depending on the size of the residence.
Energy efficiency is another area of construction concern that is being addressed by the prestressed tilt-up concrete panel home design. While concrete is very dense and therefore airtight, it is not considered a good insulator. However, by incorporating a thick layer of insulation inside the concrete panels, the home’s energy efficiency can exceed that of a traditional wood-framed house.
In fact, insulated panel concrete homes have the potential to reduce energy costs by as much as 60 percent, experts note.
One of the biggest obstacles to seeing a transition from wood to concrete in residential construction comes down to the know-how. “Right now, there are simply not enough contractors who know how to efficiently build a home out of concrete,” Reis says.
To help speed development into residential concrete construction, companies such as Nonquit Homes have begun offering a program featuring educational courses for contractors. The program takes 8 days and includes hands-on training that will provide builders and skilled workers with the knowledge and ability to pour and erect prestressed concrete panels for quick and cost-effective home building.