Concrete is widely used for residential construction in other parts of the world but has been a hard sell in the United States, despite the fact that concrete resists earthquakes, wind, and fire and serves the spectrum from economical housing to upscale custom homes. As recounted in the pages of CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION, the first “gravel wall” house was built a century before the magazine was founded. This country's first reinforced concrete house came in on the high end: Ward's Castle, a one-of-a-kind mansion built in 1875, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. A few decades later Thomas Edison sought to bring affordable concrete homes to a broad market with his patented monolithic design.

Many techniques have been developed for cost-effective concrete housing. In addition to continuing coverage of residential tilt-up construction, CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION has reported on such methods as the Uni-Con process for spraying concrete over steel, performed by unskilled labor (January 1961); a design featuring a concrete roof and walls shotcreted over polystyrene insulation and requiring no interior load-bearing walls (October 1986); and removable aluminum forming systems for casting walls and roof decks in one placement (February 2001).

Insulating concrete forms (ICFs) made inroads for the residential concrete market during the 1990s. A December 1996 article called ICFs “one of the hottest trends in residential construction,” adding that the number of homes built with ICFs had risen 50% to a total of 1000. By 2004 the number of ICF homes reached 60,000.

While the economic, strength, and energy efficient benefits are apparent, homeowners often are surprised at the beauty concrete can add to a home. A November 2005 article estimated that one-quarter of all residential concrete exterior flatwork receives some kind of decorative treatment. Keeping up with the growth trends in architectural and decorative concrete led to the formation of CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION's sister publication, RESIDENTIAL CONCRETE, in 2004. The March/April 2006 issue of RESIDENTIAL CONCRETE includes a detailed report on the American Concrete Institute's (ACI) landmark residential concrete code published in May 2005.

“Earth shelters are here to stay,” asserted a September 1980 article, pointing to the nation's 1000 completed earth shelters and at least as many more then under construction. The April 1988 issue heralded a “new generation” of dome-shaped structures using inflated forms.