F1 Construction Inc.’s Gustavo Badolati (l.) and Eco Building Products President and CEO Steve Conboy at the construction site of a new Ozone Park home.
Photo by Michael V. Cusenza
If you see a new home being built in Howard Beach or Ozone Park, chances are Gustavo Badolati and F1 Construction, Inc. are helming the project.
And thanks to a new accord with Eco Building Products, Badolati and his crews are using environmentally friendly lumber that is shifting the way houses are framed, from the traditional to the revolutionary.
“For a long time, since [Superstorm] Sandy, we’ve been looking for different ways to build and rebuild,” Badolati said last Friday at the F1 Construction site of a brand-new house on 150th Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard.
One of those ways was in the materials. Enter Eco and the Red Shield Protected Lumber.
“From a homeowner’s standpoint, the last thing you want to have problems with is the structure of the house,” said Nathaniel Bruce, vice president of national accounts at Eco. “You don’t want to worry about things like mold and termites.”
According to Bruce, the Red Shield wood defends against mold, termite colonization and stunts the spread of fire; and is eco-friendly and safety to use. It contains no formaldehyde or hazardous chemicals.
According to Eco, Red Shield is protected lumber that can significantly reduce the demand for timber because structures built with it will last longer and won’t require the same amount of maintenance or repair due to mold and termite damage.
“It has a bigger impact on the environment than recycling a soda can,” said Steve Conboy, president and CEO of Eco, “because you don’t have to consistently replace the wood.”
Since it is protected against mold it provides a healthier environment for people who live in the home and it emits no odors. Lumber is an organic natural food source for mold and has become a very noisy space with all the construction defect lawsuits in the country. According to Conboy, mold issues are at the top of the list in all the claims. The Red Shield ;umber is protected on all six sides of every board used to build or remodel a house with a treatment that kills existing mold already on lumber and provides prevention from future growth within the wall cavity. And each piece of Eco lumber comes with a 10-year warranty.
Naturally, a product with such promise and a decade-long warranty is going to be much more expensive than your average piece of wood. But, Bruce asserted, the protected lumber is roughly 12 percent more than raw lumber.
“People need to understand that when you give them an option—even if it [costs] slightly more—it helps in the end,” Badolati said. However, he added that his relationship with Eco allows him to “pass the savings on to the customer.”
For more information on F1 Construction, Inc., log onto f1construction.com. For more info on Eco Building Products, go to ecob.net.
By Michael V. Cusenza
