Greenblock Featured in ICF Builder Magazine

"Profitable Production Housing"

Aug 15, 2006

Profitable Production Housing

While many contractors and block manufacturers are building high-end custom homes, one company has created a niche at the other end of the spectrum. Greenblock Worldwide is building ICF walls in spec homes—often as many as five per week—for the production homebuilding market, proving that ICFs can be faster and less costly than wood.

The secret, says Jeff Alexander, vice-president and COO, is the combination of in-house manufacturing, wall panelizing and professional installation services.

“Understand that cycle time is a huge consideration in this segment,” says Alexander. “With experienced crews, repeat models and our paneled ICF walls we’ve seen wall construction in a single day. With ICFs, you’re really doing three processes in one: wall, insulation and furring in a single step.”

Steve Reiter, vice-president of marketing for ICF Solutions, says that the panelization plants are the secret. “We have locations in Bakersfield and Port St. Lucie where we pre-assemble large sections of ICF walls before they are shipped to the jobsite.” The sections—usually about 4’x8’—are friction-fit together, with no glue or strapping required.

“We number each paneled section per the engineered wall drawings before they go to the jobsite.” The system virtually eliminates weather-related delays and jobsite clutter, so the building goes up literally in a matter of days.

“The day after the slab is poured, the crews arrive to set up the preassembled wall sections, install window and door bucks, and place the rebar,” says Reiter. “It usually takes them a day and a half to have everything ready for inspection.” Day Three is reserved for inspections, and on Day Four, the concrete is placed. Reiter says that the expertise of the crew and neatness of the jobsite are the envy of other contractors.

Currently, Greenblock’s their efforts are limited to Florida and Southern California, where they build about 250 homes a year. “We are now finishing a 116-unit, low-income, all-ICF community,” says Alexander. “We’ll soon start a 166-unit project in Bakersfield for Homecrete Homes.” Wall construction is expected to begin in October.

The company has attracted the attention of some of the nation’s largest homebuilders. They are the ICF subcontractor for Homecrete Homes, possibly the largest ICF homebuilder in the United States, and recently collaborated with WCI Communities, the 14th biggest homebuilder in the nation, on a production model "green home" on Florida's west coast.

Link: http://www.icfmag.com/index.html