Fox Fortress – Houma, Louisiana

This house is currently under construction (October 2025). These photos are owner/builder supplied. The most current photos are presented first and then working back to the beginning. This is the most documented Omni Block home thus far. A special thank you to Alfred and Dene’ Fox, two of the nicest people you will ever meet! 

The home will feature natural elements of concrete flooring, block walls, exposed steel bar joists, and various wood interior finishes. The concrete flooring has been polished and to show the raw beauty of the flooring. The reflection of the trees are clearly distinguishable which illustrates the high degree of the polishing of the concrete floor.

Houma is in the “direct hit” zone of many hurricanes that move up from the Gulf of America. In 2022 Ida hit the home of Alfred and Dene’ Fox and did substantial damage. In the aftermath insurance companies raised their annual premiums substantially and reduce their homeowner coverage due to flooding and wind damage. Rates have tripled and quad-tripled making homeowner insurance cost prohibitive in most cases. Louisiana Citizens (state sponsored insurance) has raised their rates 40% in 2025 alone. The owners selected Omni Block so that they in effect could self insure so that they would only need liability insurance saving them approximately $23,000 annually on homeowners insurance.

“Flying” Bar Joists

Alfred and Dene’ seen here guiding the bar joists into position. They did almost all of the labor (except the actual block laying) on their house. 

All Masonry Walls “topped out”

The block was laid in a stack bond with recessed rake joints enabling the block to have an architectural appearance. Alfred then used a #50 grit grinder to lightly burnish the block. The ground block has a slightly lighter grey tone. The darker grey will be painted and will be above the bottom of the bar joist line.

Notice that the electrical conduit is stubbed out above the electrical boxes and also above the bottom of the bar joist line. 90° sweeps are attached to the vertical conduit for ease of running electrical wiring into and down the stubbed out conduit.

Electrical Installation

These photos show various conduit within the wall strategies and electrical box locations (typically top of the second course) with attached conduit. In some cases horizontal conduit attached from box to box is ran within the block and at the corner is attached to a 90° sweep allowing it to continue along the perpendicular wall. This strategy allows for additional boxes to be added once construction is complete. Notice that the box itself is recessed 3/8″ of inch from the top of the block so that the face plate sits exactly on the bottom of the mortar joint.

Plumbing Integration

The Aquor hose bibb is the recommended product because is an all around solution. It has hard freeze protection, it is secure within the block wall unlike copper or pex hose bibb applications. It is aesthetically pleasing and attaches to the matching hose for individual pressure control.

The Aquor hose bibb requires a 1″ diameter hole using a masonry bit. This bit was used in a hammer drill and it easily bored through the concrete block.

First Course

These illustrations are just a couple of the block location and quantity detailing service that Omni Block can provide. When the block shows up at the job site the mason can identify (match) the illustrations to the actual block. It becomes rather easy to then start placing block accordingly.