‘It’ll Last For Centuries’: Fairfield Home Is Wave Of Future

FAIRFIELD, CT — Though he’s been a successful architect for 42 years now, new Fairfield resident Leigh Overland, formerly of Westport, had previously always approached his work using the traditional building blocks of his trade.

A challenge by a client to design a Scottish-style castle several years ago, however, introduced him to the use of Insulated Concrete Forms — or ICFs — to get the job done, and in the process opened him up to a whole new way of construction.

ICFs are proving to be a cutting-edge efficient means of building, with many benefits over the traditional wood-frame construction, including being fireproof, mold- & mildew-proof, and stormproof, according to Overland, as well as generally cheaper, better energy-efficient insulators, and even more fun to work with for the builders.

“It’ll last for centuries,” Overland said, unlike so many new wood constructions, which he said have a lifespan generally of decades.

On Wednesday afternoon, Overland and his wife, Nancy Evans, hosted a party at their newly built home at 110 Shoreham Terrace to show people exactly what the technology can do, and to try to encourage others to embrace these new materials.

“It’s just that people don’t know, and change is slow,” he said, along with the fact that it’s easier for architects and builders to do what they’ve always done for years.

Overland has put his effort under an umbrella company called The Next Great American Homes, which includes a number of affiliates who share his interest and dream.

“It’s not as common as frame-built construction, frame lumber,” said Franco Dedemetrio, owner of Norwalk-based Regency Construction, which worked on this project. “This is a hybrid of high efficiency and strength.”

He explained that the literal building blocks are a strong Styrofoam form, which is then reinforced with steel or — in the case of 110 Shoreham — fiberglass bars. These blocks are then filled with reinforced concrete, omitted any wood in the process.

The result is not only impenetrable to various hazards, but it also stands much stronger.

Overland noted that following the major storms, like Hurricane Katrina, that devastated the south, those random houses that were left standing were, in most cases, those that were built with these ICFs.

“I am a firm believer that this is the way to build,” said Dedemetrio, likewise noting that change is slow to come because people — architects especially — are slow to take up a new way of doing things when wood frame construction has been the standard for centuries.

“I am impressed so far,” said Schuyler Sherwood, Fairfield’s assistant fire chief, who was invited to learn more about the technology in relation to his trade.

“The main structural components of the house are non-combustible. That in and of itself makes it safer for firefighters,” he said, as well as citizens.

Further innovations relating to the ICF method include much more efficient heating and cooling, explained Pedro Tardin, who works with Overland’s firm.

He said two relatively small air conditioning units, with 8,000 BTUs, were all that was needed for this new construction.

“We cooled down the whole house,” he said.

Innovations aside, Overland designed a veritable dream house for he and his wife, located on the edge of the Harold R. Woods open space area on Turney Creek Marsh.

“He’s kind of set the bar,” noted Ed Ciesielski, a local sales rep with Caesarstone, which handled the quartz countertops in the house. “Obviously this is going to be a showpiece.”