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| Last year, David Shields formed Kwik-Build Panels LLC along with his wife. |
After 31 years of experience as a general contractor, David Shields drafted plans for another business.
Late last year, Shields, chief executive officer of D.A. Shields Construction and a board member with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Pacific Region Council, formed Kwik-Build Panels LLC, with his wife, Evelyn Shields. The business distributes prefabricated panel systems for commercial and residential construction.
Kwik-Panels is a West Coast distributor of ThermaSteel Corp., which manufactures the panels made of expanded polystyrene, a material similar to Styrofoam, bonded to steel sheets.
While it may be a hard sell for the Shields to introduce an alternative product to architects, developers and homebuyers accustomed to wood, the “green aspects” are creating a buzz.
“It is a wonderful time as far as the public’s conscience for environmentally friendly products,” said Erin Hofberg with ThermaSteel. “With rapid deforestation and the landfill crisis, we are a niche market that is becoming mainstream.”
Stephen Kapp, a technology resource manager with the California Center for Sustainable Energy, said while alternative building products have been slow to catch on, he is seeing an increased usage.
“They have a number of benefits that go beyond stick build,” said Kapp. He cited energy efficiency and use of recycled materials as two of those benefits.
Kapp added disadvantages include dealing with subcontractors and inspectors not familiar with the product.
Shields said he has seen much change in the past three decades of building but not in building materials.
“We have been building the same way for hundreds of years now. We have to look toward technology,” he said.
Raul Thompson, owner of San Diego-based Advanced Building Systems, said it is not that wood is a bad choice, it is just that he prefers to build with materials and methods that he called infinitely better on most any measurable level for comparable costs.
Thompson has worked with a dozen prefabricated systems over the past 30 years and has served as a distributor of ThermaSteel for six years.
“Today people are a lot more educated, interested and almost demanding from the marketplace, from the builders, and from the architects that they spec in something more energy efficient, stronger and more environmental,” said Thompson.
