You get a sense that David Wester’s house is different as soon as you step onto the property.

Decorative concrete greets you on the driveway and carries you up the front steps and into the house. There, the same colourful surface covers the sprawling interior — which seems impossibly large until you realize Wester’s theatre room (complete with stadium seating) is directly below the garage at the front of the house, his exercise room is under a second garage at the rear and additional living space has been developed beneath decks.

This design is possible with suspended concrete flooring, which Wester estimates covers about 5,000 square feet of his house.

Built several years ago, the Westlake home seemed like a good way to demonstrate the effectiveness of his Wester Built “insulated stay-in-place concrete forming system.”

“That was the first floor system like this that we did.”

The result was compelling enough to convince Beaver Plastics Ltd., an Acheson, Alta.-based company that produces engineered products for the construction industry, to jump on the bandwagon. Beaver now distributes the system across North America and into Mexico and is poised to expand into the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, an Australian company is selling the Wester Built system in Australia and New Zealand, with Southeast Asia targeted for the future.

The made-in-Red Deer technology will also be featured in an upcoming episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (See related story).

Wester’s system uses beam and connecting panel forms made out of expanded polystyrene, or EPS — the same material used for packing materials, insulation and foam coffee cups.

“It’s lightweight, it’s easy to handle, it’s quick to install,” said Wester.

Once they’re suspended in place, the beam forms are filled with concrete to create a series of beams. The panel forms in between are strong enough to walk and work on.

“It resembles conventional construction in the sense that the beam forms are basically your joists and the panel is basically what completes your subfloor to give you the form work,” explained Wester.

The final floor slab can be poured later, after the area is enclosed, the plumbing and wiring have been installed, related construction is complete and conditions are suitable for decorative flooring work.

The final product is fire-rated, quiet, easy to clean and allergen-free, said Wester. It won’t deteriorate and is strong enough to bridge wide spans.

“We’ll get up to 40-, 50-foot spans,” he said.

A variety of decorative finishes can be applied, or traditional materials like carpet, hardwood or tile placed on top.

With the EPS forms remaining in place, Wester Built floors have a high thermal mass that minimizes heat loss, said Wester. His house, which also has insulated concrete walls, requires very little heating in the winter and no air-conditioning in the summer.

“It just doesn’t change temperature.”

The flooring system is also suitable for roofs, said Wester, which was its application in the Extreme Makeover project.

Still, this continent is lagging behind other parts of the world when it comes to concrete construction.

“North America is pretty much a disposable housing mentality,” he said, contrasting the situation here to that in Europe, where “multi-generational homes” are being constructed.

“They build houses that are good for 200, 300 years.”

North Americans are also used to wood floors and reluctant to try alternatives. But, added Wester, concrete floors are becoming more common and Wester Built has completed a number of local projects and is training installers elsewhere.

Originally from a farm in Southern Alberta, Wester moved to Red Deer in 1984. He’s been active in the construction industry since, earning his journeyman carpenter and cabinet maker designations, and completing three years towards his electrician’s ticket.

He also underwent training in wood floor system design and decorative concrete work.

Concrete: Few systems

In addition to Wester Built, Wester operates The Plan Shop, through which he designs buildings. He also helped found Zip Thaw Inc., which produces portable ground thawing and space heating equipment.

The impetus for Wester Built, he said, was a perceived lack of concrete flooring systems suitable for residential construction.

“There was nothing out there that worked well.”

He placed his new system in the hands of other distributors because he didn’t want to be responsible for marketing and sales.

“I’m a problem-solver. I find a solution and then I get bored.”

Contact Harley Richards at hrichards@reddeeradvocate.com