25^th New American Home Features Green Building Material AAC

Orlando, FL, February 13 . . . The New American Home, an annual show house project at the International Builders Show, celebrated its 25^th anniversary this year by demonstrating innovative green building techniques. One of the most green products used in the home is autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC), a versatile material that saves energy and is sustainable and healthy as well.

AAC is green in both its manufacturing process as well as in its use as panels and building blocks of a home according to Mike Quaka, general manager of AERCON, the manufacturer of AAC products used in The New American Home. "We chose to participate in this year’s show home because we believe Americans are looking for a better way to build their dream home – a way that is respectful of the environment they will leave to their children, and good for their own health and well-being. AAC products fit both of these desires," Quaka said.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, The New American Home is constructed using a systems-engineering approach incorporating NAHB’s Green Building Guidelines and the U.S. Department of New American Home Features Green Building Material AAC – add one

Energy’s Building America Program. Each component of the home was selected and integrated into the project through a systems approach of designing, testing, and redesigning. All of the home’s components work together in harmony to achieve maximum performance. This year’s home achieves high levels of efficiency through advanced HVAC equipment, use of AAC, careful installation of insulation, air sealing, and high performance windows. The show home will be "Energy Star" rated, certified "green", and an environmentally friendly home under standards set forth by the Florida Green Building Coalition, an organization dedicated to eco-friendly construction practices.

Quaka explains the benefits of building with AAC: "I don’t know of another product as all inclusive as AAC. It provides structure, fire protection, thermal insulation, acoustic insulation, and can be the finished material as well. AAC brings the workability of wood to an inorganic green material that is completely recyclable, produced with little or no waste, and ready for use after a short 24-hour manufacturing process. Because of today’s economic trends in both labor and materials, the installed price is now comparable to other structural building materials, while the benefits far outweigh them.

"We in the industry are working to educate persons at all stages of construction from development and design to end user. Because AAC impacts so many facets of construction, its appropriate use and benefits need to be explained so that codes and use are in sync. For example, because of its thermal benefits, sizing of the heating and cooling system of each structure needs to be reduced when compared to conventional systems.

"So various testing bodies, code officials and industry organizations are currently working on further research to document best practices using AAC. Some standards have been published, while others are in the works, from such organizations as ASTM, the International Building Code, the American Concrete Institute, the Masonry Society, the Masonry Alliance for Codes and Standards, the Portland Cement Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers, ASHRAE, UL, the National Institute of Building Sciences and others.

"What is required for AAC to realize its full potential to revolutionize the US construction industry? First, the appropriate ingredients, parts and pieces, and techniques will continue to be documented. Then, installers will get educated on how to estimate a job, judge crew sizes and the required abilities of each crew member. With AAC, you must think more like a carpenter than a mason. You can cut it with a dry saw, shape it, and screw into it without pre-drilling. Interface between other products will be explored for best practices."

For more information about building homes with AAC, contact Allan Zukerman, director of marketing, AERCON, 317-554-6204.

HAINES CITY, Fl –AERCON AAC announced this week it will participate as an exhibitor at the Hotel World Expo and Conference (as part of International Hospitality Week) on Feb. 26-27 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas.

According to Mike Quaka, vice president – general manager, AERCON Florida, LLC, representatives of the company will be available at its trade show booth #2449 with trade industry editors attending the show.

“We look forward to exhibiting our phenomenal product, Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (AAC) at the Hotel World trade show,” said Quaka. “Many hotel executives and managers will be attending this show and will find our product, AAC, and our company AERCON, not only innovative, but a product that will save them money every year that their hotel/motel is in operation.”

The expo and conference focuses on hotel and resort design, development and operations. It is a premier professional event to attend for hotel industry professionals. HotelWorld participants include hotel executives, managers, suppliers, designers and many, many more.

According to Quaka, AAC has been used throughout the world for decades; however, AERCON buildings have been constructed in the United States with minimal awareness. With an impressive list of benefits that includes superior fire protection, acoustic and thermal insulation, versatility, durability, and light weight along with reduced construction time and labor costs, AERCON offers an innovative building material for the next generation.

Quaka said a key feature of its AAC products is its environmentally-friendly qualities.

“Furthermore, with our product being a green material with many LEED points associated with this, AAC is indeed not only the product of the future but will help maintain our environment in years to come,” adds Quaka.

If you could start building with a product that would save time and money, plus provide significant benefits for future owners, would you do it? Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) does all those things and more, but few have yet explored its possibilities.

Bill Higgs has. And he’s commissioned the largest installation of AAC in North America, reaping big rewards already in speed of construction and marketing advantage.

Lakeside Landings at The Villages is a large condo project in Florida by Higgs’ company, Power Corporation, a builder developer with 36 years of success in multi-family housing. Higgs’ company had built over 1000 of the same type of condo units using conventional construction methods in other locations and was about to do the same in Wildwood, Florida, until he saw a hotel under construction in the area made of AAC materials. His construction manager looked into it as a possible replacement for the conventional CMUs they had always used. When Aercon Florida engineers created a custom-designed integrated system at an installed price, the deal was made.

Phase I is under construction in the project that will eventually have 704 units in 176 buildings, a pool, and a community center at the edge of Lake Miona, making Power Corp the second largest residential builder in the area.

“Right now, we’re delivering two buildings, or eight units per week,” Higgs said. “Aercon’s product is quicker and requires fewer masons. It’s a clean product, put together in a contiguous manner with structural integrity and insulation value that minimizes cooling costs year-round. It’s a win-win situation for us as we build and for the ultimate owners who will inhabit these building for years to come.”

Bob Mason, Power Corp’s vice president/construction, said that both Power Corp. and Aercon were open-minded about generating an integrated system using AAC based on good common building sense. “Between the international and local markets and the increasing price of conventional block, Aercon became highly competitive both from the standpoint of price and quality,” Mason said. “Not many trades are skilled at doing this innovative type of construction, so it was important that Aercon brought the engineering and the installation ability to put together an appealing complete shell package. It’s a combination of materials and people.”

Jim Tackett, VP and general manager of the Lakeside Landings project for Power Corp., says the decision was driven by several things: strength, ease of construction and energy efficiency. “This system gives us a huge marketing advantage because it is four times more energy efficient than our conventional CMUs.” Ease of construction makes the work go faster, saving money for Power Corp., and the strength issue will become an even more important marketing advantage when the next hurricane season rolls around, Tackett said. He considers Power Corp and Aercon pioneering partners in the use of AAC for residential construction.

Aercon’s scope of work for the project includes foundation, slab on grade, and structure up to the trusses. Once the windows and doors are in, Aercon is also doing the exterior stucco, providing a turnkey structure including exterior finish. Mark Shumate, Aercon’s director of construction services, said the structure integrates AAC panels, precast concrete headers framing the larger openings, and CMUs in a fast-to-assemble wall structure. Aercon U-lintel block is the diaphragm of the structure which locks it together at the top and ties it down to the foundation, including anchoring the roof system.

Benefits of this integrated system are speed and ease of constructability. “There is no faster structural building system,” Shumate said. For Power Corp. the impact is significant. Time on site is greatly reduced, allowing them to turn each building over for occupancy sooner with fewer conditions to contend with during construction.

Saving money and lowering risk are not the only advantages, Shumate explained. Once the aggressive building schedule delivers finished units, the occupants have the luxury of the features and benefits of the AAC product. These include thermal, acoustic, fire and pest resistance which are major marketing advantages. All of this is provided at a cost that is competitive, Shumate said, and the next phase of construction will go at a tremendous rate of speed.

Safety goes hand-in-hand with speed as important features of this system according to Kelly Bolin, Aercon general superintendent. Because you build from the inside up, instead of on a scaffold from the outside in, there is much less labor involved and it’s much safer, Bolin said. For a four-unit building at Lakeside Landings, the first and second floors can be erected in about two and a half days, instead of a week to a week and a half for conventional CMU construction. Bolin, who has over ten years of experience with AAC, said they can fly an AAC panel every three minutes. One panel replaces 50 conventional CMUs. “So at the same pace we are going at Lakeside Landings, what we do here in four months with 20 guys would require 150 masons plus 150 laborers supplying them to accomplish,” Bolin said.

So what’s the measure of this innovative new system? Power Corporation will build the second phase at Lakeside Landings, with a total of 704 units built with the Aercon AAC system. Higgs, Power Corp’s president, is so enthusiastic about the project’s success, he said he plans another 190 multi-family buildings in various parts of Florida in the next year using the same system. And the highest complement paid to Higgs’ Lakeside Landings so far? The local building inspector bought the first unit in the first building completed.

Comments from Ronald E. Barnett, PE, Aercon General Manger:

“I don’t know of another product as all inclusive as AAC. It provides structure, fire protection, thermal insulation, acoustic insulation, and can be the finished material as well. AAC brings the workability of wood to an inorganic green material that is completely recyclable, produced with little or no waste, and ready for use after a short 24-hour manufacturing process. Because of today’s economic trends in both labor and materials, the installed price is now comparable to other structural building materials, while the benefits far outweigh them.

“We in the industry are working to educate persons at all stages of construction from development and design to end user. Because AAC impacts so many facets of construction, its appropriate use and benefits need to be explained so that codes and use are in sync. For example, because of its thermal benefits, sizing of the heating and cooling system of each structure needs to be reduced when compared to conventional systems.

“So various testing bodies, code officials and industry organizations are currently working on further research to document best practices using AAC. Some standards have been published, while others are in the works, from such organizations as ASTM, the International Building Code, the American Concrete Institute, the Masonry Society, the Masonry Alliance for Codes and Standards, the Portland Cement Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers, ASHRAE, UL, the National Institute of Building Sciences and others.

“What is required for AAC to realize its full potential to revolutionize the US construction industry? First, the appropriate ingredients, parts and pieces, and techniques will continue to be documented. Then, installers will get educated on how to estimate a job, judge crew sizes and the required abilities of each crew member. With AAC, you must think more like a carpenter than a mason. You can cut it with a dry saw, shape it, and screw into it without pre-drilling. Interface between other products will be explored for best practices.

“Here are some key points to understand the value of AAC:

“In short, the more people learn about AAC, the more they like it.”

Article From Concrete Products Magazine

Officials from Indianapolis-based Aercon Industries note that the increasing role of environmental stewardship in business decisions bodes well for their aerated autoclaved concrete (AAC) product. With production facilities in Haines City, Fla., the company cites a growing presence in U.S. construction due to the properties of AAC, including fire-resistance, thermal and sound insulation, and light weight.

The recently constructed classroom wings, administration offices, school cafeteria, multipurpose facility, and media center of Woodstation Elementary School in Ringgold, Ga., are representative of the many educational facilities for which AAC has been specified. Comparison studies indicate that schools built with the product generate an average of 15 percent in total energy savings versus those constructed of traditional materials, Aercon reports.

There are benefits to lead times as well, notes Aercon Florida LLC General Manager Rob Barnett. “The Woodstation Elementary School project is a perfect example of how a product can make the construction process flexible and efficient,” he says. “The overall project was behind schedule when Aercon installation began; however, the efficient delivery and installation of the AAC product accelerated completion by two weeks.”

Also supplying AAC for a $6 million dormitory renovation project at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tenn., Aercon was reportedly able to offer its product for 30 percent less than the cost of competing materials. The four-story building comprising 60,000 sq. ft. of floor space will feature exterior walls, demising walls and corridor walls of 8-in.-thick Aercon Value block, an “oversized” 24-in.-square unit noted for the speed of construction made possible by its light weight. Southern Adventist University will serve as its own general contractor for the project, and Blockhead Builders has been hired as the Aercon installation subcontractor.

Promoted under the banner of “Tomorrow’s Lifestyle Today,” Indiana’s Village at Lake Zonda aims to redefine the concept of a subdivision by offering choices based on quality design, respect for the community, and environmental stewardship. Aercon’s contribution to the project comprises AAC in all the homes and buildings, including 210 townhouses and approximately 22,000 sq. ft. of commercial development at the Village Center, plus a 5,000-sq.-ft. community center and pool, as well as up to 480 homes on lots of varying size. AAC in combination with geothermal heating and cooling is expected to produce up to 50 percent savings in energy costs for every homeowner in the development.