ECO-Block ICFs build Canada’s first insulated concrete home for home show
18 February 2003Vancouver, British Columbia – This week’s BC Home & Garden Show is breaking ground by raising the roof of a concrete home – the Home in the Dome.
The Home in the Dome is a one-story, 1300-square-foot home built exclusively for the upcoming home show. Constructed with ECO-Block, one of the nation’s most sought-after insulating concrete forms (ICFs), the home resides inside the BC Place Stadium. The show runs February 19-23, 2003.
“This is the first time an insulated concrete home has been offered at a home show in Canada,” said Jari Vuorensivu, ECO-Block Regional Manager. “Eighty thousand people are expected to attend the event. We hope to expose all of them to the benefits of concrete construction and the variety of usage in residential buildings.”
In addition to the ECO-Block ICF system, the Home in the Dome incorporates concrete features from floor to ceiling. This includes the roof, countertops, etched floors, sinks, windowsills, a waterfall and sidewalks.
“The Home in the Dome showcases a number of concrete products,” said Irv Lenz, manager of Rempel Bros., an ECO-Block distributor. “A lot of people think that concrete is cold and blah, so we’ve designed this holistic home to show them the reality. Concrete displays a natural, timeless beauty that can be molded and finished to suit almost any taste or need.”
ECO-Block offers a cost-effective solution for building energy-efficient housing that also has
the advantages of unsurpassed protection from extreme weather, exceptional insulating values (making it up to eight-times quieter) and maximum durability. The energy efficiency can result in monthly savings of up to 50% for homeowners.
ICFs are made of expanded polystyrene (EPS) and are used to build reinforced concrete walls for both residential and commercial buildings. Once the forms are in place, concrete is poured in. The end results are strong concrete walls with excellent insulation built right in.
In 1998, 20,000 new homes benefited from ICFs. And industry projections for 2003 estimate that approximately 100,000 homes will take advantage of ICF technology.
The BC Home & Garden Show opens Wednesday, February 19, at the BC Place Stadium, 777 Pacific Blvd., and runs through Sunday, February 23. Hours are 4 p.m. – 10 p.m., Wednesday; noon to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m. – 10 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, and to see live footage of the Home in the Dome from the Dowco Construction cam, Click here.