CIVANO
It’s How You Live

Created, written, published and printed by BUILDER PROFILES, INC.
P.26 Technology

RGC’s Courtyard and Desert Country homes at Civano are ready for the future, reflecting a unique collaboration among dedicated builders, leading-edge architects and engineering specialists in construction technology, material selection and energy control.

The future begins from the ground up with a high-tech foundation of insulating concrete forms (ICFs) that create a crawl space sheltering the latest ventilation, plumbing and electrical technology. Information-age structured wiring joins traditional electric power wiring – a complete cabling system ready for today’s computer, television and telephone, plus whatever the 21st century provides. Plumbing is equally advanced, with a master water manifold (similar to the familiar electrical breaker box), feeding each plumbing fixture individually. The separate connections make adding on or making a repair as easy as flipping a light switch.

The most ecologically sound innovation of all is the house above the foundation. By pioneering affordable, air-tight and energy-efficient structual insulated panels (SIPs), these homes are at the leading edge, using ecologically sound alternatives to ever scarcer, less reliable and more costly lumber. SIPs are strong loadbearing sandwiches of thick insulating foam and oriented strand board (OSB). They are an all-in-one engineered replacement for structural lumber, insulation batts and plywood sheathing made from renewable tree species, preserving our natural resources.

SIPs deliver economies and performance that exceed usual expectations, such as R-27 SIP walls rather than typical R-19.

Thicker SIPs also create vaulted ceilings that raise visual horizons with R-40 insulation performance. SIPs work as part of a complete home system, precisely engineered down to the double-glazed vinyl windows.

SIP-built engineering and structural excellence saves heating and cooling dollars all-year, every year. Integrated forced air/quick recovery hot water heating delivers high-output winter warmth, matched by superior 12 SEER (seasonal energy efficiency rating) central air conditioning – enough to chill Tucson’s hottest summers.

Although priced squarely in the affordable housing market, these homes don’t skimp. Standard amenities include "the bold look of Kohler," Canac cabinets and General Electric appliances.

NOTE: The SIPs used at CIVANO are made by KC PANELS, INC., Tucson, AZ

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Southern Arizona HOME BUILDER

The Official Publication of SAHBA
Volume 5, Number 7, July 1996
Page 4

KC Panels, Inc.

How fast would a house go together if the walls and ceiling were the size of plywood panels and only had to be locked together to build a structure?

One 1,300-swuare-foot home took only 27 man hours – three inexperienced high school kids put the house up in a day, says Ken Walston, president of KC Panels Inc.

Les Wold, L.G. Wolf Company, by his own admission a "notoriously conservative builder," researched alternative products for two years before deciding to use K.C. Panels in the homes he builds.

The "sandwich panels" are four-feet wide and as tall as the ceiling (whatever that height needs to be); roof panels can be as long as 32 feet. Panel exteriors are OSB Board, sandwiched around a polyurethane-foam core. Actual R-Value for a panel is R-42, twice as energy efficient as a conventionally constructed 2 x 4 wall. A Tucson Electric Power (TEP) analysis found that cooling a 2,800-square-foot, KC Panel home would run $135.98 during a typical June, less than half the cost of cooling the same size conventionally constructed home.

Easily worked with normal construction tools, panels are square and straight and true (to exact dimensions). Though it is easy to cut out openings, the company typically works with the construction drawings to pre-cut the spaces for windows and doors, which makes it easy to assemble a K.C. Panel home. Molded-in wire chases provide space to run electrical wire. Plumbing is also easy to install.

K.C. Panels can also be used for roofs and ceilings. In fact, many builders using alternatives such as straw-bale or Integra construction use K.C. Panels for their roofs and ceilings. The panels accommodate most roof finishes from standing-seam metal roof panels to concrete roofing tiles.

This technology has also stood the test of time. In use since 1935, the last four years have seen a dramatic rise in use, increasing at the rate of 50 percent per year for the last four years. Nearly 80 Tucson area homes have been built using the panels.

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Automated Builder

The No. 1 International housing Technology Transfer Magazine for Manufacturing and Marketing
April 1996 p.20-21

Foam-Core Panels Find Hot Market in Southwest:
Engineer at Frozen Food Plant Figures Polyurethane Insulation Could Cool Desert Homes, Too

TUCSON, AZ – When Ken Walston realized that foam insulation for keeping things cold could also be used for insulating buildings against heat, he decided it was time to start his own business producing foam-core panels. So with the agreement of his wife Cathy, Walston sold his house to finance the start up of KC Panels in Tucson. The Walstons were joined by Cathy’s sister and her husband, Ruth and Randy Bindrup, to make this a family business.

"We shipped our first product September 1994," Walston says. "In 1995 we prepared panels for 50 building projects." His first project was for a 2,800 sq. ft. custom home.

The fledgling firm now has another 52 projects on the books, with 46 more in the initial stages of negotiation. KC Panels are price competitive with standard 2X6 frame construction typical for larger custom homes. Walston admits, "For smaller homes, the panels are more expensive than framing. Panels are less expensive, even for smaller homes, if the homeowner/builder is comparing the same energy-efficiency and quality, not just shelter."

Walston then explains that he got the concept for using high-density polyurethane sandwich panels for walls as well as roof systems while working as plant engineer for Pepperidge Farms. "I saw how effectively polyurethane worked for walk-in coolers, and I knew they could give a high R-factor for homes as well."

In fact, his 4-1/2" panel offers an R-27 rating, while the 6-1/2" panel supplies R-41. "We build those panels four feet wide, with a custom length up to 28 feet." This means KC Panels can span roofs as well as walls, thus providing Southwestern home owners the ultimate in insulation.

Energy efficiency is not the only reason to build with polyurethane sandwich panels. A KC Panel home has other advantages. "The panels are structurally stronger than conventional framing," Walston says. "They provide double shear walls on the total house. They’re straight, with no bowed 2X4s. They’re a solid wall construction, and one cannot accidentally knock a hole through the wall."

He adds that customers enjoy easy assembly, and that a quarter of home owners install the panels themselves with great success. "They can build a high quality home with minimal skills," Walston says.

Walston emphasizes that when he made the switch from employee to entrepreneur, he spent quite a bit of time checking out the market, making plans for his plant and working out his manufacturing process in order to be competitive with existing wall technology. He also decided that a way to generate sales would be to have the production workers also be able to erect the sandwich panels at the construction site when the customer requested.

Since Tucson weather is typical of Zone 9 areas, the main interest is heat protection, but it can get cool enough in the winter to require heating. At the same time, city officials continue to lean hard on builders to ensure that ny new homes meet new energy code requirements.

"There’s a lot of interest in insulation in the Tucson area because the city has a model energy code, which every structure has to comply with," Walston reports. This means that new homes must forgo picture windows unless there’s sufficient R-factor in the ceiling and walls to compensate for the energy loss. "With polyurethane foam, almost any kind of window qualifies. Furthermore, our panels offer home owners an average of 30 to 50 percent in utility savings," Walston notes.

He explains that Tucson Electric Power’s blower-door test confirms that house build with KC Panels have air infiltration well below that of conventional framing. Thus the homes include a heat recovery ventilation system.

This is so effective, that one home in Phoenix didn’t need to turn on the furnace for an entire year. "Some days last winter they had to open their windows to provide extra cooling for the house," Walston says. There was enough heat generated by the occupants, lights and cooing that no supplemental heat was needed.

Walston describes KC Panels as a polyurethane foam core sandwiched between oriented strand boards. KC Panels feature a unique lap connecting point which reduces installation labor and avoids thermal break. He has a patent pending on that connecting system.

PVC piping is used for wire chases and are included in the manufacturing process. Thus, each panel is a custom built panel, although Walston says the time will come when standardized panels could be offered for smaller homes to more competitively perform in that market.

"Our completed projects have included some roofs, cabins as well as a couple of room additions," Walston notes.

Asked how technical it is to erect the panels for a building under construction, Walston replies, "group of inexperienced high school kids erected the walls of a 1,300 sq. ft. house in a single day."

He explains that interest is high among home owners, small contractors and production builders. The manufactured housing industry is where interest has lagged the most, Walston reports. He theorizes, "The cost of tooling seems to be a major roadblock at this time."

Homes using the panels range from 1,500 to 5,000 sq. ft. The company has shipped KC Panels into New Mexico and Utah, and Walston expects his marketing area to increase as more owners and builders become aware of foam-core-panel technology. He says builders find KC Panels easy to sell, especially for larger homes where owners want picture windows and high energy efficiency.

Besides the R-value, the fire resistance of the panels generates a lot of builder interest. Polyurethane does not melt, does not sustain combustion and is resistant to most chemicals and solvents. This has helped KC Panels to grow to a crew of 16 in a scant 14 months. The strategy of having workers skilled in both manufacturing and erecting the panels has helped Walston meet start-up expenses, and even to generate a profit in a shorter period of time than is usual.

Now this electrical engineer and his wife are pouring over plans for their new home. Thus, Walston figures it won’t be too long before he’s living in a KC Panels home in Tucson – and the house will have a big picture window.

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The Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Sunday, July 14, 1996

To save energy, build stress-skin-panel home

By James Dulley
Starcott Media Services

Q. I’d like to build a conventional-looking 2,000-square-foot house. I’m on a limited budget and want to do some of the work myself. Are stress-skin-panel houses very energy-efficient and easy to build?

A. A stress-skin-panel house would be ideal for you. It is one of the most energy-efficient building methods available. Construction is so simple that several inexperienced workers can totally enclose a house in one weekend.

A properly built stress-skin-panel home should have utility bills less than half of a conventional 2-by-4 framed stick-built house. This is a result of the super high insulation values and extreme airtightness.

The airtightness not only reduces utility bills, but it nearly eliminates dust, dirt, noise and outdoor allergens. Some stress-skin wall panels are as large as 24 feet by 8 feet, so there are few joints to leak in air.

Several of the companies that sell complete house kits include heat-recovery fresh-air ventilators. These provide continuous fresh air in a controlled, efficient manner. If I were building an efficient house for myself, I would definitely include a heat-recovery ventilator system.

The term "stress-skin" panel refers to the fact that the wall and roof panels carry all the load themselves. They need no framing or other supporting structure. This makes construction simple for do-it-yourselfers.

A typical stress-skin panel (sizes vary based on floor plan) consists of thick rigid foam insulation sandwiched between oriented strand board (OSB). OSB uses fast-growing small trees and wood scrap, so it is Earth-friendly.

Insulation values are as high as R-50 for the panels. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) or urethane foam are usually used. Urethane (now made without ozone-damaging CFCs) has the highest insulation per inch thickness. Urethane is foamed directly between the OSB skins. EPS is bonded to the OSB skins.

Most stress-skin panels attach together with some type of wood spline at the edges. This creates a strong house with no settling or cracks. One unique do-it-yourself design used built-in plastic cams to draw the panels together for assembly. Tongue-and-groove edges actually support the wall.

Future remodeling is simple. You literally saw a hole for a window or door. Frame the opening and install the window or door. Electrical wiring chases are built into all the foam panels to facilitate wiring.

The indoor OSB surface can be prefinished with hardwood veneers, paneling, drywall – any standard finish. With a numbered paneled house kit, once the walls and roof are up, it is basically complete.

(A Tucson firm, KC Panels Inc., 2110 E. 14th St., produces and distributes stress-skin panels.)

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The Arizona Daily Star

Home Section
Tucson, Sunday, July 30, 1995

JOINING THE PANELS

Company offers insulation alternative

Walk-in freezers first got Ken Walston thinking about building with panels that would be the wall, frame and insulation of a house all at the same time.

He was a plant engineer in northern Utah for Pepperidge Farms, which stored its frozen cakes in large walk-in coolers at 50 degrees below zero. The freezers were made with solid panels of foam insulation backed with metal skins.

In winter, when his heating bills skyrocketed, Walston often wished that he had a house built like a walk-in freezer – only reversed, with the heat held inside and the cold kept out.

Years later, circumstances would allow his wish to become a reality.

Walston went to work for IBM in Tucson. A little over a year ago, he was laid off and used his severance pay to start his own company, KC Panels Inc.

"KC" stands for Ken and Cathy, the first names of Walston and his wife. Walston is the firm’s president; his brother-in-law, Randy Bindrup, is vice president.

In the years since he worked for Pepperidge Farms, Walston had done a lot of research on the panels that first caught his interest in Utah. He found that structural, insulated panels had been used in homes since about 1935.

People in the Northeastern United States, looking for a better way to insulate their homes, had started using walk-in cooler panels. They even kept the metal skins at first, but then switched to wood sheathing.

In addition to their tremendous insulating properties, the wood-skinned panels proved to be so strong that builders found they could do away with the wood-frame exterior skeletons of homes.

That’s the basic idea of KC Panels, Walston said.

The panels are 4-by-8-foot sheets of oriented strand board, an engineered type of plywood, sandwiched around polyurethane foam. Standing on end to form walls, the panels are locked together with a lap joint and 1-inch staples.

At the corners, builders use posts and long screws to join the panels. Windows can be cut into the walls, using conventional tools, and drywall is attached directly to the sheathing.

And, since there are no studs in the walls, you can hang pictures anywhere, Bindrup noted.

Fourteen-foot panels are used for flat roofs. For longer spans or for pitched roofs, you’d need to use exposed beams, Walston said. Most of the homes built with the panels so far have been conventional architectural designs.

The panels have several advantages over stick-frame construction, Walston said:

The 4 ½-inch panels used for walls have an insulating value of R-27, compared with R-13 for wood-frame walls. With exterior foam and stucco and interior drywall, the panels’ insulation rating rises to R-32. The ticker panels used for roofs have a rating of R-41. An energy analysis by Tucson Electric Power Co. found that the cost of cooling a 3,153-swaure-foot house built with KC Panels would run $135.98 during a typical June, using a heat pump with an energy efficiency rating of 10. That’s less than half the cost of cooling the same-size, frame-built house, Walston said.

The panels create a much sturdier structure than frame construction – walls with twice the load-bearing capacity and shear-strength of stick-frame houses.

It takes less time to build a house using the panels. On one project, a contractor with two workers was putting up the walls of a 1,500-square-foot house in six hours, Walston said. Conventional framing would have taken two days, he added.

Walston started the company in January 1994, producing the panels in Tucson at a plant at 2110 E. 14th St.

The first KC Panels house was built in September near the Forty Niner Golf & Country Club on Tucson’s far eastside. The company then supplied panels or 28 homes on the Hualapai Indian reservation at Peach Springs, near Kingman.

The company is building its first house as general contractor, also in the Forty Niner area, and has just shipped the material for the 37th house to be built with KC Panels.

Primavera Builders, the home-building arm of the Primavera Foundation, is planning to construct up to 16 homes for low-in-come and homeless people, using the panels (see story, Page 1A).

Prices on homes built with KC Panels have ranged from $100,000 at Peach Springs, not including land, to $300,000 at Forty Niner.

"At higher-end homes - $300,000 and up, we believe we’re right in the ballpark," Walston said, referring to building costs per square foot. "Raw framing costs run $13 to $18 per square foot for frame construction. We’ve done houses at $14, and we’re doing one right now at $15 a square foot."

The high cost of framing lumber will make the panels even more attractive to builders in the future, he believes.

"It’s a real challenge to make a new company work and introduce a new product in the marketplace," he said, adding that while the panels have attracted interest from builders, "it takes quite a while for interest to build into construction."

He predicted that "in five to 10 years, panel construction will make up 30 to 40 percent of the building material used."

Meanwhile, the company is operating on a small scale, buying small volumes of foam and plywood. The plant now produces 40 4-by-8-foot panels a day. Walston expects to expand and go to two shifts in the next year.

And with increased scale, production prices will go down, he said.

"As time goes on, we expect to become much more competitive."

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BUILDING SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
July/August 1999 p.8
Panel Briefs

SIPs Outperform Stick & Batt

A four-inch structural insulated panel (SIP) wall exhibits far superior thermal performance to that of 2"x4" or even 2"x6" stick and batt insulation construction, concludes a new study of whole wall R-values by the Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL).

SIPs perform at about 97% of their stated R-value overall, losing only 3% to nail holes, seams and splines. Because of the variety of thermal breaks in stick and batt construction, the whole wall performance can reduce the stated R-value of the batt insulation by as much as 30%, according to the study. Stud walls lose thermal performance to studs, nails, screws, wiring, switch boxes, etc. Because SIPs are the structural elements, there are no studs or braces to cause breaks in the R-value performance. As shown in the graph, the interior surface of frame construction drops precipitously at every stud, while the SIP wall remains consistent across its entire surface. Wiring chases in SIPs, for example, are often pre-cut or preformed in the foam core, providing a continuous layer of insulation and increasing the system’s whole wall performance.

2x6 wall 24" OC with R-19 Batt - Whole Wall R-value = 13.69

2x4 wall 24" OC with R-13 Batt – Whole Wall R-value = 9.81

2x4 wall 16" OC with R-13 Batt – Whole Wall R-value = 9.58

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PHOENIX HOMEBUYER’S GUIDE
August/September 1999
p.27-29

Energy-Efficient Ideas for You to Build Upon

Design your new home to be energy efficient in our desert climate. Buying a new home is one of the most exciting and important investments of your life. To get the maximum value from your purchase, your home should be designed to meet the unique conditions of our desert climate. By including as many energy-efficient feature suited to Arizona’s weather as possible, you’ll keep your family more comfortable while saving money for years to come.

Most people assume that a new home is energy efficient, but how can you be sure? APS offers this handy section to help you measure the energy efficiency of your new home and nail down the features that truly make a difference.

Before you buy a new home, consider these facts about the importance of energy efficiency:

Lower costs. For most people, energy costs are the largest monthly expense of owning a home after the mortgage payment. By spending a little extra on energy-saving features, which would moderately increase your monthly mortgage payment, you can save a lot on your monthly utility bill. In fact, homes that include the energy-efficient features discussed in this guide can save significantly on annual heating and cooling bills, compared to a typical new home in the Phoenix area.

Better comfort. Many of the things that make a home energy efficient also make it more comfortable. That means your family will stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

Greater value. A home that is energy efficient is a quality-built home. That can mean higher durability and greater satisfaction in your investment. Also, if you choose an energy-efficient new home, you may be able to qualify for more home with a special energy-efficient mortgage.

The following chart compares the monthly cost of home ownership for a typical home to that of an energy-efficient home. As you can see, an energy-efficient home that’s worth $3000 more than a standard home, could actually cost $156 less per year to own and maintain when utility costs are considered.

Good for the environment. Energy-efficient homes are less taxing on the environment. Here in Phoenix, improving the energy-efficiency of each new home by 30% (an easily achievable target with today’s technology) could improve our air quality, conserve our resources, and create a brighter future for our children.

Higher resale. Because homes with energy-efficient features cost less to heat and cool than comparable homes, they can have a higher resale value.

Ask questions and learn before you buy. It pays to look at each component of your home to be sure you're getting the most for your investment. Check the next section of this guide entitled ""An Energy-Efficient Home for Arizona"" to find APS' recommendations. Then use the ""Homebuyer's Checklist"" at the end of this article to see how many features you can include in your new home. Asking a few simple questions now can help avoid disappointing surprises after you move in.

Ask about Guaranteed Heating and Cooling Bills. Some homebuilders are so confident in the energy-efficient construction of their homes that they will guarantee maximum annual heating and cooling bills. In some cases, the homebuilder will actually pay the difference above the guaranteed amount. Check with your builder or Realtor to see who offers this kind of guarantee.

NOTE:
Due to formatting, section "An Energy Efficient Home for Arizona" and "Homebuyer’s Checklist" are not included.