<== Site Review (2004-11-13) ==>

Staker | Parson Companies provide concrete, asphalt and other such building materials.

I am giving it the site of the day mention as they have several interesting links about building concrete houses. The links include eco block and concrete homes.

If you haven't noticed yet, Utah is a desert. We really do not have the strong timber industry like the great northwest or even the great northeast. I happen to be a strong believer in the community's definition of space. It makes sense that we would build our community from the resources around us...rocks.

Utah does a great deal of building from rocks. We can see the ugly gashes in the point of the mountain every time we drive from Provo to Salt Lake. Stone quarries are not without their own sets of environmental damage. Regardless, the idea of building a house using eco blocks is quite intriguing.

The primary advantage of frame construction is earthquake safety. Before buying a pile of ecoblocks, I would want to do a little research on structures to see how well they handle earthquakes. The USGS has a page on damage caused by earthquakes in Utah. Piling up stones is a recipe for disaster on the active Wasatch Fault. However, modern materials could be designed to limit the danger.

I am not able to answer the question of best building materials for Wasatch homes. You will need to do your own research. The development of eco blocks simply provide an interesting alternative.