Building A Home With Foam? Foam fantastic…

People construct buildings out of the most outrageous materials.

Originally, mud and woven sticks sufficed when the supply of caves ran short of the Neanderthal population. Next came stone, wood, concrete, steel, plastic and recently bags of earth, soda bottles, rolled up newspapers, and even foam drinking cups. Well, not exactly the cups themselves, rather polystyrene foam beads formed into structural shapes then glued together and covered with plaster.

As a fledgling architect in the early 1970’s, I utilized a system of foam blocks, laid up like bricks, then laced up and down with reinforcing steel inside the open cores and filled with concrete. I designed two houses in the mountains of Colorado, one for foundation and stem walls and the second for the same plus all exterior walls to boot. The structures were strong, extremely well insulated, and quick to erect.

Since that time, numerous offshoots of this method together with other innovations have offered alternative techniques which have been utilized throughout the world. Forty years later, I happened to meet a pioneer of a similar foam building system that turned out to be not only eminently workable, but a truly elegant integration that seemed to transcend all others that I had seen.

Donald Grieb was a supremely talented architect in the Chicago area when fifty years ago, he was searching for a way to build inexpensive, well insulated, easily and quickly erected homes. His eureka moment led him toward a concept that if there could be a single building material that could be used for foundation, floors, walls, and roof, then only a single sub-contractor would be necessary for the entire building envelope.

After a bit of research, Don’s inspiration led him to the benefits of expanded polystyrene foam. Why polystyrene? Unlike nearly all other plastic foam materials, the nature of expanding the tiny plastic beads within a huge steam pressure cooker resulted in a big block of foam which demonstrated amazing structural qualities. As the tiny beads expanded, they became a glued together mass of 1/8″ diameter spheres which acted together as a miniature three dimensional truss.

The blocks exhibited tremendous strength in relation to their weight, and all that was needed was a method of encapsulating the foam to add tensile strength plus protect the surfaces from ultra violet degradation and point load impacts (like Mom’s runaway Buick against the back wall of the garage).

Don’s subsequent experiments led him to a blend of Portland cement stucco together with imbedded Fiberglas mesh, now used throughout the plastering industry, and Viola! There it was. Don continued his improvement of the process and subsequently received numerous United States Patents for his innovations. He proceeded on with a successful architectural career as his primary business and continued to promote the foam building system both in the Midwest and after moving to Arizona.

I met Donald Grieb early in the first decade of the new millennium. He and his lovely wife were retired and living in a beautiful home that he had designed and built in the desert foothills north of Scottsdale. The house could be easily mistaken for an adobe mud brick abode, but of course, the stucco finish concealed a secret. Don’s house was foam.

He gave me the cook’s tour and I marveled as he related the amazing attributes of his creation. The house required only a fraction of the normal amount of air conditioning for a similar house of this size. Outside, was what appeared to be a concrete patio, but it was actually a 4 inch thick slab of foam set over sand with only a 1/4″ thick stucco coating.

For five years, he related, he and his wife (including her spiked high heeled shoes) had strolled over this surface and not a single point of wear was evident. His system, he said, “is waterproof, fire resistant, mold resisting, earthquake tolerant, wind resistant, superbly insulated against both hot and cold, and with a viable lifetime that will easily outlast him and his immediate heirs.”

As my jaw continued to drop, a question kept forcing its way through my mind. With all the wonderful qualities of Don’s system, why aren’t there millions of these buildings everywhere. This building type should be the standard model for residential, commercial, and institutional construction in all locations, yet after fifty years, it is virtually unknown.

I know that he undertook years of testing procedures of all kinds, that he obtained numerous certifications at the national and local levels, and demonstrated compliance with building codes and ordnances. He additionally satisfied insurance underwriters and lending institutions, to say nothing of contractors in order to complete his buildings. What was the problem?

As with so many great inventions that are somehow lost to history, fate once again was fickle. Don sighed and said,” Nobody could believe that a Styrofoam cup could actually do all those things.” People just couldn’t get their heads around the idea of a totally foam building.

Today, many are the similar systems that echo portions of Don Grieb’s concept and his patents are now expired, allowing free access to those less creative minds to follow his lead. There are excellent methods that utilize steel frames, concrete with reinforcing steel, sheet metal shapes, imbedded wire cages, plus a plethora of sandwich type panels with every kind of coating bonded to the foam. All of these have made their positives points, but somehow that indescribable sense of elegance and purity is lost on them.

If all the rest are still unable to get their heads around your idea Don, take comfort that you are not alone. A few of us are resurrecting your lead and are forging ahead.

Five of us neophytes recently completed a small farm building composed of foundation, floors, walls, and roof made of expanded polystyrene foam which was molded, cut into slabs, precut to shape and delivered to the site by the local foam fabricator. We erected and glued together the entire 320 square feet (30m) structure in just three working days.

Another week of installing electrical and plumbing lines, then a week of plastering inside and out, plus another week to install floor tile, windows and doors should get the job done. Simple, quick, and inexpensive plus fun, it is.

Thank you Don.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.