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Smart Homes Alliance > Residential Concrete News and Information
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11/12/2008Concrete Construction TV, from Hanley Wood, has added a new video on pervious concrete pavement. This and the other videos available on Concrete TV are high quality productions that do a great job of describing and demonstrating concrete related subjects.
Pervious concrete pavement allows water to run through the pavement and back into the ground making it very environmentally friendly. Studies have also shown that this type of pavement can help reduce the "heat island" effect as compared to typical asphalt pavement.
11/11/2008WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new study released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows builders how to improve the durability and energy efficiency of their homes by combining structural insulated panel (SIPs) roof systems and concrete wall systems. The connection details and engineering provided in the study give builders a reliable and consistent method for connecting the two systems in one- and two-family dwellings.
The connection systems outlined in The Prescriptive Method for Connecting Structural Insulated Panel Roofs to Concrete Wall Systems fulfill the need for standardized connection systems between two increasingly popular materials for residential construction.
Funding for the study was provided by HUD’s Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing program that aims to break down the barriers for innovative housing technologies. Support for the development of the study was provided by the Structural Insulated Panel Assocaition (SIPA) and the Portland Cement Association (PCA).
For more information read the expanded article from PCA at http://www.cement.org/newsroom/SIP_HUD_Research.asp
St. Louis, MO - At its Fall Convention, the American Concrete Institute (ACI) conducted a half day session on sustainable practices in the concrete industry. Many initiatives were discussed, and ACI informed the Chairs' of all of its standing committees that all documents published by the Institute must now include some consideration or otherwise address sustainable practices. This is a far reaching mandate and all committees that met later in the week were tasked with compliance. Committee 332, residential concrete design and construction, will begin immediately by reviewing its current guide document, and its proposed code document, to insure that nothing in these publications exists that could limit sustainable practices. 10/29/2008Hanley Wood, the publisher of Concrete Construction and producer of World of Concrete, has launched Concrete Construction TV. This new Internet TV station will host videos on concrete construction topics in order to provide a visual means of getting information into the hands of the people who need it.
Their first videos include The Benefits of Using Fly Ash, and The Benefits of Pervious Concrete. These videos are professionally produced and do a great job of communicating the desired information. They are available for free viewing to the public (due to advertising support).
10/20/2008
The use of concrete and masonry wall systems has grown rapidly over the last decade througout the United States. Slower to catch on has been the use of concrete roof systems. When properly designed, a concrete roof can be cost effective and provides disaster resitance, durability, and increased energy efficiency.
A house with a concrete roof also does not need to be a flat roof structure. The house pictured here was built as afordable housing in Guam, and has a a pitched concrete roof structure similar to what we would see here in Arizona.
The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona has been working on the development of a voluntary green building program that meets the specific needs of production single family home builders in Central Arizona. Titled AZ Green Builder, the program is meant to be a single tier program with the designation earned on a subdivision by subdivision basis. In order to achieve the designation, a subdivision must meet certain mandatory requirements outlined in the program.
The program is currently in its final planning stages and HBACA hopes to announce its availability at the upcoming Southwest Builders Show.
One of the requirements contained in the current draft is that a home must beat the 2006 model energy code requirements by at least 15%. Studies have shown that the thermal mass properties of concrete and masonry wall systems can be used to reduce heating and cooling costs by 14% to 29% on homes constructed in the Phoenix area climate. This information is based on the analysis of energy consumption of a typical 2,450 square foot home using DOE2.1E software.
The study was published in 2001 by the Portland Cement Association and is titled Energy Use of Single Family Houses With Various Exterior Walls.
NAHB’s Green Building Standard includes the following opportunities to gain points under its rating system for using cement based building products and systems, including concrete walls:
· 403.10 - Gives credit for the use of recycled concrete in the project - this could potentially be used to get credit for using recycled concrete as a base material under roads or slabs.
· 601.7 - This section gives up to 12 points for building materials or assemblies that do not require additional site applied material for finishing; it specifically identifies "pigmented, stamped, decorative, or final finish concrete or masonry". A builder could presumably take advantage of this section in a home’s hardscape and possibly in the floor or wall construction as well.
· 601.9 - Gives automatic points for the use of a concrete or masonry wall system when it provides sufficient structural and thermal characteristics and is used for at least 75% of the gross exterior wall area of a building.
· 605.3 - Provides points for recycling waste concrete offsite.
· 704.3.1.3 - This section provides points for passive cooling design features and specifically identifies the use of internal exposed thermal mass construction that utilizes concrete and masonry. 10/14/2008
The International Code Committee (ICC) recently voted to adopt mandatory fire sprinkler requirements for all one and two story single family homes constructed under the 2009 International Residential Code. This code change has also resulted in a reduction in the rating of the fire separation between living units from 2 hours to 1 hour in multi-family construction. There do not appear to be any provisions that provide exceptions to the sprinkler requirements for concrete homes.
It is up to local jurisdictions to adopt the 2009 code after its publication, and the have the ability to also adopt local amendments to the code. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has indicated that it will be lobbying local code jurisdictions to exclude the residential fire sprinkler provisions, while the Portland Cement Association has indicated that they will work in the next code cycle to restore the previous required fire resistance requirements that were reduced as a part of this new sprinkler mandate. 10/2/2008
Surface and air temperatures in urban and suburban areas tend to be higher than those in adjacent rural areas. This phenomenon, commonly known as the heat island effect, is the result of many factors, but the solar energy absorbed by the surfaces of pavement and buildings plays a major role. Because the heat island effect leads to increased demand for air conditioning and amplified levels of air pollution in cities, current and pending environmental rating systems for buildings encourage the use of construction materials that efficiently reflect solar radiation and emit heat via radiant energy.
CTL Group recently conducted a study to see how these properties vary among concrete mixtures containing various cementitious materials and aggregate types. Click here to read about the results. 9/14/2008
The Portland Cement Association has recently released a new technical note explaining the new LEED for Homes certification and how concrete and cement based products may be able to be used to gain points needed for certification.
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