Have you heard of Gigacrete and is it any good?
Do you have any reviews or suggestions for Gigacrete homes? They seem eco-friendly with a tight building envelope. There's just not much info out there.
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Hi Sasha
It seems like EPS panels that encapsulate probably double stud light frame steel construction. Light frame steel definitely sweats if left too close to the cold side, and will corrode. It seems to be acrylic-based stucco finishes placed straight on the foam, and we know that SIFE-like systems aren't well adapted to colder or humid climates. With no rainscreen, freeze-thaw can kill an unprotected wall in a season. How does it handle moisture? What about thermal bridging from the steel?
It seems decent for a desert climate like Vegas, but not sure how it would fare elsewhere. Not to mention that from a cursory glance it also seems like it would have quite a high embodied energy.
There are a lot of emerging new prefab type wall assemblies and high performance prefab kit houses , and from what we see about Gigacrete it wouldn't be on our short list, but thanks for drawing our attention to it.
Hello. 1) Gigacrete coatings are mineral based, therefore not acrylic-based. 2) Thermal bridging is not an issue because the steel studs are embedded in the foam panels. 3) Gigacrete's exterior StuccoMax coating is waterproof. 4) Gigacrete homes are not limited to hot desert climates. There are Gigacrete houses in the Caribbean (Haiti, Bahamas, US Virgin Islands) Nor is freeze-thaw an issue. There are Gigacrete houses in Alaska. The Gigacrete Building System is hurricane resistant and fire-resistant. In May 2019, the Gigacrete Building System was code approved in Miami-Dade County, an area subject to devastating hurricanes. It's arguably the strictest building code in the US. Habitat for Humanity has used the Gigacrete system for wildfire rebuild. Recent piece in Bloomberg cited fire-resistance of Gigacrete homes: For more information, recommend searching Wikipedia, Forbes magazine, Malibu magazine, Business Insider. All aforementioned have articles about Gigacrete.
Can you suggest Some alternatives to gigacrete?
Hi Ron
There are any number of wall assemblies that would be considered alternatives, what features of this system are you most interested in? We aren't big fans of steel frame construction due to the embodied energy of metal as well as durability and energy efficiency concerns in a lot of applications, so for supporting structures of homes we would most often recommend wood.
Gigacrete walls are insulated with EPS, which on the surface gets a bad rap but when you really dig deep, EPS foam can be considered a green building insulation.
Tell us more what you're looking for in a wall system and we can point you in the right direction. Are you building new or renovating? And where are you building?