Justin Harrel loads ACME Panel products into a press to demonstrate how the glue is cured.

Photos by JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Justin Harrel assembles structural insulated panels at ACME Panel in Radford.

| Amy Matzke-Fawcett

amy.matzke-fawcett@roanoke.com, 381-1674

RADFORD -- Green is the buzzword around a new city business.

ACME Panel, located in a refurbished former rubber plant on the city's west end, produces structural insulated panels.

It's the newest business venture of Joe Fortier, president of Taylor Hollow Construction, which is known for renovations to buildings around Radford.

ACME Panel is an acronym for America's Cleaner More Efficient Panel.

Structural insulated panels are made of polymer foam pressed between two pieces of oriented strand board, held together by glue. The panels are pressed under thousands of pounds of pressure for an hour or more.

They are used to replace framing and fiberglass insulation in building houses and commercial buildings, allowing less air to move in and out of the building. It creates a more energy-efficient home, saving money on heating and cooling bills, takes up to 40 percent less time to build and generates less construction site waste, Fortier said.

"It's like a really tight envelope," Fortier said.

Because the panels are filled with foam, there is less room for air to move than in a wall filled with typical fiberglass insulation, keeping it heated or cooled, said Richard Backus of Timber Ridge Craftsmen in Moneta and a certified installer.

Currently, the structural insulated panels industry accounts for less than 5 percent of the housing market, Backus said. Potential homebuilders may not be familiar with the process, and depending on when panel designs are incorporated into the home design, homes may cost 5 percent to 10 percent more than traditional home building materials, he said.

But Fortier and Backus both have faith in the industry and its ability to succeed in Southwest Virginia.

"But I think it's going to become a necessity, with rising costs of energy, because people are looking for alternative and technological systems," Backus said.

Fortier built his home from structural insulated panels and uses them in Taylor Hollow's renovation projects.

"We don't want to just talk the talk," Fortier said. "It's a better way to make a house."

ACME Panel is housed in the former Goodyear Rubber & Tire Co. plant, which closed in January 2009.

Structural insulated panels were used in a $475,000 remodel of the 1960s-era former rubber plant before ACME Panel began its operations there in June.

They are also are being used to repair the roof deck in the former Radford Fitness Center, a Taylor Hollow project currently under renovation on East Main Street. Other Taylor Hollow projects include the Coffee Mill building on East Main Street and Hudson Building on Third Street.

"We want to use SIPs where we can, where it makes sense," Fortier said.

Structural insulated panels sometimes are used for purposes other than building, he said. The panels were used to build a platform for the ACME Panel tent at FloydFest, and Fortier said he was thinking of making a conference table using the panels for the building.

Backus is certified through the SIP School, a West Virginia-based institution. In his three years as a certified installer, he's built two houses with structural insulated panels in the area.

"There have been seven or eight inquiries, but I think it's like anything else -- it's been hit by the economic downturn," he said.

It's always better for the city if a new company can use or retrofit an existing facility because it keeps them from deteriorating, Radford Economic Director Basil Edwards wrote in an e-mail.

"It's also typically cheaper to renovate than build new provided the building has good bones," Edwards wrote. "The public safety building is a perfect example of this."

The city's new $5.59 million public safety building is a former box factory on Robertson Street currently under renovation. The 47,668-square-foot building, scheduled to open next spring, will house both the police department and city manager's office.

The ACME Panel headquarters have also been fitted with 21,000 watts, or $90,000 worth, of solar panels. It's hard to tell exactly how much of the building's energy is provided by the solar panels until they've been running for six months to a year, Fortier said.

To his knowledge, ACME Panel is the first business in the city to use solar panels for power, Edwards said.

"We don't want to just talk about being green, but we want to operate in an environmentally friendly manner," Fortier said.