Field Evaluation: David Hopke
Project Summary
Full Final Report November 2001
David Hopke, a Mexico, Missouri Home Builder, employed design and construction technologies to give added value to his customers – peace of mind. He constructed a MADE (marketable, affordable, durable, entry-level) house with insulating concrete form (ICF) exterior walls, Trade Ready® steel floor joists, steel interior framing, and conventionally framed steel roof rafters. The house was erected on a five acre site that his clients called home for many years before a fire destroyed their wood frame home and its contents.
This two-story house with in-ground basement was the builder’s first experience with a combination of ICFs and light gauge steel framing in the same structure. He was encouraged to continue building with ICFs after he used these in a successful renovation project. David Hopke had some experience with commercial steel framing, and noted that the ‘price was right’ for introducing steel framing into this residential construction project.
NAHB Research Center personnel were on site for the installation of Trade Ready® floors and steel roof framing and reported on the cost, time, tools, fasteners, and other distinctions of steel assembly within an ICF structure. Final framing of the roof system took place in June 2001. Mechanical systems and a stamped pigmented concrete porch were installed prior to a July Open House. The house was completed in September 2000.