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Superior Walls - Superior Effort

12/5/2013

The crew from Superior Walls arrived on Wednesday with three truckloads of precast panels. The dense fog made for a long trip from North Carolina.

Set up on a wooded, sloping site was challenging. The crew from Superior Walls had a "can-do" attitude and persevered through the fog, rain and muddy conditions.

First wall going in. Wilson, the crane operator, manuvered the concrete panels off the flatbeds and through the trees.... like threading a 3,000 lb needle with a hundred foot steel thread,

We got a little break in the weather for the next few panels on Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday morning the weather turned ugly again. More fog, drizzle and mud. No fun backing the semis loaded with panels into the site.

Did I mention the fog, rain and mud??

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Visit to Superior Walls of North Carolina

2/24/2013

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We considered several different systems for the foundation / basement walls
    - Poured-in-place concrete
    - Insulated concrete forms (ICFs)
    - Superior Walls

I've built two homes before so I was familiar with traditional poured-in-place foundations. Poured, reinforced concrete is a proven system but it has a number of drawbacks.   First, the walls are rarely level or completely square. Especially on a complex design with a lot of corners that steps down a slope.   Second, the walls can be cold and musty.   We mitigate that problem up north by insulating the exterior of the foundation walls but exterior insulation is not allowed in Georgia due to concerns about termites.

We decided to go with the Xi system from Superior Walls of North Carolina so a few weeks ago Tracey and I went to visit the plant and meet the team at their headquarters in Salisbury, NC about 30 minutes from Charlotte.

The Superior Walls system consists of monolithically poured, pre-cast concrete panels. The panels contain 2.5 inches of insulation which gives them an R value of 12.5.

They use a very high strength concrete mix that is reinforced with steel rebar and polypropylene fibers.

Each panel is custom made to the architect's CAD drawings with window and door openings cast into the panles.

Surprisingly, the cost of Superior Walls system is competitive with poured-in-place and turned out to be cheaper than ICF construction.

The crew is framing up a wall panel with window and door openings

Pouring the panel. Note the window opening on the left

A finished panel, loaded and ready for shipment to a customer's site

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Superior Walls - Superior Effort

Visit to Superior Walls of North Carolina

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