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Home, sweet concrete home

Chris Pearson at his Amityville home constructed with insulated concrete forms. (Newsday Photo / Daniel Goodrich)

Gary Dymski | Home Work

May 13, 2004

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One of the most intriguing exhibits at the International Builders' Show in January was called the New American Home.

People waited in line for hours to tour the convention's official showhouse nestled in a new subdivision on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Constructed of concrete and the latest high-tech materials, the 5,180- square-foot loft home will use nearly 50 percent less energy for heating, cooling, hot water and lighting than the builder's standard home. The energy- efficient structure was meant to be a glimpse into the future of home building.

Well, the future has arrived on Long Island.

It has arrived in the shape of Chris Pearson's house - a modest, 2,000-square-foot model in Amityville that doesn't look much different than most new homes. Except that it's made of concrete.

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Like the New American Home, the walls of Pearson's two-story model are made from insulated concrete forms - known in the industry as IFCs - that are impervious to insects and weather.

"It does look like just another new home," Pearson says of New York PolySteel.

Frankly, many of the high- tech, energy-saving features of the New American Home remain too expensive for the average home buyer. The Vegas home will sell for about $2 million, unfurnished. Pearson's home cost between $160,000 and $180,000 to build and already has been sold for $430,000. But there are advantages.

"Because all the walls are made from concrete, there are immediate savings in heating and cooling and in insurance fees," Pearson says. "It will probably cost about $35 a month to heat or cool the home."

The most striking similarity between the house in Amityville and the house in Las Vegas is the way the exterior walls are constructed. Most American home builders still make houses the old-fashioned way, with a poured concrete foundation that supports walls of wood framing and sheeting.

These so-called "stick-built" homes can rot, burn and be devoured by insects. Yet they have been the industry standard forever. But all that can change - with concrete walls. That is, if you're willing to add about 15 percent to the cost of building a home.

Pearson's model features walls built with ICFs manufactured by American PolySteel, a New Mexico company with 25 years of home building experience. Several kinds of ICFs are available, but most are made of polystyrene (the same material as a foam coffee cup) reinforced with steel. These forms are filled with concrete to create both the foundation and above-grade walls. The forms also contain built-in steel studs, to which common wallboard or other types of interior panels can be fastened. On the exterior, the polystyrene protects the concrete from moisture.

With the PolySteel system, walls up to 12 feet high can be poured daily. And because the concrete dries more slowly when it's covered by polystyrene, it is more resistant to cracking and shrinking.

More than 20 companies manufacture ICFs. The concrete walls in the New American Home were made by Arxx Building Products. Regardless of the manufacturer, the biggest advantage appears to be the savings in heating and cooling costs. Exterior walls in stick-built homes in the Northeast have an R-13 insulation recommendation.

This so-called "R-value" indicates thermal resistance or resistance to heat flow; the higher the number, the better the insulation. The better the insulation, the less energy it takes to heat and cool the house. In a concrete home, the R-value of exterior walls ranges from R-30 to R-50.

If the Amityville model were stick-built, it could cost about $400 a month to heat and cool. But because it's made of concrete, Pearson says the actual monthly cost should be about $35, according to tests conducted by a company that studies energy efficiency.

In Las Vegas, the lure of the New American Home wasn't so much the entire package but rather specific elements that architects, builders and buyers can apply in the construction of their own new homes. Elements that can carry the homebuilding industry into the future. Like concrete walls.

E- mail: gary.dymski@ newsday.com.

Poring over concrete walls

www.forms.org: Product information and industry news from the Insulating Concrete Form Association, a trade organization of ICF manufacturers, distributors and contractors.

www.concretenetwork.com: Information and building plans for concrete homes from the Concrete Network; click on "Concrete Homes" link at left.

www.polysteel.com: Web site for manfacturer of insulated concrete forms.

www.buildersshow.com/NCHI/: Information on energy- saving features of ICFs and The New American Home, official showhouse of the International Builders' Show.