Where the method came from
It started with a balloon.
Zenith Home Systems did not arrive at a monolithic sprayed shell by looking for a marketing position. It arrived there by spending forty years in an industry that built houses that way on purpose.
The Dome Home years
Our beginnings started out in the Dome Home industry. It was the 1980’s and the revolution had begun! To blow a giant rubber balloon, spray a polystyrene over it, and then gunnite over that, sandwiching in synthetic concrete on both sides of the foam created a wall block unlike any other!
The speed and efficiency of how these Dome structures were built created a frenzy within the construction industry, and why not? You’re talking about a fully fire-resistant, termite-proof, water-resistant, mildew-proof, rust-proof, mold-proof home! Withstanding category 5 winds (240 mph) and structurally engineered to not crack during an earthquake.
The domes themselves did not last as a mainstream building type. The insight behind them did, and it is a simple one: if the insulation and the structure are the same piece of material, a great many of the problems that buildings normally have stop being problems because there is nowhere for them to occur.
“Fast forward 30 years and the structural designs have dramatically changed,” the company writes. “After 3 years of working with the building department we locked in our first permits. Two years later, two story was approved!” Those two sentences cover five years of regulatory work, and they are the reason this is a building method rather than an idea about one.
What the Composite Blocking System actually is
Composite Blocking System (CBS) is a multi-patented, composite building system that utilizes Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) as the core material for all structural members, walls, roof, floor, that is sprayed with a proprietary composite coating made up of a precise blend of sand, glass fiber and other additives that together create a building shell that meets or exceeds all testing protocols and load requirements of the ICC-ES.
Read that once for what it says about materials, then read it again for the phrase “all structural members, walls, roof, floor”. That is the part that matters. A conventional house is an assembly of different systems meeting at junctions, and the junctions are where buildings fail: where water gets in, where insulation stops, where movement concentrates, where fire finds a path. A shell where the wall, the roof and the floor are the same member has far fewer of those places to begin with.
Stated by the company
The figures Zenith publishes for the system
These are Zenith's own published claims about the Composite Blocking System, presented as such. They are not independently verified third-party certifications, and nothing on this site presents them as though they were.
- Category 5 wind resistance
240 mph
Category 5 wind resistance
- Testing protocols and load requirements cited
ICC-ES
Testing protocols and load requirements cited
- From first permit work to two-storey approval
5 years
From first permit work to two-storey approval
- Origin of the method
1980s
Origin of the method
Where Zenith works from
The Honolulu location is 2333 Alahao Pl, Honolulu, HI 96819, open Monday to Sunday, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. The business is also known locally as Maui Proof Homes; both names are the same operation and share the same phone and email.
Zenith’s work is not confined to construction. The company also does energy efficiency and sustainability consulting, including feasibility and design analysis for solar photovoltaic systems, building design reviews for high-performance optimization, sustainability program development, and waste and water management assessments. It runs training as well, from introductory sessions through to multi-day intensive courses leading to certifications for green building and energy professionals.