Lake Travis, foam home
With a breathtaking view overlooking central Texas’ Lake Travis, a new home being built in Jonestown, TX is drawing some attention from neighbors. The nearly 7,500-square-foot house has zero wood, brick or insulation. It is completely made of foam. “I think the neighbors might have thought I was crazy when they saw the truckloads of foam pull up,” Aaron Rowsell, the homeowner of the three-story house in Jonestown, explained. Rowsell, a former contractor himself, first heard of homes being built with foam about 20 years ago. He said if he ever was going to build his dream home, foam was the material he wanted to use. The company creates large blocks of foam, which are made up of 98% air, that can be shaped and glued together to create the skeleton of the home. Pieces of foam are glued together using a type of liquid foam that cures fast. The walls, the floor, the stairs, everything (except the home’s foundation) is foam. “A wooden house was going to cost me somewhere between $35,000 to $40,000 more because of the lumber prices.” Once the shape of the house is built, the company coats the entire structure with a patented concrete mixture known as sabscrete. A quarter-inch of the mixture is placed on the entire home to give it a hard shell and more durable structure. Both the foam and concrete mixture are 100% recyclable, according to the company. Homeowners can then customize how they want the interior and exterior of the home to look.
How does it differ from traditional construction?
The SABS method provides major cost savings to the homeowner and the builder during construction, as sown in the video below. Because the foam is lightweight, the need for a large construction crew is not necessary. Rowsell’s home can be built using four to five people. Plus, it is cheaper to build with just foam, rather than building with wood. “Less material used, less labor used,” Saebi explained. Nexstar’s KXAN got to watch the final piece of foam installed on a portion of the roof. It took four workers to slide the piece into place. The work site is quieter than the construction site you are used to seeing. The crew does not use saws to cut the foam. Instead, they use a tool called a hot knife that can cut any shape you want out of the foam. Saebi said the foam home does not need insulation at all because the material is already a great insulator. That means less energy is used to heat and cool your home. There are also cost savings on maintenance that regular homes go through, such as termite control or treating mold. No wood in your house means no termites, and the foam will not mold, Saebi said. Saebi even said the foam structures have been put through models to show it can withstand wind speeds up to 265 miles per hour – for comparison, a hurricane with sustained winds of 157 miles per hour or more is considered a Category 5, according to the National Hurricane Center. The first-ever home built by the company was completed in the early 2000’s in Scottsdale, Arizona.
New house humor
A family moves into their new house. Grandma comes for a visit and asks the youngest child, a five-year-old, how he likes the new place.
“It’s terrific,” he says. “I have my own room, my brother has his own room, and my sister has her own room. But poor mom is still sleeping with dad.”
My wife explained, “You need to do more chores around the house.” I moaned, “Can we change the subject?” She smiled and said…
“Ok. More chores around the house need to be done by you.”
It’s a 5-minute walk from my new house to the pub. It’s a 30-minute walk from the pub to my house.
The difference is staggering.
Not NSFW: How many Apple engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
None. They no longer make that socket, you just buy a new house.
During lockdown I built a new house.
Legos are so much fun.
October 16th Birthdays
1925 – Angela Lansbury, 1982 – Katerina Soorsone, 1975 – Kellie Martin, 1997 – Naomi Osaka
1992 – Bryce Harper, 1972 – Kordell Stewart, 1958 – Tim Robbins, 1854 – Oscar Wilde