Composite homes go up fast, meant to last

By GENE ZALESKI, T&D Staff Writer

The sound of hammers echoed through the Orangeburg County/City Industrial Park Thursday afternoon as the county’s newest industry demonstrated its product: homes that can be quickly assembled for disaster-prone areas.
Within 20 minutes, more than half the walls of a 559-square-foot home were in place.

Twenty minutes later, all the walls were up. Just 1 hour and 15 minutes after construction began, the two-bedroom, one bathroom residence was complete.

A crew of five with no special tools or heavy equipment demonstrated how easy it can be to build one of EcoScape Composites’ homes. The company, a division of Innovative Composites International, celebrated the opening of its 126,000-square-foot facility on Thursday.

“We can hear the hammering in the background,” Orangeburg County Development Commission Executive Director Gregg Robinson said. “We like that. That sounds like a job to me.”

At about $120 per square foot, the company believes its homes will be priceless for those in developing countries or disaster-prone areas.

The most likely buyers will be governments seeking affordable and durable housing, company officials say.

Ecoscape says the fiber-reinforced homes will be earthquake resistant and able to withstand Category 5 hurricane-force winds with only cosmetic damages.

The homes use ICI’s Structure-Lite composite panels, which are made from thermoplastic fiber reinforced with composite skin material. The RMor Skin, owned and manufactured by ICI, forms the outer layer of the panels.

The material is touted by the company as being impact resistant, impervious to water and made with 100 percent recyclable materials.

Every panel is resistant to rot, mold and rust, with an impact-resistant skin that won’t decay when exposed to ultraviolet light, officials say. Sandwiched between the layers of skin material is a fire-resistant foam core.

Fastened together using a proprietary connection system and stainless steel screws, the assembly time per house is between two and four hours.

The homes are textured with colored facings, eliminating the need for on-site painting or exterior finish materials at the job site.

The company produces three models:
• The Cabin, a 512-square-foot, 2-bedroom modular home.
• The Bungalow, an 880-square-foot structure with three bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and four-piece bath and storage area.
• The Lodge, a 1,500-square-foot home with three large bedrooms, two four-piece baths, kitchen, living room, dining room and large front porch.
Sixteen 8-foot-by-16-foot shelters can be shipped in a 40-foot container.

Contact the writer: gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5551.