CFA and PCA Cast-In-Place Concrete Homes Brochure
In an effort of cooperation to grow the traditionally formed cast-in-place concrete homes market, the Concrete Foundations Association and the Portland Cement Association have produced a new brochure promoting the benefits of above grade concrete homes using traditional forming methods. The brochure was introduced at the National Association of Home Builders annual show recently in Atlanta
The brochure stresses durability, comfort, safety, energy efficiency, and versatility attainable with concrete homes. Several systems that utilize traditional forms have recently gained acceptance in the market place and this marketing tool should help educate buyers that there are options other than ICF’s.
A copy of the brochure will be mailed to all CFA members in the next month. Additional copies may be obtained by contacting the CFA at 1-866-232-9255.
A two -hour segment of the upcoming summer meeting in Niagara Falls Ontario will deal with above grade housing.
Pyramid Poured Walls, Inc., Forked River, NJ
The beautiful new home for Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Crofoot in Toms River, New Jersey, was one of 2000’s most challenging projects for Pyramid Poured Walls Inc. of Forked River, NJ.
John Winton General Contracting was the builder.
The home took four days overall to do the layout for footings and walls. The majority of the walls are 12 inches thick for the brick and stone veneer on the entire perimeter.
The total yardage for this project, including pouring the Olympic-sized pool at the back of the house, was 365 yards.
Joseph Connell, owner of Connell Brothers Concrete and Pyramid Poured Walls, noted that Mrs. Crofoot is a well-known attorney in Ocean County, NJ, in part because her first name is Clyde!
Solid Foundations, Inc., Bellevue, Ohio
We have jus completed our tenth year in business, and this one put us to the test,” said Daniel and Valerie Gore of Solid Foundations, Inc. located in Bellevue, Ohio. They were referring to a job on a home in Sandusky, Ohio, which but required 500 yards of concrete and 25 tons of steel.
“This job was by far the most complex residential foundation we have poured,” the Gores said.
Owned by a local attorney, the home in question has two lakefront views, one in front and one in the rear. There are over 700 running feet of walls, and the walls were poured in two pours.
One of the pours took 18 loads of concrete. Ten trucks were reserved by the concrete company and were “lined up on a narrow road” prior to the start of the pour. Eight trucks were flipped in order to reduce the chance of pour lines.
There was a waterstop in all of the walls, and the waterstop had to be placed in a keyway. The glue for this cost $150 per gallon.
“At one time we had 14 men on the job,” the Gores reported.
The design was unusual. There were numerous angled walls. There were interior walls that did not connect to exterior walls. The purpose of these walls is to support brick archways that lead into the rooms on the first floor.
Modern Poured Walls, Lagrange, Ohio
Modern Poured Walls Construction Services of Lagrange, Ohio, had an interesting project last summer for Bennett-Dover Home Remodelers of Lorain, Ohio.
The Zeller residence in Lorain, which is designed with numerous angles, required wall heights, two widths, 425 feet of brick ledge, and 57 corners. The job took three estimates, five major print revisions, and 130 points to lay out with a geodimeter.
Modern Poured Walls is proud of the fact that the job was done by “our youngest crew” and pours between August 25 and September 6, 2000.
Custom Concrete Company, Westfield, Indiana
Custom Concrete Company of Westfield, Indiana, submitted to our basement competition a residential project from their are that included on very unusual detail–this home has a basketball court under the garage!
Built on a gentle slope down to a lake, the walls for the basketball court are 16 inches thick and 22 feet tall. There were also a series of court walls and retaining walls behind the house to accommodate a swimming pool.
The job took a total of 350 yards of concrete, according to general manager Brad Schrock.
Bontrager Concrete Specialists, Nappanee, Indiana
Bontrager Concrete Specialities Inc. of Nappanee, Indiana, considered their most challenging project for 2000 to be the residence of the Sheperd family in Bristol, IN. This home is set on a wooded but fairly level lot, but it contains many angles and some special features, such as a theatre in the basement level.
Kevin Bontrager said that “pictures and words can never give you the complete description of the time and labor” involved in this project.
The home consists 415-foot x 10-inch x 11-foot high basement wall, 60 feet of 10-inch x 13-foot high theatre walls, 117 feet of 10-inch x 5-foot high garage wall, 94 feet of 8-inch x 4-foot high porch wall, and 35 feet of 8-inch x 2-foot high wall in the theatre area. Total wall poured was 721 feet.
The basement of the home contains 4,479 square feet of floor area, including the theatre which has 2-14″ drops in the floor. All slabs were poured over 2-inch styrofoam and radiant tube heat runs.
There are 10,576 feet of rerod in the footings and walls, and a stone ledge on all exterior walls.
“This project may not sound that difficult but as any poured wall contractor knows, when you go over 9 feet high, it adds a lot more time,” Kevin Bontrager said.
“You also need to come up with more parts and pieces when you stack your forms. When you add in the 40 ninety-degree corners and 28 angle corners and 13-foot high theatre walls, the complexity of the job becomes more apparent,” he added.
Out of 343 total yards, 287 yards were pumped.
Loucks Concrete Specialists, La Porte, Indiana
While not the largest job of the year, a residential job at the exclusive Aberdeen Subdivision in Valparaiso, Indiana, was definitely one of the most challenging of the year for Loucks Concrete Specialists of La Porte, IN.
This 4,500 square foot home is carved into the side of a hill, the walls varying from three feet up to 12 feet in height in order to accommodate the landscape.
Loucks dealt with an elevation difference of 22 feet from the top of the garage wall to the top of the house wall, with a total of 13 footing steps.
The foundation had 44-plus 90-degree corners, 16 angle corners, and 19 wall steps. Some corners were as high as 12 feet.
With the tall walls,”we had interior floor ledge as deep as seven feet for floor trusses,” said Roger Pettet, Production Manager of Loucks. Pettet took the photos of this project himself, noting that he had to “put four photos together” to get the full effect of the foundation in his photots. This certainly qualifies as a “basement from hell.”
Formco Foundations, West Jordan, Utah
On a mountainous lot in The Colony residential development in Park City, Utah, lies the foundation that Formco Foundations considers its “basement from hell” for 2000.
Kirby Justesen, president of Formco, which is located in West Jordan, UT, gave us the statistics on this job: 698 yards for the foundation walls, 408 yards for the footings, and 123,000 pounds of rebar!
The foundation includes walls of four different heights, from 14 feet to 22 feet high. Total number of linear feet of foundation was 1,387. Details include 800 feet of shelf; 77 corners with an average of 16 feet; and 68 weld plates and moment frames.
Footings were in two sizes; 315 linear feet of 36″ x 12″ footings and 1,033 linear feet of 24″ x 12″ footings. There were 60 pads.
This residence and many others show the current architectural style of many different wall heights and angles in upscale residences.
Balmer Brothers, Akron, PA
Folks must be making money in Philly, because one notable basement project last year was for a 29,000 square foot house in Philadelphia. Not as beg as Bill Gates’ house, but still plenty romy.
Balmer Brothers Concrete Work of Akron, PA, noted that some of the difficulties in this job were the circular stairways, angled walls, ledges and offsets, not to mention the spread footings.
Wall heights varied from 36 inches to 18 feet, and totaled 1,000 linear feet. The garden walls are even higher. All footings and walls were pumped either with Balmer’s 28 meter or 36 meter boom pump, and the entire foundation was waterproofed with Wall Guard waterproofing.
This residential job was not so much complicated as it was big. The footings and walls took 800 yards and the garden walls and retaining walls another 1,000 yards.
Over the years, Balmer Brothers has done numerous unusual foundation, both commercial and residential tract housing and agricultural waste systems. In the past few years, however, the firm has found a niche for itself in large and unusual foundations, many for homes.
Balmer Brothers Concrete Work has been in business since 1973. They started doing curb, sidewalk and flat work, buying their first set of aluminum forms in 1975 in order to build small, box-like foundations.
The firm joined CFA in 1977, and Jerry Balmer served on the CFA Board in the early 1980’s. Current employment is around 30 people.
Balmer Brothers says the key to success is adaptability. They say are prepared to change as the building market changes, but in recent years large residential projects have been one emphasis.
CFA to Fund Energy Study
The CFA Board of Directors voted at their board meeting in Las Vegas to donate $3000 from the CFA Education and Research foundation to partially fund a study of the energy benefits of building with removable-form wall systems. The study, with a total cost of $15,000, is part of a PCA funded project that will compare energy benefits of alternative wall systems. Traditional formed walls will be compared to ICF’s, steel stud and wood stud construction. Testing will be performed by CTL (Construction Technology Laboratories) in Skokie, Illinois.
PCA is promoting concrete walls (in any form) as alternative to above-grade wood walls used in residential construction. In the past, the main emphasis has been on foam insulation and concrete combinations. This effort, however, has increased the awareness of all types of concrete wall systems for use above grade.
The objective of the study is to provide accurate and defensible energy use comparisons of residential buildings with various types of concrete exterior wall systems to that of identical buildings with wood and steel frame exterior walls. The results will quantify the energy efficiency of concrete wall systems including thermal mass effects. It is anticipated that traditional forming systems, in particular those used in combination with rigid insulation, will perform very well when compared with systems without thermal mass (wood and steel studs) and where the thermal mass of the concrete is isolated between foam forms.
The is the second instance of “partnering” with the Portland Cement Association to promote a wider use of traditional forming systems. The first was the production of the “Cast-In-Place” concrete homes brochure (see elsewhere in this newsletter). The Portland Cement Association, which represents cement producers throughout North America, is committed to promoting the use of cement. Considerable effort and money has been expended on the above grade homes market using ICF’s. This represented another opportunity to increase the market share for cement. producers.
Ed Sauter, director of the CFA, was recently appointed to serve on the Residential Committee of the PCA.
