INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business

ON THE BRINK
Precast Building Solutions
Key innovation: constructing specially engineered
homes of premade concrete panels
Where they’re based: New Orleans
Top executive: Brian Opert, CEO
Year introduced: 2006
SICKENED BY THE loss of more than 200,000 residential
homes because of Hurricane Katrina, Brian Opert felt
compelled to offer New Orleanians a better way to survive
the next storm.
“We are the only country in the world that still builds
out of wood, and it’s simply not practical,” said Opert,
who established Precast Building Solutions to construct
specially engineered homes made of precast concrete
panels.
Built to exceed current international building code
standards, PBS homes are hurricane-, tornado-, flood-,
fire-, termite-, mold-, rot-, vermin- and even bulletproof,
Opert said. The basic design of PBS homes is like a tornado-safe
house in that the floors and ceilings, as well as
the walls, are comprised of precast concrete panels able to
withstand 500 mph winds.
The home is completed with three-paned system impactresistant
windows and a roof that is a sealed insulated panel
system consisting of urethane foam sandwiched between
two steel panels. All utilities, such as the hot water heater and
air conditioning system, are between the roof and the ceiling
so they won’t flood and can be easily accessed.
Because it’s made of concrete, the home is more ecofriendly
and energy efficient, Opert said.
“Concrete doesn’t absorb and release energy as quickly
as wood, so it’s like a wine cellar — cooler in the summer
and warmer in the winter,” he said.
Additionally, an average stick-built house would
require sacrificing 28 or more trees, he said. New Orleans
city code requires the use of wood pilings for residential
construction. However, Opert is working to gain acceptance
for alternative foundation piling materials such as
precast concrete or auger cast pilings, which are the norm
in heavy construction.
Since it won’t burn, the PBS home costs about half as
much to insure than a stick-built structure and long-term
maintenance is significantly more affordable.
“It’s very quick to build,” Opert said. “It only takes a
day and a half or two days to erect the panels, and we can
deliver the whole house within six to eight weeks.”
Even other concrete homes being built — poured in
place, or concrete masonry units finished with stucco
require a lot of labor to construct, Opert said.
“We just need one welder, three helpers and a crane,
and we’ve got the walls built.”
Specially designed casting forms make the finished
product look like wood. •
— Angelle Bergeron
PHOTO BY FRANK AYMAMI
Precast Building Solutions’ Brian Opert started building homes made from premade concrete panels after seeing the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina’s winds.
New Orleans CityBusiness 59A