Date: Fri 20-Aug-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

concrete-house-David-Nowacki

Full Text:

Concrete Ideas About What Makes A Dream Home

(with photos)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Building your own house is never a simple task. But Dr David Nowacki's home

building project is hard in more ways than one.

Dr Nowacki, who practices dentistry in Plainville, is busy constructing one of

the few cast-concrete homes in the area on Bennetts Bridge Road in Sandy Hook,

using a new technology that combines the strength of steel-reinforced concrete

with the insulating power of polystyrene.

The construction system uses insulated concrete forms. The forms are hollow

foam-plastic blocks that are used to frame the house. The stacked hollow

blocks are then filled with poured concrete. The forms contain steel

reinforcing rods to give the concrete tensile strength.

The foam-plastic forms remain in place after the concrete hardens, providing

an internal and external layer of insulation to keep the house warm in the

winter and cool in the summer. Wallboard is connected to the inner side of the

forms. Stucco is applied to the outer side.

Dr Nowacki, 31, plans to live in the 4,000-square-foot house on the five-acre

rolling, wooded site with his wife, Laura, a local pediatrician, and their two

children. Dr Nowacki said he hopes to practice dentistry locally.

The site is distinguished by an elegant fieldstone bridge which Dr Nowacki

helped build several years ago.

"I wanted to do my house myself," he said while standing on the floor of what

will become the prime living area of the Tudor-style home. When completed, the

house will have a cream-colored stucco and fieldstone exterior. Dr Nowacki

plans to have the roof on the house by this fall and hopes to be living in the

building by next spring. Until the Nowackis can move into the new house, they

are living on nearby Gelding Hill Road.

The benefits of building a poured concrete house with insulated forms are its

high strength and high insulation value, Dr Nowacki said. "It's engineered to

be structurally sound," he said. He said he expects that a fireplace and two

wood stoves will take care of the building's heating needs.

Working with his father, Dr Nowacki erected the concrete forms for the house

in four days. He is using a concrete construction system developed by

ECO-Block, LLP, one of several firms which produce such systems.

"I put a lot of time into the planning. I started the plans in 1995," he said.

Dr Nowacki, who has an art background in graphic design and illustration, drew

plans for the building. The plans are subject to revision as the project

progresses. "The details are changing," he said, pointing out how the built

house will vary from the plans.

As now planned, the house will have a steep roof and mahogany doors, with tan,

gray and white fieldstone elements on all four exterior walls.

The house will include a multi-bay attached garage with a concrete roof

supported by structural steel. Atop the spacious garage will be an expansive

patio surfaced with bluestone.

"We plan to be here for a long time," Dr Nowacki said.

A 1986 graduate of Newtown High School, Dr Nowacki used to frame houses in his

college days to earn money.

Dr Nowacki said he especially enjoys making sculpture, a discipline which is

serving him well as he constructs one of the few cast-concrete homes in the

area. "It really helped," he said.