A Polysteel Home Will Be Last One That Storm Destroys (cont)

A survey by the National Homebuilders Association, which represents the majority of builders, shows only about 5 percent of contractors are using steel for walls inside houses.  Only 1 percent use steel for houses' exterior frames.  Fewer home builders use concrete, estimated Chad Garner, a research analyst in the association's research center.

Many builders are using a combination of materials to get the best price, or they are relying on home buyers' preferences, Garner said.

"You can build just about any house out of other materials, except maybe a log cabin," he said.

Some other building materials gaining attention are engineered wood products that are stronger than lumber and can be made in consistent sizes and special lengths.

The trends have not filtered down to the construction industry in Hampton Roads in large numbers, because there is not yet a pool of contractors who know how to build with new materials and the public has not demanded them, industry watchers said.

"With prices soaring for lumber, you're going to see more and more looking at other options," said Gary Parker, executive vice president of the Peninsula Housing and Builders Association.

Parker said he has heard of only one builder among his membership constructing a steel house.  "The rest will adapt if they need to," he said.

In South Hampton Roads, the Tidewater Builders Association has no reports of contractors framing homes with steel.

Pocock - who's finishing concrete houses in Virginia Beach and Suffolk and starting one in Isle of Wight - plans within the year to begin using steel for inside walls in place of wood.

In the meantime, Pocock, president of Dominion Building Group Inc., plans to push concrete as the area distributor for Polysteel concrete forms.  So far, a couple of do-it-yourselfers have bought the product for basements and additions.

On his current project in Virginia Beach - his 13th in three years - his workers are about to pour the $1 million home's first-floor walls.

It will be about nine months before the family can move in.  The only places that will betray the home's construction materials are the windows: the sills will be about 10 inches thick instead of about 3 inches.

"Once we pour the concrete," he said, "this house will be here forever."

CREDIT: The Virginia Pilot.  July 1997.

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