Each year, PACA conducts a ‘Project of the Year’ award competition to spotlight projects that creatively use concrete in both residential and commercial construction.
The 2009 winner of the residential project was a home built by Pennsylvania-based construction firm Providence Homes & Neighborhoods, using Reward Wall Systems ICFs supplied by Construction Supply Centers. ICFs are hollow expanded polystyrene blocks – used to frame the house – which are then filled with ready mix concrete. This ICF construction process makes the house structure a very energy-efficient concrete envelope.
Construction of the 4,458 square feet home required 150 yards of concrete for its ICF walls and garage floor. Additional concrete was used for the patio, stamped sidewalk and colored concrete driveway, making concrete one of the most-used building materials on the site. E&G Concrete, based in Stevens, Pennsylvania, performed all the ICF and concrete installation.
Following construction, an Energy Star examiner audited the home’s energy efficiency and noted a low number of air exchanges per hour, .035. A rate of .09 is considered excellent, and typical stick-built homes rate between 1.0 – 2.0 exchanges per hour. The subsequent HERS (Home Energy Rating Score) Index for this home is 67— meaning this residence is 33% more efficient than the Energy Star baseline for home construction.
The ICFs for this home were supplied by Construction Supply Centers established in the 1950’s as the Building Materials Division of New Holland Concrete.
