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Concrete Homes Newsletter
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Concrete Homes Newsletter > 2006 > January/February
January/February 2006
New American Home 2006 Is Ready for Show
With only punch-list items remaining, The New American Home 2006 stands
ready for the International Builders’ Show in Orlando, January 11–14.
Several concrete and cement-based products were used in the home that was
built to demonstrate the “green” philosophy. The 9,500 square
foot home features concrete roof tiles, fiber-cement siding, and precast
concrete lintels. It is coated with an acrylic-textured finish with a portland
cement base coat.
Two-story insulated masonry walls offer a high degree of energy efficiency
and superior wind resistance, in addition to protection against fires and
termites. This type of construction is unique in Florida where builders traditionally
only use masonry walls for the first floor and wood frame for additional
floors. The home is expected to earn EPA's Energy Star rating.
Three precast concrete mantels grace the home’s fireplaces and concrete
pavers were used extensively on the outdoor patio and retaining wall.
The home will be available for free tours at the International Builders’ Show.
For more information, please visit www.tnah.com.
Builders' Show Attendees Will Experience Largest Concrete Pavilion
Yet
Attendees of the International Builders’ Show (Jan. 11–14) will
be able to get all their concrete questions answered in the largest PCA Concrete
Pavilion to date. Thirty-five cement-based companies and associations will
take up 12,550 square feet of exhibit space in the West Hall of the Orange
County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
Now more than ever, builders are hungry for timely and useful information
made conveniently accessible. This year, PCA makes everything easier for
show attendees. The PCA booth (W5460) offers visitors the opportunity to
gain first-hand knowledge on concrete and cement-based systems and applications
from concrete industry authorities. Six presentations will provide builders
and architects the resources they need to offer their customers high quality
concrete construction; likewise, homebuyers will gain concrete knowledge.
The schedule of topics is as follows:
Wed. 11:00 a.m. Masonry
Wed. 2:00 p.m. Precast
Thurs. 11:00 a.m. Removable Forms
Thurs. 2:00 p.m. Exteriors
Fri. 11:00 a.m. ICFs
Fri. 2:00 p.m. Decorative Flatwork
With energy prices rising every year and the need for stronger homes along
the Gulf Coast, there’s never been a better time to find out why concrete
homes are beautiful homes built to last.
Concrete Home Is "Fortified" Against
the Elements
On December 3, the Chicago Tribune featured the first “Fortified…for
Safer Living®” home in Illinois, now being constructed in Bolingbrook.
The 2,800 square foot home will have added protection against tornadoes,
hail, and severe winter weather—three of the state’s most destructive
natural elements.
The home was also featured on two different Chicago newscasts. Links to
those stories are below:
CBS 2 Chicago
NBC 5 Chicago
The Bolingbrook home features a state-of-the-art precast concrete panel
system for the floors and exterior walls, impact-resistant roofing,
connectors to securely tie the house together from roof to foundation,
and windows with
high wind and water pressure ratings. In addition to being able to
withstand nature’s worst elements, the article mentions the fire-resistant
and energy-efficient benefits of concrete construction. The home and
the Fortified
program were also featured in the November 23rd Wall Street Journal.
“Fortified ... for Safer Living®” is a new-home construction
designation program of the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS),
a national non-profit organization established and supported by insurance
company members. Through the use of "Fortified" techniques and
construction materials, builders increase a home's overall disaster
resistance, well beyond the minimum building code requirement. Building upgrades
are
chosen by homebuyers and builders based on the kinds of extreme weather
events mostly likely in their region.
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Dave Bender (L), project manager for Mustang Construction, discusses
the inspection of the "Fortified" home with Victor Patton (R) of
HBIS Engineering. |
Construction on the home has already begun and is expected to be completed
in early spring. It will be used as a teaching show home for construction
professionals before being sold to the public.
The home is sponsored
by PCA, the Institute of Business & Home Safety,
Dukane Precast, Inc., Therma-Tru Doors and AAA Chicago Motor Club.
Concrete House Stands Up to Katrina
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The Sundbergs' home, shown in the yellow circle,
is
a prime example of the durability of concrete homes.
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The Sundbergs had been building their fully mitigated home for eight years,
and it was 85% complete, when Hurricane Katrina slammed into their area on
Aug. 29 with a huge storm surge and reported sustained winds of 125 mph.
The water reached an elevation of 28 feet.
After the winds had died down and the water retreated to the Gulf of Mexico,
the Sundbergs found that their home had survived the storm largely intact,
with some blown-out windows, lost materials and missing upstairs panels.
Now they are focusing their efforts on finishing the building before the
next storm strikes.
“This is where our heart is,” said Scott Sundberg, a graduate
of the University of Alabama and a structural engineer for 25 years.
He used his experience with structural physics and design to build the home,
which
he and his wife Caroline call Shadowlawn.
Before breaking ground, Sundberg did his homework. He studied the
Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Flood Insurance
Rate Maps, Florida building
codes and the storm history of the area, and he visited abandoned
home sites where scars of Hurricane Camille were still visible.
The information from
his research motivated him to build the home to withstand severe
storms.
In 1998, Hurricane Georges dealt a glancing blow to the Sundbergs’ area
of Pass Christian in Harrison County, which is one of the three counties
in Mississippi hardest hit by Katrina. When Georges struck, the Sundbergs
had just put the forms up and rebar in place for the carport slab.
“I became even more convinced [after Georges] that it had to be right,
that it had to withstand a Camille,” Sundberg said. Hurricane Camille
was a Category 5 storm that raged across the Gulf Coast in 1969, leaving
a wide swath of destruction.
A native of Thornton, Illinois, where there is a major concrete quarry,
Sundberg said that “concrete has been in my blood since I was young.” Accordingly,
when it came to building his dream house, he used concrete as the main building
material. The result is a sturdy house constructed of insulated concrete
form (ICF) walls—reinforced both horizontally and vertically—post-tensioned
concrete slab, concrete columns and a concrete roof on top of cold rolled
metal panel sections.
The Sundbergs’ house has spread footings, with concrete members to
distribute the load to the soil, and a 4-foot-high beam-wall down the center.
There is connectivity through the house from the roof down to the third floor,
on to the second floor, and then to the carport. The house is also built
to “perform elastically” and to withstand winds of between 180
and 200 mph. The bottom of the beam of the first floor living space is 25.4
feet above sea level, according to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD).
The carport elevation of the Sundberg home is 14.8 feet, which is above
a 14-foot base flood elevation (BFE) for the area. The slab-floor level of
the house is the carport, and it has a small interior room. This space had
breakaway walls which “blew away perfectly,” said Sundberg.
The windows that were installed in the Sundberg home were vinyl gliders,
which are not hurricane resistant. The few windows that did blow out will
be replaced and hurricane shutters installed as planned, adding another safety
measure to the home.
Sundberg’s home also has a second floor area designed as a “safer” room,
with walk-in closets sheathed in plywood and framed with 6-inch 18-gauge
metal studs at 12 inches on center. The room is not, however, a Safe Room
per FEMA 320 Guidelines, which are recommended because they provide homeowners
with guidance to assess their tornado risk.
Sundberg firmly believes that adopting proper codes, with respect to the
BFE, “could prevent 75% of the damage” from hurricanes. “As
compliance increases, damage is less,” he adds. Sundberg has been following
the stronger codes that were put in place in Florida in the mid-1990s following
Hurricane Andrew.
The Sundbergs’ home, which stands roughly 350 feet from the shoreline,
is fully insured. The couple has yet to settle their flood insurance claim.
They had renters insurance for the contents of their rental home in Long
Beach, which was destroyed. Unfortunately, they did not have flood insurance,
so they lost everything at that property, and their belongings and precious
records were not insured against flood. The Sundbergs had to replace their
cars, and all of the finished landscaping at their new home was destroyed.
Since Katrina, the couple has been living in an 8-foot by 33-foot trailer,
with two 3-foot slideouts parked next to their driveway.
When they visited their new home after Katrina, Sundberg looked for cracking,
spalling and displacement. He was relieved to find no signs that the structural
integrity of the home was compromised. “Using concrete adds about 10%
to 15% above the cost of conventional construction,” stated Sundberg.
In this case, it proved to be a wise investment.
Thanks to NAHB’s Concrete Home Building Council for this article.
Concrete Homebuilder Helps to Fortify Florida
“Our Houses Don’t Blow Away” is the motto for RFB, Inc.,
a South Fort Myers, Florida, homebuilder that has just completed the first
home in Lee County to be certified under the Institute for Business and Home
Safety (IBHS) “Fortified ... for Safer Living®” program.
This home has already been sold and there are several more under construction.
The “Fortified” hurricane resistant homes are built to withstand
wind speed in excess of the Florida Code requirements. RFB uses an ICF (insulated
concrete form) wall system. The result is a strong and very energy efficient
home. The roof decking measures 5/8 inches (thicker than normal), which is
nailed down with ring-shank nails for resistance to lift. The seams of the
plywood are sealed with a waterproof shield and then covered with felt, while
the shingles are rated for 130 mph.
Low-E glass windows are used, which are designed for higher than required
winds. These help the homes achieve their Energy Star rating. The attics
are sprayed with at least 5 inches of Icynene, a foam insulation, applied
directly to the underside of the roof sheathing, thereby allowing the air
conditioning ducts to run in conditioned air, greatly improving the efficiency
of the HVAC system. This also allows the home to use a smaller A/C unit,
saving the homeowner money.
According to Joe Redburn of RFB Homes, Hurricane Wilma recently tested 5
of their homes. “The only damage we had was three ceiling fans blown
off the lanai on one of the houses,” Redburn said.
Currently, homebuyers can choose from three models. All models come with
Fortified and Energy Star ratings.
NAHB’s Concrete Home Building Council Shows What
It’s Made of During 2006 WOC “At Home with Concrete” Mega
Demos
The National Association of Home Builders’ Concrete Home Building
Council—the voice of America’s concrete housing industry, will
sponsor two days of Hanley Wood’s World of Concrete Mega Demos to be
held in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 18–19, 2006. During this time, in
the Silver Lot in front of the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center,
attendees will be able to see the latest in concrete housing construction
systems.
“At Home with Concrete” will showcase:
• Creative Forming and Finishing of Tilt-Up Walls: The Tilt-Up Concrete
Association is initiating a focus on affordable replacement housing in
light of the severe impact hurricanes have had on the U.S. Gulf Coast and
other areas throughout the world. The first day will demonstrate how to
pour concrete panels and the simplicity of the panel construction process.
On the second day, panels will be erected to create a sample room display
with integrated, non-maintenance brick wainscoting, form-liner textures
for common siding, as well as a ceiling/roof panel with an integrated tile
pattern to emulate common clay tile. The room also will display variety
in openings. Daugherty Construction—a prominent Tilt-Up contractor
and TCA member in Las Vegas—will perform the work.
Participating Companies: Tilt-Up Concrete Association, JD Construction,
Schwing America, Scott Systems, Composite Technologies Corporation, Meadow
Burke, Dayton Superior, Nox-Crete Products Group, Degussa Admixtures, Nevada
Ready-Mix, Portland Cement Association
• Practical Precast: For Single & Multi-Family: Day one, precast
panels will be lifted by crane into position and fastened to adjacent panels.
Day two, examples of precast electrical conduit, window openings and more
will be featured.
Precast panels, often associated with commercial and retail construction,
will be shown as a residential application. Precast concrete panels consist
of two layers of concrete sandwiching an interior layer of foam insulation.
The panels are factory produced with a high degree of precision and quality
control, and can greatly increase a builder’s speed of construction.
The interior finish of a precast panel is often smooth enough to be painted
on directly, eliminating the need for drywall. For multi-family dwellings,
precast technology is very effective at reducing noise transfer between
units and for obtaining required fire ratings.
Participating Companies: Precast Technologies of Nevada, LLC, Precast/Prestressed
Concrete Institute, Portland Cement Association
• Integra, Post-Tensioned Reinforced Masonry System: Integra is
the only post-tensioned reinforced masonry system approved for use in all
seismic areas and for all types of construction, while providing the greatest
number of design options currently found in single wythe walls. This means
the builder can not only specify size, color and texture or finish, but
at a price that is competitive with other systems.
The Integra System was designed to meet the many demands in today’s
construction. It offers design solutions to many construction issues, providing
benefits that address the concerns and demands of builders and owners alike.
Participating Companies: Arizona Masonry Guild, National Concrete Masonry
Association and Superlite Block, an Oldcastle Company, Degussa Admixtures,
Nevada Ready-Mix, Portland Cement Association
• Insulating Concrete Form Construction: Attendees will get an up
close and personal look at insulating concrete forms (ICFs), one of the
fastest growing methods of home construction in North America. In 2003,
4% of the single-family homes built in the U.S. utilized ICFs for their
above-grade exterior walls. An ICF home offers superior energy efficiency,
disaster resistance and a quieter, more comfortable interior environment—all
without sacrificing aesthetic beauty.
During the MegaDemos, various aspects of ICF construction will be showcased
including stacking of wall forms, pumping into wall forms, and installation
of ICF decking and floor systems. Methods of attaching exterior and interior
finishes will be demonstrated, as will ways for subcontractors such as
electricians, plumbers and drywallers to easily adapt to ICF construction.
A wide range of tools used by the ICF industry will be on hand and demonstrated,
including bracing systems, window and door bucks, hot knives and more.
Participating Companies: American Polysteel, Eco-Block, Quad-Lock, Reward
Wall Systems, Insulating Concrete Form Association, Degussa Admixtures,
Nevada Ready-Mix, Portland Cement Association
• Removable/Reusable Form Above-Grade Construction: Attendees will
be able to see the latest in concrete housing construction using removable
forms along with other key systems. The Concrete Foundations Association
is initiating a focus on housing construction techniques that fit a variety
of markets including replacement, affordable, luxury, entry level and middle
income.
In light of the severe impact hurricanes have had on the U.S. Gulf Coast
and other areas throughout the world, construction speed will be a focus
of the
removable form demo, as attendees will experience the ability to
pump concrete
from the bottom of the forms. Filling the forms from the bottom reduces
finish
time and increases placement control while enabling concrete delivery
with zero restrictions based on site access.
The first day will demonstrate how placement occurs at the base of the
forms along with placement techniques for various cast-in insulation systems.
On the second day, the forms will have been removed, exposing concrete
ready for finishing to a level comparable and even interchangeable with
drywall and common stucco techniques, as well as vertically cast-in brick
systems. The display will also show the ability to fully integrate ceiling
and floor decks for added security and performance.
Participating Companies: Concrete Foundations Association / Concrete Homes
Council, Schwing America, Wall-Ties and Forms, Durand Forms, Composite
Technologies Corporation, Dow Chemical, Scott Systems, Degussa Admixtures,
Nevada Ready-Mix, Portland Cement Association
•
Post-Tensioned Foundation: Post-tensioned foundation systems have
grown in popularity to become one of the most widely used types
of foundations in residential construction. Come see the latest
innovations in this industry from new forming materials to the
latest in post-tensioning materials, techniques, and equipment.
The first day of demonstrations will include the forming of a typical
slab using the latest in aluminum forming systems that accommodate the
installation of post-tensioned reinforcing. Trained ironworkers will demonstrate
the installation of the latest post-tensioning materials and components.
Day two, tendons will be stressed using the latest in lightweight and efficient
stressing equipment. Demonstrations will be conducted to illustrate the
superior high strength of the latest post-tensioning materials.
Participating Companies: Evaluation and Certification Services LLC, Suncoast
Post-Tension LP, Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust
(IMPACT), Precision SureLock Inc., Western Forms, Degussa Admixtures, Nevada
Ready-Mix, Portland Cement Association
This year’s World of Concrete will be one of the largest
in its 32-year history. With more than 1.3 million square feet
of exhibition space and 1,600 exhibiting companies, the industry’s
largest annual international trade show offers countless networking
and educational opportunities.
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