Stuc-Cork is the newest and most advanced exterior wall finish system in the building Industry, and is exclusive to ECOrk America-National. Stuc-Cork is the front runner in building the future.
ECOrk HD is a superior quality coating, with endurance, permeability, elasticity and thermal insulating performance. The thermal benefits of the cork allow it to be classified as true EIFS ( External Insulated Finish System).
The Stuc-Cork exterior finish system will outlast and out perform any other exterior finish system on the market and no other system can match the beautiful finish.
Additionally , we have teamed up with Sherwin Williams to provide all their popular colors. Just pick any of Sherwin Williams popular pallet of colors , or we can match any custom color for you.
“ECOrk HD” is a Projected Cork coating that is mixed 80% cork granules in a Polyacrylate Resin Polymer base.
Each cork cell is a 14 sided polyhedron filled with air, with an extremely strong membrane that is water resistant and airtight!!! The air volume of cork is around 89%, which allows for both acoustic and thermal insulation barrier. Cork is a natural impermeable , and contains an almost magical chemical which renders it impermeable to liquids and gases. This chemical is a fatty acid and a heavy organic alcohol called “Suberin” , which also does not rot or degrade. This chemical also resists Mold and Mildew. Cork has a measured perm rating of 53, which I important for moisture control .
ECOrk HD along with its other qualities, is naturally flexible and durable because of its cell structure. Under a microscope, cork has a honeycomb-like structure that traps air in its pockets—cork is 80-90% air. It’s this structure and the air trapped inside that allows the cork to be flexible and elastic without expanding and contracting with the elements. Where paint will crack and flake when exposed to the elements, cork spray will bend and move with the structure while maintaining structural integrity and therefore not crack under pressure.
The honeycomb structure of cork has the ability to dampen sound. By the installation of our Stuc-Cork system , it can reduce noise by 9 to 30 decibels, depending on thickness . Cork by itself has been part of soundproofing recording studios for years and now with cork spray you’re able to reduce the exterior sound of your home or commercial building.
Our Stuc-Cork system is also a natural fire retardant. This built-in safety feature is excellent for residential, commercial, and industrial purposes alike—definitely not something any other exterior finish coat can boast!
Stuc-Cork exterior finish system combines the quality and benefits of James Hardie Vertical Smooth Siding , Georgia Pacific DensGlass® , National Gypsum -Permabase Cement Board, and USG-Durock Cement Board substrate and ECOrk America’s ECOrk HD World Class Spray Cork. The application provides a premium water resistant , yet breathable exterior finish wall system.
We chose James Hardie siding as our substrate due to their extensive testing and universal approval as a n exterior clad finish sheathing. They have tested their system against wind loads that exceed all construction codes in the United States and protects homes from Cat 5 Hurricane winds.
Additional substrates that we are using include Densglass Sheathing , by Georgia Pacific. Widely recognized by the GOLD color, DensGlass® fiberglass mat gypsum sheathing has an exemplary track record that spans more than 30 years. It is a preferred substrate under brick, stone, stucco, siding and EIFS due to its ability to protect a structure against incidental moisture during and after construction. DensGlass Sheathing adds performance and durability to a wide range of fire-rated and non-fire-rated building assemblies. Dens® Solutions are industry trusted, high-performing fiberglass mat gypsum panels suitable for your wall, roof, ceiling and floor projects. Dens Solutions carry the mark of our valued heritage in Gold, as a visible standard-bearer of our position as the first manufacturer to create a fiberglass mat board and as a relentless innovator of strength and moisture resistant products for over 30 years. Dens Solutions answer building challenges with ingenuity.
We also are using two (2) of the top cement based boards on the market, which has been a common substrate for traditional stucco for years National Gypsum -Permabase Cement Board,. takes into account the environmental impact of your materials and can dramatically increase the success of your project, especially when tight deadlines add complexity to your build.
That’s why PermaBASE® Building Products are the industry-preferred choice, delivering exceptional performance on exterior cement board stucco applications, PermaBASE® Building Products deliver an efficient installation that’s faster than traditional stucco.
Lightweight and easy to work with, PermaBASE Building Products are moisture- and mold-resistant, UL GREENGUARD GOLD certified, and feature EdgeTech® Reinforced Edge technology for added durability. The board also carries a wind load of 125 mph, with 16” OC Stud spacing
USG-Durock Cement Board ® Brand Cement Board with EdgeGuard™ offers architects, builders and tile contractors a strong, water-durable tile backerboard for floors, walls, countertops, tub, shower areas and exterior finish systems. Durock® Brand Cement Board with EdgeGuard™ offers enhanced, proprietary edge performance, preventing spinout and crumbling. This mold resistant tile backer makes it the perfect choice for tile and flooring in baths, kitchens and laundry rooms in new construction and remodeling. Durock® Brand Cement Board with EdgeGuard™ cuts easily and installs quickly with Durock™ Brand Tile Backer Screws, self-drilling fasteners or nails. The board also carries a wind load of 125-130 mph, with 16” OC Stud spacing
The ECOrk HD coating is unique to any other coating in that it looks aesthetically similar to traditional stucco, but better , since it does not chip, crack or fade, and provides an additional layer of thermal insulation that breaks the thermal bridge. The system also incorporates and uses all the decorative trim system used in traditional stucco design.
ECOrk America’s Stuc-Cork has been chosen by D.R. Horton as one of their new exterior Stucco finish systems. They chose all the benefits of ECOrk HD in a simple application that brings them a more premium classic look than ever before. They chose our system because we stand behind our Stuc-Cork system with customer service and quality control.
D.R. Horton. We are America’s Builder.
D.R. Horton is America’s largest home builder and has delivered more than 810,000 homes to their nation’s customers since our company’s inception in 1978.
Since 2002, more homebuyers have chosen D.R. Horton than any other national builder.
They operate in 44 of homebuilding’s top 50 markets in the U.S., and rank among the top 5 in 36 of these.
Their team of operating experts are spread across the nation in 29 states and 90 market
We are truly thankful that D.R. Horton has entrusted ECOrk America’s Stuc-Cork Exterior Finish System for their plan on building the future.
Prior to Hardie Install
Hardie Installed and Floated
ECOrk Application
Close Up—ECOrk Finish
Complete Finish
Final Home Complete
Another one of our Builder Partners is Homebound.
Homebound started out to help people rebuild after their houses were destroyed by California wildfires in 2018.
But over time, the company realized that its digital general contracting and “personalized” homebuilding services could be applied to non-disaster use cases as well — especially in regions where there is a major shortage of inventory.
And today, the Santa Rosa, California-based startup is announcing it has raised $75 million in a Series C funding round led by Khosla Ventures toward its efforts to help address those inventory shortages with its technology. In addition to the equity, Homebound also secured “hundreds of millions” in debt from Goldman Sachs. The raise brings the company’s total equity haul to $148 million since its inception.
Homebound’s self-described mission is to serve as a “next gen” homebuilder to make it possible “for anyone, anywhere to build a home.”
Until last April, the startup had been exclusively focused on helping homeowners navigate the challenges and complexities of rebuilding after wildfires in California. But in 2021, Homebound expanded to Austin, Texas, its first non-disaster market, with the goal of taking learnings from those rebuilds and applying the same “streamlined, tech-enabled building process” to make custom homebuilding an option for local homeowners.
The move went even better than expected, according to CEO Nikki Pechet, who co-founded Homebound with Atomic managing partner Jack Abraham.
“We realized what we were facing in Austin and other markets across the country was a different kind of disaster, which is a historic housing shortage being compounded by record migration to a bunch of cities around the country that had some of the worst shortages in the country already going into this migration,” Pechet told TechCrunch. “While we had a plan and knew roughly what we were going to do, we could never have imagined the insane acceleration of Austin or what we’d be able to accomplish in what has definitively been the biggest 10 months in the history of the company.”
When Homebound launched in Austin, it knew that it was going to need to be able to acquire properties that it could turn into for-sale homes. It also realized that at the pace it was scaling, it needed to double down on its tech investments. So it went out last year to raise a $50 million Series C. It ended up with $75 million, plus hundreds of millions of dollars of debt to power its purchase property program. Using machine learning and data, Homebound looks to purchase land in mostly off-market transactions.
The company starts by helping a potential homeowner identify land they want to build on, or helping them find a lot among the inventory Homebound has already built up. From there, it can help with everything from architectural plans to design to actual construction via its platform. Homebound offers a set of plans for people to choose from, with varying levels of customization.
Building costs for a typical single-family home in the Austin area start at around $500,000 depending on the size, complexity of house, lot size and location. That does not include land cost. Some people are also opting to build second units on existing properties. As the housing market in Austin has essentially exploded, so too has the demand for new homes.
“In most cases, people can build a new home for less than they can pay for an existing home just because of the dynamics,” Pechet has said. (Note: The starting figure was originally closer to $300,000 but the city has seen a 46% jump in median home prices since Homebound entered the market).
Homebound’s sweet spot, she added, is building homes that cost between $500,000 and $1.5 million (again, minus land costs).
The construction industry has long been plagued by inefficiencies and productivity challenges. And while the sector has never before seen such influxes of capital, there is still clearly room for improvement.
Homebound believes its “full-stack incorporation of tech at every stage in the homebuilding process” addresses issues that plague the industry, from inefficient labor productivity to underwhelming customer experiences.
Homebound declined to reveal any revenue growth metrics or its valuation, saying only that other existing investors — including Google Ventures, Forerunner, Thrive, Irongrey and Fifth Wall, plus Deer Park Road, former Amazon executive Jeff Wilke and real estate developer Stephen Ross — also “substantially” participated in the Series C financing. Pechet said the company’s existing backers were eager to invest again because Homebound has “done all the things we said we were going to do.”
The startup says it will use its new capital to scale rapidly across new markets in the U.S. — starting with Dallas, Houston and Denver — and continue to invest “heavily” in building a proprietary technology platform to “combat the drastic supply/demand imbalance” that exists in cities.
It says: “The result is more efficient projects that are 80% faster through pre-construction, 10% faster during construction, and 8x more efficient during the architecture and design phase with an average cost savings of up to 30% when compared with other local custom builders.”
Homebound currently has just over 200 employees and also plans to use its new capital to conduct “massive hiring across the board.”
“This is a tough category to build a business in,” Pechet said. “People want to work on companies that matter. But with a 5.5 million housing shortage, this is needed. And we expect this to be a multibillion-dollar company one day.”
David Weiden, founding partner and managing director at Khosla Ventures, told TechCrunch that it has invested in Homebound for two reasons: the team and the market.
“Nikki and Jack are terrific founders we are pleased to back,” he wrote via email. “Construction is massive in terms of financial, societal, and environmental impact with significant opportunity for innovation to disrupt and improve it in a myriad of ways.”
“And while there are many participants in the construction ecosystem, Homebound has a relatively unique approach in terms of breadth and leveraging technology,” Weiden added. “The value of their approach has been proven out and demonstrated by the scale they have achieved to date in a fast and capital-efficient way.”