The Herald-Zeitung
Published January 31, 2010
A family of 15 people near Houston can sleep easier after workers from a New Braunfels company helped build a home for them after Hurricane Ike took theirs away.
Workers from EH Systems, which builds structural insulated panels, or SIPs, were contracted through television giant ABC earlier this month for an episode of its show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
The episode, a two-hour long special, showcases the largest house it has built since the show started. The 5,700 square foot home was built for Larry and Melissa Beach and their 13 children, left homeless after Hurricane Ike made landfall in September 2008, said Bill Stipanovich, chief operating officer of EH Systems. The family has four children of its own and nine adopted children, who are disabled.
Workers, many of them volunteers driving on their own time from around the state, spent about three days building the two-story house in Kemah from the ground up. The panels, made in New Braunfels, were used for the walls and roof. They consist of composite wood panels glued to huge Styrofoam boards and are considered greener than traditional building materials, Stipanovich said.
The company was recently contracted to provide its building materials for reconstruction in Haiti relief efforts. A number of small, simple homes being built there will use the insulated paneling in their construction in hopes that residents’ homes will be stronger.
The company, founded in New Braunfels five years ago, operates out of a 103,000 square foot factory and employs about 25 workers.
The family helped by EH Systems and the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” show moved into their new home in January.
According to a story in the Galveston County Daily News, the family lived for months in two Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile homes.
The couple have fostered 85 children, many of them with special needs.
The episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is scheduled to air on ABC in March.
Posted by David Densford on February 5, 2010 at 3:21 PM
It was a very large collaborative effort! On Dec 6th, 2009 We got a conference call from ABC,Blu Shields and Ralph Blanco (an area HVAC Contractor http://www.airrepairac.com who we’d done some “whole envelope” training with other HVAC Contractors, Government officials, AIA Members).
We got the floorplans on Dec 10th and had the task of making if pass Texas Department of Insurance Windstorm (140+ mph) and the EPA Energy Star blower door test AND had to be built in 109 hours. We delivered 5 trucks of full-fab panels to the staging area on the 4th in the rain and the mud with an old beat up forklift.
We had to work around all the other trades. The interior walls were going up simultaneously and then came the electricians, plumbers and the HVAC.
The new slab was only a couple of hours old and still hot even though it was below freezing outside in Houston!
Our all-volunteer crews had never met prior and only briefly stategized in the dining tent the morning before.
We got it done in 5 days and it passed the blower door test last week!
Now Galveston Island and the Texas Gulf Coast is looking at SIPs for Hurricane Resistant Housing.