In The News

Craig Conway isn’t yet quite sure how he and his wife Alena will utilize the Auxiliary Dwelling Unit (ADU) they’re about to build on their property in Vista, Calif. They may use it as a guest house for relatives when they come to visit. They might rent the microhome to a tenant. Another possibility could find them living in the home themselves.

But while they’re not positive about the eventual use of the ADU, they are certain about the material they will use to build the structure. The ADU will be constructed of steel from EcoSteel, a decision both Conway and the contractor he selected heartily endorse.

“I’ve always been interested in steel construction myself,” Conway says. “My last home, in Washington [State], had all-metal siding and a metal roof. It was a great way to go. Steel is a very clean way to build. You don’t have to paint it as often. The maintenance needed is much less, especially on the roof. It just made more sense to me.”

As designed, the home Conway will have built early in 2022 will measure about 800 square feet in size. Upon entering the home, visitors will step into an entrance hallway, and from there into a kind of miniature “great room” featuring the living room, kitchen and kitchen preparation island, Conway says. Two bedrooms will be placed on either side of the kitchen area, with the master bedroom to the left and guest bedroom to the right. The home will feature two bathrooms, including one for the master bedroom.

As might be expected of a home in sunny Southern California, the design will offer huge windows expressly intended to flood the interior of the residence with abundant natural light. The living room will benefit from sweeps of sunshine beaming in through sliding glass doors that divide the interior from the inviting concrete front deck outside.

Because the ADU will be constructed on a slope, Conway and his builder faced some engineering challenges in designing the home. A concrete base with a seven- to eight- foot-tall retaining wall is part of the home support. The final touch is a garage with a workshop. Detached from the ADU, the garage will be constructed of concrete.

After thoroughgoing consideration, the colors of the residence have been chosen. The home’s exterior will be of a light gray, with a darker gray accent on the framing of the house. The interiors will be what Conway calls ”basic sheetrock white.” A light-colored roof will reflect the intense Southern California sunlight to help keep the home cool.

The size of the ADU was chosen with particular attention to California building codes. “It’s very tough building in California right now, due to the pandemic,” Conway explains. “Any home you build has to go through permitting and all the administrative process of getting the building approved. But it can be easier with ADUs. There are ADUs at certain square footage levels that are almost pre-permitted or can be permitted very quickly. They have to be less than 1,200 square feet. That is the current law.”

Aesthetically pleasing

Much like other builders and end users who choose steel buildings from EcoSteel,
Conway identified one advantage after another provided by the company’s steel. The beautiful aesthetics available today in steel structures represent the first such benefit. “Everybody here does the adobe look,” Conway says, referring to the San Diego area, of which Vista is a part. “And I can’t stand the adobe look. EcoSteel has done a great job with the side paneling and their roofing, to give it a nice, modern, home-like look.”

While EcoSteel is chosen to construct a great many industrial buildings, when it comes to residences, the company is able to deliver homes with a look anything but industrial in appearance, Conway adds. “They have three different levels of texture, and I want a little bit of texture to hide any scratches,” he remarks. “This just fits the bill.”

Superior value

Value proved another factor Conway took into consideration when deciding on a steel building. “Unfortunately, materials right now are a big issue” in building, he says. “When you build a house of wood, you have all sorts of scrap during the building process. But when you build a steel house, everything is built to measure in advance. You don’t have wasted materials. We don’t anticipate waste on our EcoSteel home.”

Also worth considering is the cost of wood, which is anything but low at current prices. “Wood is not cheap, and steel is not cheap,” Conway says philosophically. “But if you weigh the choice at current prices, steel is closer to wood than ever.”

Built-in durability

Yet another consideration in Conway’s choice of EcoSteel was resistance to natural
disasters, of which California has had more than its share in recent years. In Vista,
situated about 45 miles north of San Diego, homes and buildings are vulnerable to
winds from the east that can swiftly carry wildfires, Conway says. “I’ve heard from
neighbors that about 6 or 8 years ago, there was a fire in the valley next to us,” he adds.

“Besides fire, there are earthquakes down here. With steel you’re ahead of the game in maintaining your structure when an earthquake strikes. Wood breaks. Steel does not. If steel breaks, we’re all in trouble.” EcoSteel’s well-known resistance to the rot, mold, warping and splitting that plagues many wood structures was another consideration. “In terms of maintenance, we come out ahead,” Conway says.

Asked when he believed his new EcoSteel Auxiliary Dwelling Unit will be completed, Conway answers with a laugh, “I’d like to be in the home tomorrow.” More realistically he is optimistic about obtaining building permits by the first week of 2022. He doesn’t believe construction of the microhome will take any longer than four to six months. That means the residence should be ready for occupancy by early summer.

“At age 70, this is the last home I intend to build, especially in the ADU style,” Conway says. “There are lots of ADU makers. But steel like this in an ADU is really new. I think it will really catch on well, and I think EcoSteel is on the right path.”

EcoSteel was recently featured in FF Journal as the cover showcase article.

From homeless shelters to mixed-use spaces, prefab steel microhomes are changing how Americans live and work.

From homeless shelters to residential communities, eco-friendly, prefab steel is changing the face of an industry with attractive, affordable housing

In the U.S., San Francisco is the undisputed king of tech IPOs with startups securing more than $31 billion in early stage venture capital funding between 2010 and 2020. Last year, the city was also recognized by the Wealth-X report as the third city in the world with the most billionaires—77 to be exact. Iconic landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, along with Chinatown, the San Francisco Giants, Fisherman’s Wharf and the Maritime National Historic Park make the Bay Area an eclectic mix of cultural, entertainment and commercial attractions. The city is also a dichotomy of the rich and homeless.

The Bay Area Council Homelessness 2019 Report identified San Francisco’s homeless crisis as one of the worst in the country. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires the Bay Area to conduct a biannual Point-in-Time Count Report of those experiencing homelessness. San Francisco’s 2019 “blitz count” totaled 8,035 people, up 17 percent from 2017.

Due to COVID-19 conditions, HUD was exempted from providing a 2021 head count. Job loss, alcohol and drug use, and mental health issues are some of the contributing factors to homelessness but lack of affordable housing remains at the top of the list. It’s a situation that Joss Hudson, owner of Laguna Niguel, California-based EcoSteel Building Systems, is all too familiar with. Jeff Kositsky, director of San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, told the Bay Area Council that “Homelessness in San Francisco will never be solved as long as the city is surrounded by 15,000 unsheltered people in the neighboring counties.”

STEEL AND SKIN
Fixing a multifaceted problem like homelessness is complicated at best. EcoSteel’s pre-engineered commercial-grade steel structures proved an ideal choice for San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) when the agency launched plans to build the Bayview Safe Navigation Center. The project was plagued by poor soil conditions, minimal electrical infrastructure, a small budget and a short delivery window. The shelter also needed cosmetic appeal that fit the zone-approved industrial space. The location put the structure a few hundred feet away from a major highway overpass, which dictated requirements for sound deadening material. EcoSteel’s panelized construction featured an insulated roof and wall panel system capable of shutting out traffic noise. The panels and frame were fabricated simultaneously with construction of the foundation for quick assembly and installation. Building and labor costs were reduced. The durable, energy-efficient 25,000-sq.-ft. center opened in March 2021 and can house up to 203 individuals.

Unlike traditional stick-built construction, the company’s value-added “steel-and-skin” building systems and software-driven fabrication is carving a new niche in economical residential housing and giving local fabricators and steel contractors access to the market for the first time.

Hudson’s affinity for the iron and carbon alloy and his understanding of the unique benefits steel buildings offer was forged at a young age. “My family was in real estate and development in Delaware,” he says. “As a result, I was educated in all aspects of site planning, roads, sewers, construction, sales and building rentals. My family also owned a mobile home park. I learned a lot about modular construction during new mobile home setups.”

His concept of steel buildings as houses began to take shape in the late 1990s. “I dabbled in research and development for 1,000-sq.-ft. to 1,200-sq.-ft. eco-cottages to test the small building market,” he continues. “One of the biggest problems was labor. You still have to meet all of the same code standards you would have to comply with if you were building a 5,000-sq.-ft. multimillion-dollar home. You can’t cut out the contractor if you want your certificate of occupancy.

Ideas for a modern Sears home kit assembled by the property owner were evaluated and discarded. Hudson established EcoSteel in 2004 and developed a 10-step Prefab Sequence to bring his metal MicroHomes to market.

SANCTUARY
“The goal is to shelter people with high-quality, sustainable housing that can withstand termites, rot and extreme weather,” he says. “The question I had to answer was how to make steel housing affordable to the masses. To reduce construction and labor costs, we created smaller structures. We made our tiny homes more energy efficient and identified ways to minimize maintenance.”

EcoSteel aligned itself with architects to pilot a path through permitting requirements and the administrative details associated with design and construction. The company developed a nationwide network of manufacturing locations and commercial steel contractors. It also built a library of certified components that can be assembled with standard tools, very much “like an Erector set.”

While sustainability and quick installation are key priorities, the MicroHomes with a minimalist flair don’t skimp on performance, versatility or aesthetics. The company combines proven steel construction methods with 3D engineering and modeling using Building Information Management (BIM). The platform employs structured, multidisciplinary data to create and manage information for a built asset from planning and design to construction.

“Our clear-span curtain wall structure eliminates the need for load bearing interior walls,” says Hudson. “The technique frees up space and makes creative, cutting-edge designs possible with interesting metal building details.” Using steel made from more than 75 percent recycled materials, MicroHomes can move from concept to occupancy in as little as 90 days. Construction begins with pre-cut, predrilled I-beams for rapid, on-site assembly. Fire resistant and able to withstand winds up
to 150 miles per hour, the small structures or accessory dwelling units (ADU) can be tailored to myriad uses.

In 2019, five bills were signed into law making ADUs more accessible to homeowners and renters in the state of California. “Every property has room for an accessory dwelling,” says Hudson. “It can be a he- or she-shed, an alternative to assisted living for an elder, a guest house, private space for college kids that come home to visit, or it can provide a potential income opportunity as a rental.” California regulators think ADUs offer one solution to the state’s housing crisis.

AFFORDABLE
Hudson believes the affordable housing initiative can help break open a new market for steel fabricators. “Residential housing is a huge market that steel contractors have not been able to access before,” he says.

The Associated Builders and Contractors Chief Economist Anirban Basu said in a year-end webinar that he believed that the U.S. economy will “come back hard in 2021.” The U.S. Census Bureau and HUD reported new residential construction statistics for April 2021. Building permits were posted at 1,760,000, up 0.3 percent from March 2021 and 60.9 percent above April 2020’s rate of 1,094,000. Privately owned housing starts in April were listed at 1,569,000, 67.3 percent above the April 2020 rate of 938,000. Housing completions were recorded at a rate of 1,449,000, 21.7 percent higher than the April 2020 rate of 1,191,000.

Michelle Meisels, Deloitte’s engineering and construction practice leader, also forecasts pent-up demand for 2021. Deloitte reported trends that point to the market becoming more competitive for subcontractors. General contractors are expected to bring more work in house that would previously have been farmed out.

Today EcoSteel’s iconic construction systems are being used for commercial, residential, multifamily and mixed-use projects across the country. Whether a MicroHome, a coffee shop, a custom steel and glass office building, a prefab steel farmhouse, observatory, or prefab steel loft apartments, the versatility of EcoSteel’s signature methodology is poised to help subcontractors and general contractors pursue nontraditional growth paths.

“Landscape contractors are also underserved,” says Hudson. “They are already performing light construction. With some education and training, this group of professionals could install a MicroHome on a landscape contract.”

NEW AVENUES
Education is the next natural evolutionary step for EcoSteel. The company’s hot rolled steel primary frames and cold rolled secondary frames are either laser cut or waterjet sliced and fabricated on roll formers. Wall and roof panels are filled with non-CFC polyisocyanurate foam and manufactured with a uniform pressure lamination process that bonds metal facings to procured insulating rigid foam cores. Once the cores pass inspection, they are cut to tolerance with a laser-guided saw. Interlocking wall and roof panels easily adapt to different design themes. Metal building trim and interlocking exterior panels eliminate thermal gaps and provide a dry, lockable shell for finish contractors.

“Very few high schools and colleges are focused on the skill sets required for building and construction,” says Hudson. “We are unrolling plans to establish an EcoSteel University that can educate landscape and building contractors to fabricate at a local level. Then we want to take a free online education program to the high schools where we’ll teach participants how to design, engineer and install a steel micro unit.”

A webcam-supported Zoom platform allows EcoSteel to connect with project partners and clients across the nation. “Today’s building projects need the perfect combination of energy efficiency, creative versatility and reduced construction cost,” says Hudson. “But a solid construction team and the right relationships are just as important, whether we’re partnering with a customer, training contractors or helping equip young kids to breathe new life and fresh ideas into an important trade.”

Reprinted from FFJournal® July 2021
Copyright Trend Publishing Inc.

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Joel Castellanos and Pascale Petronin have taken their love of coffee from their kitchen at home to their own cafe in Cypress on 12716 Telge Road beside Creekwood Grill. It was that same love for the cup of joe that united the couple some 30 years ago in marital bliss and while the two are from different countries, their introduction came from java.

We come from two cultures that socialize a lot around food,” Petronin said. “We’ve always been attracted by how we could keep this culture going. When we moved to the U.S. 20 years ago, that was the one thing we were missing the most.”

In 2015 they put a down payment on their dream with the purchase of some land on Telge Road. With their land bought, they researched a company that would help them build a sustainable building and fulfill their wishes for a uniquely designed space.

Our building was designed and built by a company based in California called EcoSteel. We are one of their pet projects and probably one of their first for a small commercial space,” she added.

Read the article here >