
DATE: Saturday, October 18, 1997            TAG: 9710160394

SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY      PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Cover Story 

SOURCE: BY CHRIS KIDDER, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY 

                                            LENGTH:  149 lines

COVER STORY: LAID BACK IN A SOUND STRUCTURE

For more than 10 years, Fred Angelilli of Springfield, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia, has been dreaming about building a second home on the Outer Banks. It was a dream his wife, Fran, couldn't share.

Fran had her own Outer Banks dream - and it was a stormy nightmare. Heeding the biblical story of the foolish man who built his house upon the sand, she could envision a house of mere wood and nails tumbling down in the first big hurricane to blow across the barrier islands.

Living at the beach was not for her, not unless Fred could convince her their house would stand strong against storm-force winds.

The Angelillis had vacationed each summer at Ocean City, N.J. Crowds and rising costs eventually ruined their enjoyment of the nearby resort, Fran says. A relative recommended Hatteras Island and after one summer vacation at Avon in 1985, Fred began talking about retiring there.

While it was fine for vacations, Fran wasn't convinced that Hatteras Island was where she wanted to be year-in, year-out. In addition to its vulnerability to storms, its isolation and off-season down-time was a concern.

When she and Fred discovered Southern Shores last summer, part of her objection to making the Outer Banks their year-round home was set aside.

``I didn't even know that property like this existed on the Outer Banks,'' says Fran of the wooded, residential neighborhoods tucked among the town's high dunes. She softened her stance on relocating and the couple contacted Ralph Woodard, an Outer Banks real estate agent and general contractor recommended by a friend.

Fran's remaining fears were laid to rest when she and her husband attended a home show in Philadelphia last March and learned about Polysteel, an insulated concrete building system that marries polystyrene blocks with steel and concrete. Rated to withstand winds as high as 200 mph, Polysteel was going to make Fred's dream possible.

In April, the couple came to the Outer Banks to meet Woodard. He showed them the perfect sheltered homesite in Southern Shores. They persuaded him to look into building their house with Polysteel.

``At first Ralph wasn't sold on it,'' says Fran, ``but he came around.''

Woodard, who began building in 1975 after retiring from the Air Force, had seen ads for Polysteel. Willing to try new technology and eager to please his customers, he set out to learn all he could about building with it. By early summer he was certain that the building system was right for the Angelilli house and that his crew could do the job.

Although Polysteel was new to Woodard, it wasn't new technology. Builders began using polystyrene forms for concrete work over 25 years ago. Cost and a cold, utilitarian public image kept the method confined primarily to commercial applications until recently.

In fact, the first Outer Banks house using polystyrene and concrete had been built on the Nags Head oceanfront two years ago. The house, built with the CoreForm system by an enterprising do-it-yourselfer, piqued some interest when it was framed in polystyrene blocks. But most local builders, including Woodard, were unimpressed.

It wasn't until Woodard went to Virginia Beach and talked with Polysteel distributor Reid Pocock Jr. that he saw the value in learning a new method of construction.

Pocock, a registered structural engineer and licensed general contractor, began building with Polysteel, one of the largest of nearly two dozen similar building systems currently available in the United States, in 1994. He's now building his 10th Polysteel house in the Hampton Roads area.

Before starting the Angelilli house, Woodard took his framing crew to Virginia to watch Pocock build. ``They wanted to have some hands-on experience,'' says Woodard. ``You can look at a picture but nothing beats getting to do it for yourself.''

The Angelilli house got underway in September. By mid-month, Woodard's lead carpenter, John Daley, was wielding a glue gun and hot knife instead of his usual hammer and saw.

``It's a little more involved,'' said Daley, comparing the insulated concrete exterior to the wood- framed walls he was accustomed to building. But the owners wouldn't have to worry about hurricanes blowing it down, he added.

The thick polystyrene block walls would be filled with concrete and reinforced with 60-grade rebar tied to the concrete foundation.

Although Polysteel is highly rated to withstand hurricane-force winds, no house built with any method can be guaranteed as hurricane-proof. And, for homeowners to benefit from Polysteel's strength during a storm, the roof and all doors and windows to the house must also be built or protected to withstand the same wind pressures as the walls.

On the Angelilli house, Woodard changed the original gable roof design to a hip roof for added structural strength and will use hurricane clips on the roof which exceed building code requirements.

While the Angelillis' main concern is structural strength, the Polysteel house offers other advantages. The thick insulated walls are extremely energy-efficient. The manufacturer cites 50 to 80 percent savings on heating and cooling compared to stick-built construction.

The insulated concrete house built for the Tidewater Builders Association's Homearama in 1996 has lived up to the energy claims. According to Kathryn Price, Tidewater Polysteel's sales representative, a recent energy audit for the past year showed that the 2,850 square-foot house cost less than $60 per month to heat and cool.

Insulated concrete is more sound-proof, more fire-proof and resistant to pests and moisture. It also costs more per square-foot to build. Woodard estimates that the Angelillis will pay 7 to 10 percent more for their Polysteel house than if they had stuck with traditional wood framing.

Price says the cost differential can be as low as 5 percent in the current market. Lumber prices fluctuate, she points out, and if they go up as they did a few years back, Polysteel could be a real bargain.

Virginia Power has estimated that the additional cost for a 2,000 square-foot Polysteel house is amortized in just two years through reduced energy costs.

Selling consumers on energy efficiency has never been the problem for insulated concrete building systems. The stumbling block for most systems has been their adaptability to residential aesthetics. Few homeowners picture themselves living in concrete - and few residential homebuilders and their subcontractors want to relearn their trades.

But once the exterior walls of a Polysteel house are poured, the rest of the house is built like a traditional frame house: A frame roof is added; any type of siding can be applied to the exterior; interior walls are wood-framed and finished with drywall.

When a Polysteel house is complete, the only tell-tale sign of its unconventional exterior is the extra three- to five-inch depth of window sills and exterior door frames necessary to accommodate the polystyrene building blocks.

The Angelillis, both busy with their careers in Pennsylvania, haven't seen their Polysteel house yet. They've left the project in their builder's hands. Even though they'd never worked with Woodard before, after going through the planning process with him, Fran said they were confident he would build the home they wanted.

A milestone was passed on Oct. 2 when, with the polystyrene block walls in place and braced with 2-by-4s, 30 cubic yards of concrete was pumped into the empty centers of each blocks. Within a few hours, when the concrete set up, each 48-by-16-by-9.25 inch block would weigh about 325 pounds.

Reid Pocock inspected what Woodard's crew had done and pronounced the work ``amazing,'' Price says. ``What Ralph did the first time was better than the first couple houses Reid built up here. It just goes to show you that the system is so simple that any competent builder and take this product and easily work with it.''

With their new home securely attached to the ground, the Angelillis have no second thoughts about retiring to the Outer Banks. They're counting the months to Fred's retirement - and admit that once Ralph finishes the house they'll probably want to make the move even sooner.

``It's such a rat race up here. Down there it's like a whole different world,'' says Fran. ``We love it.'' MEMO: This is the first in a series of articles about an insulated

concrete house being built in Southern Shores, N.C. Next week, we'll

take a more in-depth look at Polysteel construction and some of the

other steps the Angelilli's builder took to make the house more

wind-resistant. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW WILSON

Concrete is hosed into the cavities of styrofoam bricks in the

Polysteel house.

Color cover Photo by Drew Wilson<

Fred and Fran Angelilli's new Polysteel home is being built...