By Andy Owens
aowens@scbiznews.com
Published Aug. 3, 2009
A Summerville-based startup broke ground on a house this morning that it plans to use as a model to market a new kind of brick.
The company, Aeonian Brick Homes, uses an exclusively licensed chemical that it adds to its brick-making process to turn clay bricks into a waterproof and hurricane proof building material according to wind and saturation tests.
The company’s CEO Don Blalock, who worked for years with State Farm Insurance Co., said 500 of the bricks will be tested next week for earthquake stress by the National Homebuilder’s Association.
Seven out of 10 insurance claims are for water damage, Blalock said, so six years ago he set out to create a new construction material that would keep water out and ended up creating something that solved other issues too. The material won’t catch on fire and is so strong that a wall built of Aeonian bricks withstood a wind test of 240 miles per hour.
“Water destroys brick,” Blalock said. “Once it cracks, more water is going to enter.”
The home will be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified, which has become the environmental standard for green building. The U.S. Green Building Council ranks buildings on a point-based system, including energy efficiency and housing density, among other factors. The council gave the Aeonian home to be built on Butternut Road in Summerville a preliminary ranking of platinum LEED. Only one other home in South Carolina has such a designation.
“We didn’t get any points for density,” Blalock said. “The points we made are on what our house will do and how it will perform.”
Blalock said he moved from Florida to South Carolina to start his company because the Palmetto State has a higher quality of clay used for brick-making, and Florida’s regulatory agency on construction materials threw up some expensive roadblocks for the company.
He also came to South Carolina to start his company because he wanted to build a house in the path of a hurricane to prove the worthiness of his bricks.
“This is very exciting for Summerville and Dorchester County,” said Robby Robbins the chairman of the Greater Summerville Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce.
Robbins, who attended the groundbreaking Monday with other officials and real estate agents, said he lives nearby the home site and plans to check on it as construction begins.
An Aeonian brick home won’t cost more to build than a traditional brick home, Blalock said, and the company said it actually will save contractors 5% on costs and save them in the time it takes to build. The brick is locked together with a special glue and can be painted or covered with traditional wall coverings.
“Both homes will cost exactly the same,” Blalock said. “Once this house is started, we expect this to go nationwide.”
The company, which has nine employees at its headquarters on West 5th North Street, plans to use the model home as a sales office and to demonstrate its building system. The next step, Blalock said, is for the company to go from manual brick-making to an automated system.
Tom Mitchell, vice president of marketing for Aeonian Brick Homes, said the timing of a move to an automated system depends largely on demand. Aeonian could partner with an existing brick manufacturer or go after another round of financing if it decides to build a plant itself. Mitchell expects the interest by homebuyers and homebuilders to increase quickly as the model home is opened.
“We’re absolutely convinced we’re going to change the way homes are built in this country,” he said.
