Concrete homes setting up in the Ozarks

Homes leveled on streets with no names and trees stripped bare with broken branches holding loose insulation are among the indelible images created by the EF-5 tornado that destroyed a third of Joplin on May 22, 2011.

Out of the rubble, a city is rebuilding, and a more durable form of construction appears to be gaining a foothold. Nixa-based Global Green Building LLC is finishing construction on 12 Joplin homes for faith-based emergency relief organization Convoy of Hope and utilizing Green Bay, Wis.-based TF Forming Systems’ TransForm technology to ensure the homes are able to withstand winds up to 250 mph.

TF Forming Systems National Sales Director Mike Pickell said the company is involved in about a dozen additional area projects, including a commercial job for the Advanced Orthotics building in Joplin and a home south of Ozark.

TF Forming Systems opened an office in Ozark last year as it worked with Steven Huff, the owner and developer of a 72,000-square-foot home named Chateau Pensmore near Highlandville in Christian County. The expansive residence is expected to be complete by around the end of 2013, according to Pickell.

“I would expect us to do something here long-term and be able to take advantage of this office in the Midwest,” said Pickell, who is based in Missouri. “Obviously, we’d like to be able to utilize Pensmore and other projects to continue the business opportunities outside of the Springfield market.”

He declined to disclose revenue the company has generated locally, but Convoy of Hope announced in May it was devoting $2.2 million to Global Green’s construction of the 12 homes in Joplin.

Dan Chiles, a small-business owner and former city councilman and vice president of marketing for Watts Radiant, is among those who see a benefit in utilizing insulated concrete construction. Chiles and his contractor, Todd Johnson of Renaissance Builders LLC, are wrapping up construction on Chiles’ $300,000, 2,400-square-foot home, part of his Rockspan Farm on 12 acres in western Greene County.

The home, for which Chiles is seeking energy efficiencies and tornado resistance, is constructed with 10-inch wall panels from Prestressed Casting Inc. with 16.5-inch steel cables stretched with mechanical jacks and locked into place with concrete. Chiles said the concrete walls, both exterior and interior, have 3 inches of insulation on the inside, like an Oreo cookie. This is a twist on traditional insulated concrete forms, aka ICFs, serve as foam forms for poured concrete walls.

“When you’re in Florida, you have to build to a hurricane standard. When you’re in California, you have to build to an earthquake standard. And in this part of the country, you should be building to a tornado standard,” Chiles said.

Chiles has worked with nForm Architecture LLC to design the house that stands more than 37-feet tall at its peak and features a rainwater storage tank that holds 50,000 gallons of rainwater, a ground-source heat pump and plastic tubing in the walls to help regulate home temperatures. With the help of 39 solar panels atop his nearby barn, the home is designed to collect at least as much energy as it uses.

TF Forming’s Director of Marketing and Communications Mary Guccione said one of the new homeowners in Joplin has reported a utility bill of $62, down from an average of $200 before the tornado.

Pickell said other benefits with ICF buildings include noise reduction, low maintenance and termite resistance. ICF homes typically cost 4 percent to 7 percent more than traditional construction, said EPS Industry Alliance spokesman Manger Tyler Merchant.

Scott Schaefer, executive vice president and co-owner of Nixa-based Diversified Plastics Corp., said ICFs are becoming more popular despite the slow home construction market. The company has produced ICFs since 2002, along with a variety of plastic products from expandable foam polymers to injection-molded hard plastics.

Diversified Plastics has picked up a couple of clients since the recession and now produces ICF blocks for six companies, four of which have an international footprint: Toronto-based companies Arxx Corp. and Amvic Building System; Reward Wall Systems of Lincoln, Neb.; and BuildBlock Building Systems LLC in Oklahoma City.

“The concept is the same with all of them, but they all differ a little bit. They have their own niche,” Schaefer said of the insulated foam blocks produced for each company.

He said between March and November this year, he expects the company to manufacture 40 truckloads of blocks, a modest increase compared to production last year. Contractors stack the blocks, Schaefer said, before filling them with concrete for strength.

Schaefer said his clients have largely been using ICFs on commercial projects. “We just got a job doing a Drury Inn. This will be the third Drury Inn – and, I think they have all been six stories – that we’ve been involved in,” he said. “Residential isn’t doing anything.”

Home builder Scott Kisling, who owns Springfield-based Up-Tyte Construction Inc., said the Joplin tornado and the hype around Chateau Pensmore has not brought any business his way. The company, which has historically built three to four ICF homes per year, hasn’t landed a single client since it finished a house in late 2011. He said the extra costs in concrete construction – which can sometimes represent tens of thousands of dollars – can discourage the clients he serves in the $300,000 to $400,000 range.

Chiles said he thinks his home, which should be complete in about a month, not only works with the environment, but it protects him from unpredictable weather.

“We are acknowledging that it is a changing world. The climate is getting worse, more dangerous, and warmer. More energy is being added to systems, and when (that occurs) you get more catastrophic events,” said Chiles, who currently owns several small energy and agriculture related companies and manages property with his brother Mike through Emerald Operations LLC. “I want to survive a tornado.”