Evolving Envelopes: Attractive, energy efficient masonry.

AuthorMottl, Judy
PositionCONSTRUCTION

Alaska's climate, specifically the long harsh winter months, isn't ideal for mixing cement or concrete. The frigid temperatures present a massive challenge for masons tasked with creating brick or stone facades. The state's brutal winters also contribute to sky-high heating costs for building owners and tenants alike. Ongoing innovations in construction can alleviate some of these challenges.

A New Approach to Masonry

For example, InsulStone, developed in 2007 by ICAP-USA, is a four-step insulation stone and porcelain panel exterior siding system designed to eliminate installation time and provide greater energy efficiency. Used with a foam back application, InsulStone provides what ICAP-USA calls "continuous insulation" which blocks energy loss through transference.

Mitchell Fairweather, a mason with more than forty years of experience in the industry and nearly twenty years working in Alaska, views InsulStone and its foam back as one of the best new innovations in the Alaska-based construction market.

"It's an absolutely perfect solution for Alaska's climate and really makes sense," says Fairweather, who discovered InsulStone while at a trade show in 2009-2010. In fact, Fairweather became so enamored with the product he quickly enlisted himself as a sales rep and has been busy introducing it to architects, engineers, and construction companies across Alaska for the past several years.

The product offers an alternative to traditional masonry, says Fairweather, as it provides a very similar facade to customary brick and stone yet doesn't require several of the many steps masonry requires.

"With InsulStone you are gaining that nice masonry look and cutting 50 percent of labor as you're not putting on a metal scratch coat, a cement coat, then mixing cement and putting it on the stone and putting it on the wall," explains Fairweather. "That whole process is gone. Now you get a box of InsulStone and you're taking pieces out and stapling them on as if it was siding."

The product also provides heating and cooling savings to building owners or operators, says Fairweather. "If you are doing an R30 wall on the inside of a building, which is what they're doing in Alaska, and you put this on the front at zero temp that R30 wall stays an R30. If you put regular masonry on, that R30 drops to an R9," he says.

A Hard Sell

As often happens with new products, InsulStone hasn't been an easy sell. One challenge is convincing construction companies and masons...

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