Seguin Gazette: New production line comes to town

Felicia Frazar
felicia.frazar@seguingazette.com

(Seguin) - A long-standing, local manufacturing facility has partnered with an Australian-based company to mass produce modular homes.

However, the buildings that can range from a small one-bedroom, one-bath emergency shelter to eight-story structures aren’t made with the typical building materials in the warehouse on Rudeloff Road.

Seguin-based EPMP Sheet Metal Fabrication has joined forces with Intelligent Building Systems International to create panels, which ”are high performance engineered modular panels that incorporate interlocking male and female joints creating seamless walls and floors,” according to the IBIS website.

“It is a big Lego building block,” Mike Smith Intelligent Building Systems USA Managing Director said. “We are basically using 21st-century technology as a new way of building homes. We are replacing the way homes were built for the last 100 years with a new technology.”

The companies officially announced the partnership on Friday morning with a tour of the EPMP facility and a look at one of the eco-cabins that is near completion.

Neither company designs the actual structures, they just offer the technology to create them, Smith said.

“We’ve partnered with Clint Plant from EPMP Manufacturing, mainly because he has the technology to build our material,” he said. According to a press release from the Seguin Economic Development Corporation, the panels are made by using a fly ash paneling system.

EPMP has manufactured various items since the facility opened in 1984, Plant said.

“All we’ve every really done at this plant is manufacturing,” he said. We’ve built anything and everything. Our exposure has been in the modular building business. I grew up in the construction — building businesses. They are doing a simpler, easier, better way of doing things.”

Smith said production of the pieces can take a few months to create, however, construction of the building takes relatively no time at all. “It takes about four to five months to build in a factory and about 7 days to put up. We could do it faster, but we’re going in training the locals,” he said.

IBSI originally began creating rapid-construction facilities with a focus on military applications but began to shift their focus “This technology has applications beyond just disaster. As the technology was developed, we realized there are housing shortages all across the globe and in America,” Smith said. “Then we started moving into permanent rapid building solutions. We can build a home on site in seven to 10 days move in ready.”

The buildings aren’t just quick to assemble, they offer a durability they last long after most typical homes, Smith said. “Most houses ... have a 40-year life cycle for the home. Our product is the only product that has a 50- to 100-year lifespan,” he said. “Our product is not only better than what you are getting for less money, but it is also waterproof, fire retardant at 1200 degrees, it is bug proof. On the environmental side, we are truly eco-friendly. It is seismic rated and cyclone-rated to 150 miles per hour. Everything is made out of a composite material.”

Plant said this level of cutting-edge technology is what his business is all about. “I am always looking for the next greatest thing, that is how we built our business. Just trying to set new trends and be different,” he said. “ I think it is an opportunity not only for EPMP but for Seguin, and really the U.S. because this product is not in the United States. It is going to change the way things are done. I think it is a game changer for the housing market, but not just for housing. This has commercial applications, as well.”

The homes can be built as temporary housing, and in less than a day, make the change to permanent, Smith said.

“Our product can go straight to concrete slab, we can put it on pier and beam, we can put it on piling,” he said.Additionally, Smith said it is easy to add on to later down the road.

While the panels are sturdy, they are not solid, offering the ability to easily run cables and plumbing inside the walls. The design of the panels and the framework make the buildings easy to construct, Troy Bingham, IBSI Company Director said. “The whole thing is speed and about being able to train somebody who is ready for efficiency,” he said. “Moving all of the hard-skilled labor out of it, so we can teach people in local areas to build houses really quickly. We can do any kind of design, we are only limited by the architect’s imagination.”

The production line and ability to quickly build the structures make them ideal for areas that have been struck by a natural disaster, Smike said. “We can go into a disaster area and set up permanent and temporary,” he said. “We can go in with these kits, built them on site in about seven days. We could do it faster, but we’re going in training the locals. The good things about this, if we went in there as a temporary solution, which this is designed as temporary, in a matter of hours, we could turn this into a permanent solution.”

However, the materials aren’t just for temporary housing. The company has created everything from eco-cabins to a 60-room dormitory for a college campus, Bingham said. “We have hundreds of houses in Africa, Australia, our biggest client is an enlisted retirement company,” he said. “We do student accommodation with it, schools with it, clinics with it. We’re building in New Zealand, we’re building in Malaysia. Anything you can think of. Eight stories is the height restriction that we have.” Furthermore, they can be customized to include the basic necessities to the higher-end options, Smith said.

EPMP is the first U.S.-based company to begin manufacturing the panels, Smith said.

As this is the beginning, Smith said IBSI is rolling out the production of materials in two different phases.

“One is through permanent solutions for the disaster area, so as that funding becomes available we’re going to be competing for that,” he said. “We’re also going to be simultaneously working with developers and builders, primarily in the Austin area to actually roll out communities of the eco-friendly.”

As things start to take off for the companies, Smith said it can start to create numerous job opportunities for area residents.

“What we are looking for is if we get a 50 to 100 home contract, EPMP facility is our contracted manufacturing facility, we’re looking at about 100 jobs,” he said. “For IBSI direct, we’re going to be looking at 15 to 20 project managers on site over the guys doing overwatch. For every one of those jobs created, it is .5 jobs created.”

Seguin Economic Development Director Josh Schneuker said the city is excited to welcome IBSI to the neighborhood. “It is going to be providing our local area with plenty of new jobs and opportunity,” he said. “It also has the opportunity to help out a lot of people that have a lot of need right now, especially relating to the disasters that have hit Texas and Florida and Puerto Rico. This is a solution that can get people into a house who need homes at the moment, while at the same time providing our local economy with new jobs infusing new dollars into our economy.”

For more information about IBSI and their products, visit www.ibsi.com.au 

To view the Seguin Gazette Story click here.