Replies

1. 
   rez | Sep 24, 2007 08:22pm | #1

   Yep, sure is.

   Hope future years will bring the cost of these ecofriendly products down to be more palatable to a wider range of people.

   
   sobriety is the root cause of dementia.   

2. 
   builderhayes | Oct 01, 2007 02:02am | #2

   It's facinating, but we as concumers need to be even more educated and be very carful not to have the "green wool" pulled over our eyes

1. 
   frenchy | Oct 01, 2007 04:03am | #3

   builderhayes,

      luckily some of the technology that exists has been around for a very long time.. SIP's for example were called freezer panels during world war 2 when they began to be used..  since then tens of thousands of stores have used them (usually with a stainless steel skin instead of OSB)and sometime in the late 60's they began to be used by the counter culture who started to build timberframe homes with them as an insulation medium..

       ICF's on the other hand were first mentioned that I noticed about 1967 and developed over the years to work the bugs out of them and start to bring the price down..  Today an experianced contractor can build a home using ICF's and sell it at the same or perhaps a 2% price increase over a stick built home..

    Currantly alternative cionstruction such as this accounts for only 2% of new homes built.   As the percentage increases cost will come down to substanually less than stick building  costs.. durability with both systems should be increades over stick building.. ICF's have a 200 MPH wind rating for example.. had homes in the tornado prone areas been built with ICF's instead of nails and boards most likely many would remain standing.. that should also apply towards homes built in coastal areas prone to Hurricanes..