Count on Concrete for Green Homes
The New American Home® (TNAH) 2007 reflects two trends in homebuilding—urban settings and energy efficiency. And, for the fourth consecutive year, concrete wall systems contributed to its success.

The home, the official showcase house of the annual International Builders' Show® held in Orlando, Fla., utilizes insulated, precast concrete sandwich walls. The 3-story, "urban loft" home features 4,707 square feet of living area plus a 576-square-foot suite above the detached garage. It is expected to earn EPA’s ENERGY STAR rating and use nearly 73 percent less energy for heating and cooling than a comparable wood-framed home.

The precast concrete wall systems provide the home other environmental and comfort benefits. The home is resistant to fires, wind, hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters. Additionally, because the walls were produced in a factory setting, there was very little construction waste. Precast concrete homes also offer superior soundproof qualities and can be assembled with minimal disturbance to the community, factors important for TNAH 2007, which was located in a neighborhood close to downtown Orlando.

The wall system was not the only sustainable building contribution cement-based products made to the TNAH 2007. The home boasts a green roof, supported by precast hollow-core concrete panels. Durable, insect-resistant fiber-cement siding covers the exterior as does pollution-fighting “TX Aria” cement-based stucco. This photocatalytic cement reduces atmospheric pollutants such as nitric oxides, carbon monoxide and sulfur monoxide—all commonly created by car exhaust emissions.

PCA and the Precast-Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) played a major role in TNAH 2007, coordinating product donations and providing technical expertise.
Contact Mike Weber

Pavilion Consolidates Concrete Products, Resources at International Builders Show
For the 19th consecutive year, PCA hosted a Concrete Pavilion at the International Builders Show, held last week in Orlando, Fla. The Pavilion raises concrete's presence and profile at the show by consolidating concrete products in one area. This year, 32 pavilion partners joined PCA for nearly 13,000 square feet of exhibit space showcasing concrete wall systems, paving products, cast stone, and other concrete products geared for residential construction. Attendance at the builders' show topped 100,000.

PCA's booth anchors the Pavilion and serves as a general resource center and guide to concrete exhibitors. This year the booth featured an easy-to-use touch screen kiosk that demonstrated how concrete walls save energy over conventional wood framing. Users select a house type (size, style, and number of stories), wall system (ICF, masonry, or precast), and area of the country. A results screen shows typical savings in electrical, natural gas, and requirements for heating and cooling equipment.
Contact Mike Collignon

Largest RCC Dam in U.S. Slated for Taum Sauk
Construction of the largest roller compacted concrete (RCC) project in the U.S. has been announced. The renovation of the upper reservoir of the Taum Sauk Plant in Missouri is expected to require 3 million cubic yards of RCC and 300,000 cubic yards of conventional concrete. Placement is expected to begin later this year and completed by the end of 2008 or early 2009.

A breach in the upper reservoir caused significant flooding in the Johnson’s Shuts-In State Park in December 2005.

Built in 1963, AmerenUE’s Taum Sauk Plant is a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant. It stores water from the Black River in the upper reservoir, built atop the 1,590-foot-high Proffit Mountain, and releases the water to generate electricity when power is needed.
Contact Fares Abdo

FHWA Publishes Concrete Pavement Manual
Co-authored by PCA, CTLGroup, the American Concrete Pavement Association, and several other concrete experts, the Integrated Materials and Construction Practices for Concrete Pavement: A State-of-the-Practice Manual is the new, essential resource for the concrete pavement community.

Published by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the 350-page manual covers the entire spectrum of concrete pavement construction. It provides information on technologies, tests, and new practices to optimize material selection, mix design, and construction practices. The focus is on concrete and concrete ingredients and how concrete performance is affected by the interaction of the material concrete with pavement construction and design.

“Key points” provided at the beginning of each section allow quick access to the main points of a particular topic. A troubleshooting chapter provides a list of potential causes and remedies for early-age and longer term concrete problems.
Click here for a free electronic version of the manual.

• Insulating concrete forms (55.07%)
• Autoclaved cellular concrete (21.74%)
• Precast panels (14.49%)
• Concrete masonry (5.80%)
• Removable forms (2.90%)

Take this week's poll