Over the next 5 years, the opportunity to provide new, attainable housing for middle income households is about 1 million homes per year. Together, we can make a difference.
How can we think differently and provide housing solutions for the missing middle? We recently discussed this with our community via think tanks and presentations at the 2019 live round table event in Denver. Anthony Grisolia, Managing Director, Innovation Programs at IBACOS (shown below), spoke to the topic of Production, you can find his slide deck here.
Insights from Anthony…
Every builder is facing the same challenge, how to build high-quality, affordable homes. One way to make them affordable, of course, is to lower costs. Building more quickly is one way to get there.
There are lots of innovations entering the building industry, says Anthony Grisolia, who leads IBACOS’ innovation team, a group of architects, engineers and building scientists focused on defining construction industry challenges and solutions.
Systems thinking is the only way we innovate here at IBACOS. Systems thinking not only tries to understand the complete system characteristics on how an innovation performs with in its own system, but also the adjacent systems within a home. A home is a big system and actually has many systems within it, and they all interact with each other.
“One major innovation that follows a systems thinking approach that will help with cycle time is PUReWall ™,” Grisolia says.
The product is a high-efficiency wall assembly that includes a continuous insulation material that functions as both an air barrier and vapor retarder. While the technology is owned by Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience), the wall itself is built by a typical panel manufacturer in a controlled environment, Hunter Panels.
“PUReWall is different from a conventional wall panel, because it replaces the OSB sheathing with one-inch polyiso insulation board, which acts like a drainage system, allowing builders to eliminate house wrap,” Grisolia says. “It performs much better than a conventional wall panel.” And, depending on the cladding chosen for the outside of the home, the costs are equal to or less expensive than using a conventional panel.
The panel gets delivered to the site, and once erected, the builder saves days since they are not having to wait for other trades like house wrap installers or an insulator. That work is already done. “The only insulation left to do is in the attic,” Grisolia says.
PUReWall works with panelizers in large growth markets. Grisolia foresees its use predominantly in single-family and multi-family buildings up to three stories that now use wood frame construction.
Builders are always looking to reduce days on site and spend less on carrying costs. “The quicker they can turn over a house to a homebuyer, the less time they’re just sitting on the land.”
More About Anthony
Anthony Grisolia
Managing Director, Innovation Programs
IBACOS
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