Having a background in construction from my earlier life in the US, I had heard of Nexcem blocks and believed in the concept, but I had never used them myself. When my wife and I moved to Ontario and bought land to build our first home, Nexcem was top of my list for materials, but I didn’t know where to find the blocks – they aren’t on the shelf at Home Hardware! With some online searching, I was thrilled to find the company that makes them is proudly Canadian and just a couple hour’s drive from my building site. I planned the building myself with plenty of willing help from Vipul and the rest of the team at Nexcem, using R-28 blocks above ground and R-22 for the foundation. Construction was speedy and smooth with help from Nexcem install expert Tim Singbeil. But the mind-blowing part came in the depths of winter. With about 2,000 square feet of space and only 1 mid-sized wood stove, it was comfortable tee-shirt weather indoors while it was negative 20C outside. The temperature throughout was even and steady. I’ve built a lot of buildings and been in many more, across all climates, and I have never in my life been in one that performs better thermally than this Nexcem build. The construction was easy enough and the results are phenomenal. As well as the thermal performance, the house is rock solid, silent indoors, mold-proof, fire-proof, earth-quake proof and not a single creak or vibration in the strongest winds that come across Lake Huron. I couldn’t be happier and recommend this product and this company to anyone who cares about high-performance buildings and energy efficiency. An added bonus, it’s all-natural, no synthetics, no off-gassing, incredibly low environmental impact. Great material, great building, and great company to work with.
Best-performing building shell I’ve ever seen
