Amazon Forms Newsletter>April 2005 In This Issue   Mack Diltz and Liza Williams Dream Home   Techniques for Proper Installation of Grid-WALL™   Amazon Forms One, Inc's Show Home: Energy Usage Report   How Does Grid-WALL™ compare with wood framing costs? Mack Diltz and Liza Williams Dream Home This home is perched on a little hill north of San Antonio, and hidden behind the living room is a swimming pool. Glass doors accordion open to allow full access from the living room to the pool area. The house is made for entertaining and features wonderful New Mexico colors in every room. Liza is an artist, and the house walls feature some of her favorite pieces. The rooms are all painted in Southwestern and Mexican hues -- Inspired by Santa Fe and Cabo San Lucas - from adobe orange to purple and turquoise, to a color called “parrot” used in the game room. What they have noticed about this Grid- WALL™ house is its feeling of olidity and security. It is a quiet home, and the family is insulated from traffic and wind noise. It’s an experience to live in a Grid-WALL™ home and realize how much ambient noise surrounds us during the day. A peaceful interior is a wonderful thing to come home to, and regardless of the wind and weather, sleeping in a Grid-WALL™ home is always easy. Mack was impressed that stucco - used inside and outside on the walls -- can be applied directly to Grid-WALL™ without metal lathing. He pointed out that this home gives him the same feeling of solidity as straw bale homes so popular in the Southwest.   In the building process, Grid-WALL™ blocks are stacked to create the walls and cement is poured through the openings. Then the second floor is built up and the second pour is completed. Liza admitted that she was somewhat nervous when the day came to pour the concrete, but for all of that Grid- WALL™, there were only two small blowouts, (both easily controlled), which were the result of improper gluing. The walls were strong enough to allow the contractor, Salvador Carrillo, to pour 14-foot lifts with minimal bracing. Although Mack and Liza have not been in the home very long and are still working to complete the decorating, they smile when describing their satisfaction with the comfort and serenity that the Grid-WALL™ home is providing. Amazon Forms wishes them a long and happy life in their dream home. . Techniques for Proper Installation of Grid-WALL™ Orb Sumrall, technical advisor for Amazon Forms One, Inc., was recently asked by a contractor to visit his Grid- WALL™ project and make certain that the blocks were being installed properly. Grid-WALL™ is a simple and easy material to install; however, proper rules and techniques must be adhered to for proper installation, or walls could fail in the future. These were some of the things Orb wanted to emphasize. PLUMB FIRST COURSE Upon initial inspection, the installation looked fine until Orb started checking the walls for plumb with a level. The first course was out of plumb. The second course was stacked even more (up to ½”) out of plumb. This wall was heading for disaster, and could be out of plumb up to two inches at eight feet if the errors continued. Another wall was checked for plumb and found to be perfect. It appeared that two different crews were stacking the blocks; e.g., one crew knew how to stack properly and the second crew didn’t have a clue about it. Orb suggested to the foreman that he check all walls for plumb and then the walls could be glued. This would, in effect, put in a quality control system. DRAW LINE ON SLAB Robert Allison, certified Grid-WALL™ installer, recommends that a line be drawn on the slab for placement of the blocks. Lining the blocks up on the line allows for a perfectly straight row. The blocks are then shimmed so that they are perfectly plumb. Pete Williams, another certified Grid-WALL™ contractor, uses a string line to assure the row of blocks are straight. As each course is added, the string line is moved to maintain a straight wall. Allison maintains that by drawing the straight line on the slab, lining up the blocks, and then making them plumb, time can be saved over using the string method. Both techniques are correct, but a level must be used throughout the job to maintain plumb. STACKING THE SECOND COURSE The second course is placed on the first course without offsetting the blocks. (Offsetting or staggering the blocks,as in CMU construction, is not necessary in this type of construction since there will be a monolithic pour of concrete.) Place the blocks on the first row using a level to line up the two contact surfaces so that they are perfectly flush with each other, and then level with shims. Do not check for flush on the opposite side. When the course is finished, check for straight wall. HORIZONTAL REBAR The first two rows of blocks should have had horizontal rebar between the rows, and rebar placed on top of the second row. There was no rebar. Rebar is absolutely necessary in concrete construction to insure tensile strength. Placing rebar vertically and horizontally 16” on center gives the wall the strength to survive all known hurricanes and 95% of all known tornadoes. IMPROPER REBAR PLACEMENT Improper rebar placement could cause the wall to fail. Many contractors place rebar on the nodes of the block because of ease of installation. When the concrete is poured, the rebar is on the outside portion of the core of concrete. This improper procedure reduces the strength of the concrete. Rebar should be placed in the center of the core. To complete this process properly, apply 6” pieces of rebar (or other suitable material) across the block and hammer it into the block, making it flush with the lip of the block. (A word of caution: the rebar should not be longer than 6” because of heat transfer.) DO NOT use rebar chairs. Rebar chairs will be knocked out of placement during the pour and plug the voids.   Amazon Forms One, Inc's 'Show Home': energy usage report Propane is used for heating, cooking, and heating water. Propane usage for January and February average $75.00 each month. The electric bill for March was $92.00. These figures are fantastic, given the size of the house. This modified three-story house is built on a 9,500 square foot slab with ten-foot walls, with a main living area of 5,800 square feet. Monthly air conditioning costs are expected to be in the $100 - $150 range during the summer. How does the cost of GRID-WALL™ compare with wood framing? Lumber prices have literally gone “through the roof.” In 2004, 2 x 6 framing and Grid-WALL™ were comparable. Today, the overall cost of Grid-WALL™ is more attractive. When comparing Grid-WALL™ to 2 x 4 framing, Grid- WALL™ may cost more. However, comparing wall costs is only part of the equation, because there are numerous other ways that Grid-WALL™ will save the consumer dollars. The wooden wall will ultimately cost the consumer more in the future. Air conditioning costs may be reduced 30%. This resulted in a $9,000 savings for the Amazon Forms show home. Smaller houses will not enjoy this much saving but nonetheless, there will be savings, and this must be counted when comparing costs. Fire insurance premiums should be reduced up to 30%by most carriers. If your carrier does not reduce premiums, call the Amazon Forms office for a list of quality insurance companies that do give a discount. Some mortgage companies will reduce mortgage rates up to .75%. This is a huge savings, considering most mortgages are amortized over thirty years. Perhaps the largest savings is a reduction of energy costs of up to 50% for the life of the structure. Phil Farrar’s 3,000 square foot Grid-WALL™ home had utility bills last summer averaging $95.00 a month. Orb and Claudette Sumrall’s similar size wood-framed house had an average utility bill of $250-$300 per month. It’s important to note that these figures are based on the cost of oil today. How much will oil cost in the future? Will oil prices go up or down? If prices go up, the Grid-WALL™ house versus the wood house will become more popular with substantially lower operating costs! Grid-WALL™ structures are built to be multi-generational. This doesn’t mean a life span of 60-80 years as is the standard for wooden construction. Take a look at European construction where structures that are hundreds of years old are still habitable. Those structures were built with rock and mortar. Grid-WALL™ structures are designed to be maintenance-free or require minimal maintenance. This author’s wooden house needs wood siding and wood trim replaced about every ten years. In conclusion, assume the cost of building a Grid- WALL™ house is 5-7% more than the overall cost of a wooden house. This means that a $200,000 Grid-WALL™ house could cost $14,000 more than an equivalent wooden structure. So how long will it take for the homeowner to recoup that $14,000? The Portland Cement Association states that the average time to recoup the extra cost on an Insulated Concrete Formed house such as Grid-WALL™ is less than three years. Throw in the six factors listed above, and the savings may be realized during the construction phase. If not, the extra cost will be recouped shortly thereafter, and savings will continue ad infinitum.