Affordable, Climate-Friendly Homes Made of FOAM

A Phoenix-based construction company isn't worried about the high price of lumber. It has replaced lumber with another building material that it claims is cheaper, more available, more resistant to natural disasters, and more energy efficient. Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Amazing Building Material So what is this amazing building material? It's basically a combination of foam and cement in layers. It can be used on all parts of a home including walls, floors, and ceilings. And lowers the cost of building the home by as much as 10 to 50%. Strata International calls the product SABS which stands for Saebi Alternative Building System. Strata is a green structural engineering company and Amir Saebi (Sigh-EE-bee) is the Executive Operations Manager. (1) The process involves the cutting of foam slabs into smaller elements of the home design and then gluing them together with a foam adhesive to create a three-dimensional structure. That foam structure is then covered on both the inside and the outside with a thin layer of high-strength concrete. No Wood. No Nails. No Steel. No Nothing. Saebi told a local TV station: "Once the panels come together you have a monolithic system completely made out of foam." After that, he says: "We'll take the high-strength concrete and apply it to the exterior and interior and that's all the system uses. No wood. No nails. No steel. No nothing. It's just the foam and the SABS product which goes over it which is the high-strength concrete." (2) Saebi says it's so strong that you could drive an F150 truck onto a six-inch finished piece without cracking it. He also described the environmental qualities of the foam as "100% breathable, 100% liveable, FDA approved, and 100% recyclable." There's a chart on the website that shows how this foam can outperform other building materials when it comes to mother nature. (3) It says that houses made of this foam can withstand winds up to 260 miles per hour, making it highly resistant to hurricanes. It's also at the top of its class when it comes to earthquakes, mold resistance, and rodent resistance. It has a moderate reading for fires which is better than wood. Practical Solution for Green Construction Strata says the foam is a perfect solution for a building material that is more climate friendly, and the first practical solution for green construction because it checks so many boxes – from affordability to sustainability. It's also a better insulating material than wood, masonry and other building materials. It has a minimum R-value of 35 with an average R-value of 50 to 65. The minimum R-value alone is more than double the R-value of wood and masonry. The R-value of a building material indicates how well it resists heat. The higher the number, the higher the resistance. The foam is also good for soundproofing. Saebi says that energy efficiency is about double what you'd get from a home built of wood, and in places like Arizona, it can cut your AC bill in half. No Limits on Design He also emphasizes the design benefits of foam because you have no limits to the kind of shapes you can create. There are also fewer steps to the construction process. Building a home out of foam might require four kinds of sub-contractors while a wood home requires 11. The company has already built hundreds of foam buildings around the world, and is currently building a 6,000-square foot home out of foam in the Phoenix area. Saebi says the supply chain issues that have haunted builders for the last few years haven't impacted the availability of foam so foam prices haven't really hasn't increased. Strata first introduced its foam building material more than 20 years ago in 1999 so it's been around for a while. Saebi says with supply chain and climate change issues, it's now becoming more popular. Check for links in the show notes at newsforinvestors.com. Also, please remember to hit the subscribe button, and leave a review! You can also join our real estate investor network for free at newsforinvestors.com. That gives you access to the Investor Portal where you'll find information on rental markets and sample property pro-formas. You can also connect with our experienced investment counselors, property teams, lenders, 1031 exchange facilitators, attorneys, CPAs and more. Thanks for listening. I'm Kathy Fettke. Links: 1 -https://www.strataus.com/media 2 -https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/as-cost-to-build-home-rises-phoenix-area-company-using-new-material-to-build-houses 3 -https://www.strataus.com/_files/ugd/077c93_088198965db54c829afee29a01d596f8.pdf