HPG golf tournament cracks $300K in funds for Raising The Roof
HOMES Publishing Group’s 16th Annual Invitational Charity Golf Tournament in support of Raising the Roof, at Royal Woodbine Golf Club in Etobicoke on Sept. 20, raised $15,000 – pushing the 16-year total to $305,000.
“We are so proud and grateful for the support of our clients, suppliers and friends over the years, for such a worthy cause as youth homelessness,” says Michael Rosset, founder of HPG and a long-serving board member of Raising the Roof.
Raising the Roof provides national leadership on long-term solutions to homelessness through partnership and collaboration with diverse stakeholders, investment in local communities, and public education.
“The homebuilding industry shows its collective heart through such events, and we are humbled by the dedication and commitment of everyone involved, every year,” adds Rosset. “To raise more than $300,000 for such an important cause over the years shows the depth of resolve of this industry to find a solution before the challenges become systemic and multi-generational.”
Photos: Brian Geller, photoartists.ca
Kitchen and Main Floor renovation by Sosna Total Contracting[/caption]
Sometimes, it's best not to tell others what you're working on. Otherwise, they'll say it can't be done. So, when David Saulnier and Joel German, co-founders of Nova Scotia–based JD Composites, came up with the idea to design and build a modular home using 100 percent recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) mouldings – a first for homebuilders – they kept it under wraps.
"We called it Area 51," says Saulnier. "By the time we told people, it was already built, so nobody had a chance to say we were crazy. They could see the proof before their very eyes."
Finished in June 2019, the 1,800-sq.-ft. home, built on a 1.46-acre swath of land along Nova Scotia's southwest shore, has attracted worldwide attention, from Popular Mechanics and CBC coverage, to the mayor of Texan city Corpus Christi, who, like many others, is interested in the house for its unparalleled efficiency and resistance to mould, mildew, and hurricane-strength winds.
"We knew it would work," says Saulnier, who designed the home so that the entire exterior shell was made from the composite, so that it's basically one solid shell. "Just imagine a single piece of Lego attached to a concrete slab. You're not going to destroy it with kinetic energy. It's one piece." The inorganic material is also impermeable to water and UV damage, which means you don't need shingles. "It's probably the best roofing solution you'll find. Have you ever seen shingles on a boat? Never." On its own, PET foam is resistant to mould and rot, but by combining the material with fibreglass, they created a product with superior resistance and strength – not to mention extreme energy efficiency. With no thermal break in the walls or roof, the house achieves an R-value of 30. "We're looking at somewhere between $60,000 to $100,000 in energy savings," says Saulnier.
More than the building benefits, their solution creates a new way to reuse plastic. Indeed, more than 600,000 plastic water bottles went into making the panels. Consider there's a million bottles of water sold every minute. "What we did was a 30-second solution. But imagine 10,000 homes built using a half-million bottles per home, and suddenly you're making a serious dent in the amount of waste," says Saulnier.
Now that the house has proven its quality, Saulnier is hopeful the technology will move into bigger builds. "My hope is that some big engineering firm can take the technology and do something big with it," he says. "We'd love to see a development where every home is made using 100 percent recycled PET panels."
In the meantime, JD Composites is busy designing a second house, while also working on projects ranging from commercial bathrooms to hunting sheds. "We're not really a construction company," says Saulnier, who is adamant he's not out to knock conventional construction techniques. "We're innovators that built something that was perhaps a little ahead of the curve."
CAPTION: Photo by Tina Comeau, Tri-County Vanguard
The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) in association with HOMES Publishing Group (HPG) is proud to announce that, beginning in 2018, Building Excellence is the new and official national magazine of the association.
