Homeway Homes Builds and Insulates
Student Housing Complex


By Jessica A. Baris

Most people aren’t aware of what it takes to build a home. That’s why every Saturday afternoon Homeway Homes gives guided tours of its building factory. The public gets a behind-the-scenes look into the construction of Homeway Homes’ specialty—modular homes.

Recently, Homeway Homes entered a contract with an architect and developer to build and spray foam for a 24-unit student housing complex for the University of Illinois’ engineering department campus.

“We are a home builder, but we spray this foam ourselves,” says Ted Schieler, general manager at Homeway Homes. “We are a certified NCFI sprayer. We contracted directly with the architect and developer as a general contractor.”

A 20-man crew began work on the student housing complex in mid-December last year, and they look forward to a May 2011 completion.

“This building is five stories in the air, which is new to us,” says Schieler. “We did one other project that was four stories, but this was challenging.”

The student housing complex is four stories high with 30,000 square feet of living space. It includes a fifth floor mezzanine and a below-grade parking deck. Homeway Homes constructed the building and has been spraying NCFI’s InsulStar spray foam insulation for 100,000 square feet of exterior drywall.

“The owner was really sold on the spray foam insulation,” said Schieler. “We sprayed it 3 inches thick. Three inches is equivalent to R-30 fiberglass batt, so we are getting a great insulation package.”

It’s certain that with spray foam insulating their new housing, students will live comfortably in their new units, which is especially important in the Illinois winter where it can frequently get below freezing. In fact, spray foam manufacturer NCFI took an extra step to test the insulation R-value of spray foam.

“NCFI hired an independent engineering firm to do an ETP (engineering thermal performance) test to gauge the R-value of SPF versus fiberglass,” says Schieler. “When you factor in all the air sealing that SPF gives, it’s a greater value. It doesn’t lose value if it gets wet or smashed like fiberglass does.”

Back at Homeway Homes’ building factory in Deer Creek, Illinois, the 20-man crew constructed the student housing complex. “We build the modules from the inside out,” explains Schieler. “On the wall framing, we lay drywall face down on the table, build the stud wall on top of it, then spray foam from the outside of the house. Then we put exterior sheathing over that.”

Once the modules were completed, the crew sprayed the exterior drywall with three inches of NCFI’s InsulStar. “We also sprayed the floor system of the apartment, which will be cantilevered out,” adds Schieler.

As the people who take tours of the Homeway Homes’ building factory learn, there is a lot of time, planning, and effort that goes into the construction of a residence. The student housing complex was assembled on the campus site and is just one of several projects Homeway Homes undertakes each year to improve the quality of life for the tenants and homeowners of the buildings they construct. To learn more about Homeway Homes’ efforts, visit www.homewayhomes.com.



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