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Eco-Tek Building Systems White Paper for Advanced Tek Systems, Inc. A Primer for "The Eco-Tek Building System" Contributors: Randy Hedgebeth, Debra Kay, Jonathan Richards, Larry Appel The Vision ATS, Inc. plans to introduce the Eco-Tek Building System to the US and Canada through licensing agreements and partnerships. The objective is to provide energy efficient and allergen free homes to niche market segments with the conveniences, amenities and luxuries of custom homes but the price of a tract home through a patentable framing table that allows on site mass production of the proprietary framing system. This principal applies to the commercial sector as well. Introduction The Background The founders of Advanced Tek Systems, Inc. are on a mission. They are out to change the world of construction by bringing their experience, creativity, vision and education to bear on the present problems of residential and commercial construction. We're "meat and potatoes" kind of people; we don't have time for marketing hype or fluff. We're about value for money, quality construction, eco-friendly materials, safety, security, energy efficiency, reducing waste, healthy environments including indoor air quality, and comfort. We want for you and your family what we want for ours. The Eco-Tek Building System from Advanced Tek Systems, Inc. (ATS) is about revolutionizing the way homes and commercial structures are designed and built. Doing business the way it has always been done is inefficient at best and at worst, unnecessarily exerts enormous pressures on Planet Earth's finite resources, causing big problems such as fresh water shortages, air and water pollution, and decimation of forests. Many locales have unique building situations including temperature extremes, lack of suitable land, earthquake zones, problems associated with poor urban planning, weather problems like dust storms or hurricanes; are all examples that the Eco-Tek Building System can address. There is plenty of evidence to support the notion that humans have the capability to transform our ecosystems faster than they can recharge or be restored. Resources are mined and the waste goes to landfills or into the air according to the dictates of the market, not the limits of the natural world. There's no feedback loop in the market economy that stops us from destroying the planet, nothing that resets the prices of goods to reflect that destruction. We are keenly aware of the economic conditions and market forces, yet there are game changing forces such as new technologies and in the field of construction, the Eco-Tek Building System will be that game changer. The Eco-Tek Building System will change the economic game based on these guiding principals: Eco-Tek Building Systems
McMansions are dead. The future of housing will be smaller, extremely energy efficient, and virtually self-sustaining, meaning they can be taken "off the grid". The first law of thermodynamics is that energy can be transformed but can neither be created nor destroyed. A house and its surroundings are together a thermodynamic system and the house itself is a machine. Conservation of energy is the first rule because the more you conserve, the less is required to operate the machine. The Eco-Tek home will have true R-38 insulation value walls, and R-50 ceilings. R values are a measure of thermal resistance and the bigger the number, the higher the insulation value. Less heat transfer means lower energy bills. If you view a house as a machine, it is merely a system of systems, systems that include foundations, walls, floors, ceilings, roofing, plumbing, electrical, insulation, windows and doors. The Eco-Tek Building System assembles these systems in a fashion that creates a high performance building that is non-allergenic, energy efficient and comfortable, our top three priorities. While other building systems attempt to address energy efficiency, none address the entire spectrum including human health issues. In most other countries, the locals use materials that last like stone and brick because they have limited resources. The United States is a country blessed with plentiful land, water, and abundant natural resources. It was built on inexpensive energy, resources and labor without regard to the long-term effects. Our economy is based on growth, not conservation of resources and that fact has caused the US to evolve into a disposable society, including the houses we live in. What goes around comes Eco-Tek Building Systems around, and the indiscriminate use of available resources over time creates shortages and higher costs. The age of cheap housing is gone and disposable houses are no longer affordable or even desirable. Let's talk about good old-fashioned value for the money. Most new houses deliver about 10-12 years of hassle free living and after that, we should be buying stock in The Home Depot or Lowe's for all the Do-It-Yourself projects that tend to arise with home ownership. We spend more in areas like the metal roof, which adds a few dollars to the mortgage payment but in return, delivers a hassle free roof for 60 years on average. We don't want to be the cheapest; we want to fill that void for a quality home at an affordable price, similar to the BMW, or Lexus in the car market. We design our homes with legendary European style energy efficiency for comfort, low energy bills and minimum impact on the environment. We design for low maintenance because you have better things to do. We design for resistance to storms, fires, floods, hurricanes, pests, earthquakes, sound, molds, mildews, and allergies because we love our customers and want them to stick around awhile. As designers and builders, we want to do it right the first time, not deal with headaches or worse, pass on future problems to our clients and their children. Our homes are extremely strong. By utilizing a commercial grade steel frame, our homes are built extremely strong, much more so than common residential wood framing. In fact, consider the following, we use metal for our framing structure and here's a brief history of why: With abundant forests, the US started to build houses out of wood starting with log cabins. They did it because it was cheap and readily available. While easy to work with for wood frame builders, wood has characteristics that are inherently problematic for the inhabitants: wood traps moisture, which creates food for pests like termites and rodents. It is attractive for molds and mildew, which makes people sick. It cracks and splinters under load so it doesn't stand up to hurricanes. It is fuel for fire. It retains water during floods. Some are treated with toxic compounds like arsenic or formaldehyde as preservatives. Steel has none of these problems, and lasts longer, which is why it is the material of choice for commercial structures. Our system will build residential buildings to commercial standards at an affordable price. Another interesting product we will make extensive use of is Magnesium Oxide (MgO). MgO has many unique qualities, as it is virtually impervious to fire, water, insects; is non-toxic, non- flammable and non-combustible. It is durable and maintains its' dimensional stability - even when wet, and, has exceptional bonding surface. It can be drilled, molded, cut, routed or shaped just like any conventional wood product without cracking. It is a Green product poured into molds and dried at room temperature so it is not an energy intensive product to manufacture. It can be made into many things including wallboard, cabinets, trim, siding, and flooring. Magnesium oxide is proven to be healthy for humans, non-allergenic, and is very strong which has implications for the structural integrity of the building. It does not feed mold or mildew and simply will not support any biological flora so it is a sterile product. Coupled with the use of high alkaline pH lime based mud for wallboard joints and plaster that actively kills bacteria, you have a genuinely healthy living environment. It is superior to any wood, gypsum or cement based product for a building material. We Eco-Tek Building Systems Page 4 of 9 can certify and guarantee our buildings to be free of toxins, allergenic agents, and fireproof. Anything that causes those will have to be brought in by the new owner. Our homes are designed to be minimally reactive to fire. In other words, if for some reason your home contents catch on fire, the structure will remain intact and will not contribute to the fire itself - all major structural components and insulation can withstand direct fire in excess of 750 degrees without burning. The MgO wallboard inside has a fire rating over 5 times better than current gypsum board. If you live in an area prone to forest fires, this product can save your life. Safety during a fire, along with ease and speed of repair following a fire, both protect both your family and its biggest investment. In fact, all our building products are non-allergenic, non-toxic, fire resistant, and either 100% recyclable, biodegradable, or inert for a guaranteed healthy home with superior indoor air quality. All our designs are standard permit ready. ATS homes are built far beyond current codes in every category, yet utilize components well recognized by inspectors and building departments. As a result our homes require the same or less time to process a permit as a standard home, and are not subject to any restrictions we know of. In fact, due to their environmentally conscious design and incredible strength, they can sometimes offer a way to comply with special permits and building restrictions. We're fanatics about quality control. By strictly controlling the building process, having in house employees and attention to detail from highly experienced project managers that are on site, we produce a quality product. Many steps are taken in the process to ensure your home is built exactly as intended by the Architect, and he also visits the field frequently to verify this. We build fast. By utilizing principles and mass production techniques borrowed from the manufactured home industry, we are able to panelize wall sections and erect the frame on site in a fraction of the time of a "stick built" home. We can put up the complete frame for a 2000 sq ft home in under two days. With a properly air conditioned house, we can isolate the indoor air quality from the outside air, remove air pollutants through air filtration and ensure fresh air to its inhabitants. This is a particularly important point for many reasons but many locales are subject to air pollution in its major metropolitan areas and require extraordinary efforts to remove any Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter, (RSPM), which causes allergic respiratory disorders like Asthma and other respiratory diseases, especially in children. We also ensure a slightly positive air pressure on the inside, that creates an "air curtain" so that pests like mosquitoes and flies have a very difficult time entering. We don't like to use concrete in your home. That's right, we said it. Concrete has its uses for special applications like bridges and dams but it really has no healthy purpose being in your house. The Portland cement commonly used in concrete is bad for your health and is water intensive. Unless treated with sealants, it also allows water to pass through to create problems on the inside. Thermally, it's a conductor not an insulator; that means it works the opposite of insulation by absorbing or releasing heat rather than containing it like insulation is meant to. When it comes to comfort, how many people actually enjoy walking or standing on concrete floors when it's fatiguing and hard on the back? We use a special MgO flooring system with metal framing that has "give" to be easy on the back and healthy. Eco-Tek Building Systems From an article entitled Magnesium Oxide, Magnesium Chloride, and Phosphate-based Cements by George Swanson: "Harmful Health Effects of Concrete Made with Portland Cement" Making the "clinker" in Portland cement at 3000 degrees creates a missing unstable isotope which gives it an unbalanced charge. Concrete made from Portland cement is therefore very electrically unstable causing these isotopes to always seek electrons in neighboring objects in order to stabilize themselves electrically. These isotopes created in the manufacture of Portland cement draw electrons out of anything with an opposite charge in close proximity to a concrete slab or wall, including people, animals or the cellulose in plants. This causes fatigue and other health problems in people who stand or work near concrete over prolonged periods of time. Concrete will also drain a standard car battery placed on it over a period of time. If you place that same battery on magnesium oxide cement, however, it does not drain electrically. The same is true with the human body; that is, magnesium oxide used as a building material will not drain the electrical charge out of a person standing over floors made with it, and you therefore do not feel fatigued. You can put this benefit of magnesium oxide to use as part of your slab protocol as you will see in the next section. Some of the most harmful effects of concrete made with Portland cement come when it is "enhanced" with plastics. The concrete never cures, or does so extremely slowly, which may enhance the strength of the concrete but is not healthy for the occupants of the building. Furthermore concrete outgases and is toxic, particularly when it mixes with mold. (The use of concrete inside clay-treated wood chip wall forms is an exception because they allow the concrete contained within them to cure fully, drying out all their initial moisture and any new moisture that enters later through wicking by capillary action or through water leaks.) Let's look at the health-related properties and performance characteristics of the readily available choices. Portland cement has the tendency to take on moisture and hold it for prolonged periods of time. This is a serious drawback from a Building Biology standpoint. Furthermore, modern polymer additives in Portland cement often further clod its pours causing it to be even less breathable. The most deleterious health effects of concrete occur however, when it's wet: it continuously outgases, and this promotes mold growth, and also becomes a conductor of heat, cold and electricity. It is now widely recognized that the production of concrete made with Portland cement is a major contributor, up to 12%, to the worldwide global warming crisis. What is less widely recognized is that the immense amount of energy that it takes to bake a Portland cement "clinker," amounting to roughly 3000 degrees F. for many hours, is routinely purchased at less than 10% of what the average consumer pays for the same amount of energy, and is thus, hugely and outrageously subsidized by the public sector. Magnesium-based cements commonly achieve compressive strengths of 9,000 to 45,000 psi and tension strength of over 800 psi, many times stronger than that of conventional concrete. Magnesium oxide combined with clays and cellulose form cements that breathe water vapors electro-magnetically, a significant plus. The clay in magnesium oxide balances and enhances the movement of moisture. It never rots because it always expels moisture. Also, unlike Portland cement, MgO cements will not drain the charge out of a car battery left overnight on a floor made with as little as 20% MgO content. MgO cements are completely non-conductive of electricity, as well as heat & cold, and have been used for flooring for radar stations and hospital operating rooms throughout the 20th century. The Great Wall of China and many of the Stupas in India, still standing today, were all made with magnesium-based cements. Ancient European artisans used a timber frame with magnesium oxide infill in constructing homes. No gaps are visible in these 800-year-old walls that still remain in use. We also don't use the standard foams like polystyrene, polyethylene, polyurethane, etc. No matter how earth friendly they may claim to be, they produce toxic fumes in fires or out-gassing of VOC's. We do use foams but only in the bottom of the floor system. We use a poly-iso foam which is completely stable once it has set. It has very little if any off gassing, and any of this is eliminated as the home "breathes". Thermal slab insulation is required by code in the US. We are also infrastructure friendly; we can utilize all existing utilities including electricity, natural gas, water and sewer. We can also take advantage of alternative sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and new water reclamation technologies---it's your call! We can lower your bills through the use of LED lights, and energy efficient doors, windows and appliances. Let's move into the near future. From an article in Forbes.com called Your Home in 2020, the author opines that: In 2020 cost per square foot will be abandoned as a metric. Homeowners will instead weigh the total monthly costs of living in a home. More stringent construction requirements coupled with higher homeowner expectations will make performance the key indicator of a building's value. Sales listings will be required to include the projected monthly costs to heat, cool and maintain a home. We share that opinion. In fact, we take it a step further and state emphatically that the value of a home will be judged in overall life cycle costs including operations and maintenance, timeless design and aesthetics, the longevity and healthiness of the materials, workmanship, functionality and comfort. In those regards, no other company can touch the Eco-Tek Building System and it will set the building standards for the future. The more fuel and energy prices rise, the more relevant the system is to the marketplace and maintaining your present lifestyle. We know we are taking on a huge task. All of the building codes, fire codes, building products, suppliers, builders, and supporting infrastructure are oriented to doing business the way it has been done for 200 years. That has to change and the current economic slump will drive that change. Architects and builders have nothing new to offer the public. There is no incentive to buy another house that is no better than what they already have. There is pent up demand for housing that addresses certain niches in the marketplace and can fill in voids for people in need of certain requirements. There are certain demographic segments that need or want a different house. For instance, there are no houses specifically built for the handicapped and elderly. The Baby Boomer generation is reaching retirement age and they have the financial wherewithal to buy what they want for their retirement years yet no one is addressing that need on a large scale. Many have allergies, may be wheelchair bound, have an interest in conserving resources, or may merely just want to downsize into a really nice efficient home. The Eco-Tek Building System seeks to construct hones that can balance what is biologically and physically possible with what is socially and ethically desirable. India has many problems such as housing shortages for their burgeoning population, water shortages, temperature extremes, scarce land which is expensive, a spotty electrical grid providing expensive energy, deforestation and desertification of their land, air and water pollution, etc. For India, going Green is not an option, it's a necessity. This is addressed in a separate Marketing Plan for India. The Eco-Tek Building Systems addresses all of the issues and optimizes the use of available resources at a competitive cost. We are currently developing our India business strategy and have an inside man developing contacts and our marketing strategy. We are currently on the hunt for our first project. We anticipate we will have little difficulty finding a landlord with the money to build using our system. We expect it to be of substantial size to warrant our efforts such as a school, gymnasium, hotel, apartment complex, office building, or the like. Building on that success, we will promote the system at trade shows and conferences around the country and sign up licensees. The Eco-Tek Building System was designed by Mr. Randolph D. Hedgebeth, our Chief Architect. As a very active 74 year old, Mr. Hedgebeth comes from a long line of stone masons and tradesmen. He has utilized his 50 year career to develop this system which embodies all his knowledge and experience gained as an architect and general contractor from formal education, research and development, trial and error, and his creative, futuristic mind. His quest for perfection has left no stone unturned. As you look about the current construction landscape, there are two competing philosophies of building systems: one is the passive house or a modular system using SIP's (Structural Insulated Panels) which seeks to build an airtight building to prevent thermal loss. SIP's introduce their own set of problems including toxic out-gassing from foam insulation, problematic for running wires and plumbing, lack of flexibility in assembly for onsite adjustments, and can never be totally fire proof. Additionally, many homes are wrapped in plastic sheeting like DuPont Tyvek© to encapsulate the building with a vapor barrier to keep moisture out but as an unfortunate side effect, it also virtually ensures any moisture already inside the wall cavity will stay trapped inside to cause problems later. The other competing philosophy is the one we subscribe to, that for a home to be an active or passively healthy house, the walls have to breathe to let out moisture. How we do that is why investors, builders, and clients will pay to find out. Please keep this background information in the back of your mind so you understand the importance of the design choices that make the Eco-Tek Building System, the future choice of building professionals. The Value Proposition and the Eco-Tek Building System hallmarks:
This system can and will be used for commercial buildings as well. Oddly enough, we see the demand being the greatest in India. We do not have the capacity to fight the large commercial construction companies and their well funded political lobbyists in the US so we will adopt the Sam Walton model and go where the competition isn't.
ATS, Inc. plans to expose the Eco-Tek Building System to the world as sustainable in three ways. First the buildings are an organically designed, integrated system. Secondly, the materials are selected and manufactured to be energy efficient, healthy and sustainable. And thirdly, once completed, the building utilizes active and passive technologies to minimize energy and water consumption. Certifications Building America - The Building America (BA) Program, sponsored by the DOE, is a research and development project for the enhancement of energy performance of new and existing homes. For more than 15 years, this program has been working with builders and remodelers to evaluate and adopt energy-efficient products, designs, and construction practices. The goal of the program is to achieve net-zero annual energy use in new homes by 2020. Greenguard - The GREENGUARD Building Construction Certification Program certifies commercial and multifamily new construction and extensive renovation projects that follow best practice guidelines for preventing moisture intrusion during design, construction and ongoing building operations. Buildings undergo comprehensive evaluations and incorporate a series of steps for preventing moisture and mold growth. The GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certification Program gives assurance that products designed for use in office environments and other indoor spaces meet strict chemical emissions limits, which contribute to the creation of healthier interiors GREENGUARD Children & SchoolsSM Certification Program offers stricter certification criteria. It is referenced by both The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Building Rating System. Products certified to this standard are also suitable for use in environments where children and others work, play or reside. Editors Note: It has been a privilege to be a part of this revolutionary system. The high caliber of the owners and their creative ideas made the collaborative effort for the paper quite enjoyable. It was difficult to assemble at first due to the large number of dichotomies involved; revolutionary but uses conventional materials, futuristic yet old world , radical designs yet conventional in appearance, exceptionally strong yet lightweight. |
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