THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 20, 1995 TAG: 9505180628
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 28 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: About the Outer Banks
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
We've just finished an eight-week series on a factory-built, oceanfront house in Nags Head. The project was delayed because the builder didn't start the permit process for the swimming pool until the house was nearly complete.
The pool was a tricky installation: It was going into a ``V Zone'' where dune disturbance and any kind of excavation are closely regulated.
Nags Head building inspector John Brabrand was worried that readers of the series were given the impression the town was responsible for delays. Not so, he says. The town couldn't do anything until the builder applied for the pool permit.
The builder, Joe Rhodes, hadn't built an oceanfront pool in Nags Head before. He misunderstood what the town would require.
``The town bent over backwards to help me through this,'' he says. ``They did everything they could.''
As they say, all's well that ends well. The house is finished. The first renters checked in last Saturday.
In two weeks, we'll have feedback from readers - including some builders - who see a different side to modular building. They make some good points. We'll also take a look at financing factory-built housing: the short building turn-around can save homebuyers money.
On one of my many commutes to the Tidewater area, I recently noticed two large cinder block buildings just north of the junction at Sligo (Rts. 34 and 168),'' writes a Kill Devil Hills reader.
``It was surprising to see these buildings after all the trees had been cleared away. Would you please see what you can find out about them?''
A call to the Currituck County Planning Department pointed me in the direction of James Ferebee Jr. His family owns the property. The buildings are what's left of a sawmill, he says.
Umphries Brothers Lumber Company had a mill yard near the village of Currituck, says Ferebee, but they moved it to Sligo between 1946 and 1948. Umphries Brothers built several buildings at the site.
The two remaining structures were the mill's boiler room and the kiln drying room; the rest were torn down after the mill closed in 1957.
According to Ferebee, the buildings have been hidden from view since the mid-1960s. They won't be in view for long. They'll soon be torn down and the land reseeded with trees. The Ferebees hope to develop the property as a commercial site in the future.
Two readers asked about a building being constructed out of polystyrene panels on the oceanfront near milepost 16 in Nags Head.
Expanded polystyrene (EPS, popularly known by the tradename Styrofoam, as in disposable coffee cups and ice coolers) and concrete, rebar and structural steel.
There's no structural wood in the house except for 8-by-8 pilings under the concrete footings.
Phillip Stallings, a local entrepreneur, is building the four-story, 5,000 square-foot, six-bedroom, seven-bath house. The house will have an indoor lap pool on the ground floor and a 10-by-20-foot pool on the roof.
Although Stallings isn't a licensed contractor, he's been building houses for six years. He builds them one at a time, lives in each house for a year (he's required by law to do this in order to get the building permit without being a licensed builder), turning them into rental properties as soon as he can build a new place.
His other houses were all built with conventional materials and, as rental properties, they were taking a beating. When a house rents for 16 people to use, he explains, it's hard on a house. ``I wanted concrete floors,'' he said.
He chose this EPS system, in part, because it had an integrated concrete floor. Another factor is cost: in other markets it competes with 2-by-6 stick-built construction. The system, developed in Europe 50 years ago, is licensed by Coreform in Broomfield, Colo.
The EPS panels vary in size, depending on their use. Most wall panels are eight inches thick, four feet tall and 16 feet long. On the lower levels of the house, wall panels are drilled on 8-inch centers to hold rebar and a 5-inch diameter concrete piers poured on site.
The house is solid and energy efficient. ``Like building with 8-by-8s,'' Stallings says. It's new technology for our area, says building inspector Brabrand, but he thinks ``it's a real strong alternative'' building system.
Stallings says this house is the first of many foam-and-concrete houses. He was so impressed with the system that he bought the license for this region and plans to manufacture the foam materials for local distribution.
In the meantime, he's busy figuring out how to build the house faster. ``Right now it's very time consuming,'' Stallings says. ``It's potentially a lot easier.'' MEMO: Send comments and questions to Chris Kidder at P.O. Box 10, Nags Head,
N.C. 27959.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Phillip Stallings of Nags Head with a piece of polystyrene used to
build his unusual oceanfront house.
by CNB