Styrohome

Written by Sonsie Conroy & Allyson Nakasone | 01 October 2009
Posted in Environment

Imagine for a moment that you lived in a house built out of Styrofoam coffee cups. You'd certainly worry about safety and stability; let alone what the house would look like. And yet this material is part of a green wave of new building materials that promise to save time and money at the same time that they reduce waste and conform to green guidelines.

We can see some of the first homes built of Expanded PolyStyrene (EPS), a first cousin to Styrofoam, right here in San Luis Obispo, next to French Hospital on Johnson Avenue. These houses began life in the same way as any other building: with the development of the architect's plans. But rather than using wood or steel studs to erect the structure, the builder invented a new method, and called it Vitruvian. Duane Heil is the owner of Vitruvian, an Arroyo Grande firm that works with EPS to create building "kits" that are preformed, with many components already in place, and that can be erected right on-site.
Employing a complex computer system, Vitruvian uses the architect's plans to extrude fully-formed EPS panels for walls, ceilings, and other objects. Lightweight steel reinforcement is added, along with conduit, electric junction boxes, and other needed components. Each item is numbered and a schematic is produced to show exactly how to put the building together on the site. The walls are so light that two men can maneuver them into position. In many respects, these state-of-the-art buildings resemble the old Sears catalog houses sold around the turn of the century, shipped to the site by train or freight wagon, and erected by the homeowner on his own lot.

Vitruvian estimates that this construction method saves about 20% over standard building techniques, and is easy to teach and learn. Waste material is recycled, both at the factory and on the building site, so little if any remains to enter the waste stream.

The insulating properties of EPS are excellent, and all Vitruvian materials produce zero off-gassing for the life of the building. The building package provides a completed, weather-tight shell that also provides a low carbon footprint and extremely low energy bills for the life of the building.

While most construction projects create an estimate 10% waste, this new method reduces that figure to 1%. Vitruvian is able to accomplish this by recycling all unused pieces. In addition to the waste being recyclable, the whole building is recyclable too! The more custom and complex the building, the more this innovative construction method will benefit the project. With regard to energy savings, if all construction was done this way, it would be the equivalent of removing more than 80 million cars between now and 2030.

For more information, visit Vitruvian's website: www.vitruvianbuilt.com, and watch their construction video. Also, check out their blog for photos of the first-ever EPS pool, nearing completion in Arroyo Grande. Now that is one huge Styrofoam cup!