By Steve Nielsen | Fox 10
PHOENIX – Officials with a Phoenix-based international company say they have solved the problem of high home costs and the environmental impacts of lumber.
Home housing processes and issues with lumber are both massive issues that Arizona is facing. Supply chain issues have dramatically impacted the cost of lumber, which, in turn, increases the cost of building homes.
For 50 years, Strata International Group has been working to solve the problem of using wood for homes, and their solution is to use foam.
At what could be the world’s quietest construction site, machinery to cut wood is replaced with crews heating up a wire with crews heating up a wire with a battery pack, stretch it out, and slice the foam like butter. They then glue it to the rest of the house with a glue that turns into more foam. Eventually, the foam is covered in a thin layer of concrete formula, and people would not be able to tell the home was made from foam.
“So, it is 100% breathable 100% livable. FDA approved and 100% recyclable,” said Amir Saebi with Strata International Group.
The product offered by Strata is currently being used to build a 6,000 square-foot home in Phoenix. Saebi said while lumber has only grown in cost, the cost of foam has not really increased. In fact, Saebi said building a home with foam can be 10% to 50% cheaper.
