The shell of the house consists mainly of Styrofoam and concrete. Below the footings for the walls are being prepared.
The foundation walls use insulated concrete forms from WEPS. The Styrofoam forms are 2 1/2 inches thick on both sides. After some bracing is added, the concrete is poured between the Styrofoam. The Styrofoam remains in place to provide insulation for the basement. The basement wall will have 12 inches of concrete.
The basement walls are complete. In the center is the foundation for the fireplace. The box will provide an ashpit for the fireplace above.
All exterior walls except the front are bermed. So after the basement walls were formed and poured, another 4 foot high insulated concrete wall was formed and poured on top of the previous wall. A brick ledge was left on the outside for the limestone rock veneer.
After the concrete walls are done, the Styrofoam wall panels are installed. These panels were engineered and fabricated by WEPS. The wall panels have 5 and 1/2 inches of solid Styrofoam between two layers of oriented strand board (OSB). All of the back bermed walls also will be padded on the outside with an additional 1 inch of form board.
Three laminated beams and four laminated posts were used to provide support for the roof panels.
Construction started September 1, 1999. During construction we had a campfire cookout of steak and sausages from Straka's Meats in Plain, WI. From left to right: Will, Kevin, Rick, Aaron, Rich and Mark.
After the beams were set the roof panels were installed. The roof panels are 12 inches of Styrofoam. Most panels are 4 feet wide and over 20 feet long.
