Styrofoam house near Reed College is both energy-efficient and elegant

SUSTAINABLE LIVING

By Elizabeth Ussher Groff

The Bee, Feb 2, 2010

It may seem paradoxical, but there is at least one use for hard-to-recycle Styrofoam that is very, very “green”.

You can build houses with it!

Four years ago, Bill and Carole Meyer — he an attorney, she a photographer and artist — began to design and build a new house in the Reed neighborhood, in what had been a large lot adjacent to their former house.

This was not to be a conventional house, but one built of Styrofoam and concrete.

In the November 2006 issue of THE BEE, an article by editor Eric Norberg described how the Meyers’ house was to be built.

A year ago, the Meyers moved into the finished house — and, this past December, it was on the Annual Duniway Holiday Home Tour.

The Meyers did not set out to be on the “green” cutting edge of construction and energy efficiency by seeking out a Styrofoam house. Actually, it all began with a desire for a stucco house.

“Acquiring a second home in 1995 in San Miguel de Allende gave us an appreciation for Mexican construction — stucco, thick walls; houses closer to the street, with yards or terraces in back,” explains Bill Meyer.

The Meyers were aware, however, that stucco over wood in the Northwest, where it rains eight to nine months a year, can create serious moisture and mold problems. Research on alternatives to wood led them to ICF (“insulating concrete forms”) construction — which consists of Styrofoam and concrete, and is highly energy efficient.

The builder of the house, Alan Naylor of Sylvan Construction, says he has been building ICF houses in the area since 1997. “I tell my customers that an ICF house takes 40-50% less heating and cooling, but that’s conservative. These houses cost 10-15% more to build, but the savings in energy pay that back in three to five years.”

Naylor says the LEED (“Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design”) certifiers consider ICF construction VERY “green.” Why? “It takes fewer materials to build than a conventional wood framed house, which takes 44 to 50 trees on average. An ICF house has very little lumber, and the concrete is only 16% cement. And 66% of the light-gauge steel used for framing the walls, the floor systems, and trusses, is made from recycled automobiles.”

The elegant Meyer house has three levels — 5,943 square feet — of which 779 are garages, and 3,400 accounts for the combined main floor and second floor. The interior walls are made of 820 “blocks” of construction-grade Styrofoam (manufactured in Wilsonville), each four feet long, sixteen inches tall, and held together in pairs by rigid plastic. These forms are then filled with concrete.

“When the concrete pumper trucks pour the concrete between the Styrofoam blocks, the walls have to be properly positioned, supported, and secured. If not, there is a ‘blowout’, in which the concrete comes pouring out,” says homeowner Meyer.

“You want to be working with someone who really knows what they’re doing,” he cautions. “I watched as they did each level of the house, and there were only two small blowouts. Alan Naylor is great. They did a really good job.”

The foot-thick walls are not only highly insulating but are very difficult to burn, according to Naylor. “My customers get a 15% break on their homeowner’s insurance. An example [of the fireproof quality] was that wildfire in Southern California two years ago, where all of the wood houses in one area were burnt to rubble, leaving only three houses standing — all using ICF construction.”

Bill describes the energy-efficient walls as also being highly sound proof. “A number of people who have walked through the house say that the quality of quietness is very attractive.”

For many years, the Meyers lived next door to the lot where their new house is now built. They expanded their garden into that adjacent lot, adding trees and water features, but as Carole’s in-home photography business grew, it occurred to them they might construct a new, larger house on that lot.

In some ways, the lot was an unlikely spot for a home. Located above the Reed College Canyon, in an environmental-conservation zone — which is not as restrictive as the environmental protection zone in which the college resides — one third of the property was on a steep, sloping hillside.

After extensive planning, an environmental application was approved, and the building permit was issued in 2006. Today, the sloping hillside has been transformed into a bed of Styrofoam infill. The terrace of the house sits on this extremely stable infill, consisting of 120 Styrofoam blocks (4’x4’x 8’ each), surrounded by a retaining wall anchored with steel.

“One important aspect that is now ‘buried’ are the eighteen ‘earth anchors’ that one of my subcontractors drilled into the ground under where the house now sits, and which are tied into two large horizontal pieces of steel called ‘whalers’ that help secure the tall retaining wall against any future seismic event,” explains Bill, who was personally in charge of the complicated infill project.

Although the inspiration for the house was Mexican architecture, and many of Carole Meyer’s paintings reflect a Mexican influence, the house also has a Mediterranean look.

“There is a certain simplicity in exterior lines that is found in Mediterranean architecture. Once a woman from Tuscany was walking by, and commented that this is how homes look in that part of Italy,” reports Bill.

Asked if the couple has encountered any drawbacks to the house’s construction, Bill says, “No. We love everything about it. Just make sure you like your floor plan, because there is no changing it once it is constructed!”

The couple, who previously had co-located business offices at S.E. 39th and Holgate Boulevard, have found new spots from which to do business. Carole Meyer’s photographic location is now on S.E. 26th, a half block south of Powell Boulevard and Cleveland High School; Bill moved his office to Woodstock Boulevard, and has added a home office to their new house.

For more information about ICF construction, two Internet websites to start with might be: www.rewardwalls.com, and www.sylvanconst.com.