Using recycled packing material Styrofoam, concrete bricks and a roof-top solar system for electricity, heat and cooling, Apple Valley contractor Dean Konstantine united several green housing products to create a new system of home construction he hopes will set a new industry standard for environmental amity.

"I want to show the world the affordability of going green," Konstantine said at his model home in Victorville.

Konstantine and his wife, Renee, launched Blue Ocean Home Development in 2006. The couple, who moved to Apple Valley from San Diego in 2001, spent 10 years in the mortgage industry, providing San Diego State University employees with mortgage loans.

Story continues below

Photos By Dan Elliott

Dean Konstantine can build his homes for $85 to $130 a square foot, the current price for building residential homes in the High Desert.

Along with Blue Ocean Home Development, Konstantine owns Konstantine Enterprises Inc., the two-year-old construction arm of his company, and Premier Citizen's Financial, a 10-year-old mortgage and real estate company. The Konstantines employ a dozen people.

He could build his homes for $85 to $130 a square foot, the current price for building residential homes in the High Desert, Konstantine said.

This type of construction will provide long-term savings on utilities, he said. Studies show homes built with insulating concrete forms, a similar construction process employing Styrofoam and concrete, consume 44% less energy to cool than typical wood-frame homes.

The outside walls of Konstantine's new homes are built like old-fashioned brick housing, but use 156-pound blocks connected to the floor by three-foot tall rebar spaced two feet apart and cemented into the home's foundation. Steel frames support inside walls and a Styrofoam-and- concrete roof caps off the fortress, he said.

The recycled blocks are 18 inches tall, 12 inches wide and 92 inches long. The blocks are made with six-inch diameter holes 15 inches apart to ease handling. The first few layers of recycled bricks are placed by hand during construction. After that, a winch that rises 20 feet lifts the blocks into place.

Though California seldom sees this type of construction, the Styrofoam-and-cement construction process is common in the Midwest, Konstantine said.

One of the pluses to this form of building is the reduced flammability of the finished product. Bricks exposed to continuous fire take four hours to burn, he said.

Story continues below

One of the pluses to using this form of building is the drastically reduced flammability of the finished product. Bricks exposed to continuous fire take four hours to burn, Konstantine said.

According to the Web site of Apex Concrete Block, a manufacturer in Dubai, U.A.E., 90% of the materials used for making the building bricks are recycled. They are rated as high in energy efficiency and sound reduction.

Now that he's got his model home in place, Konstantine is looking for investors to raise capital to build a 130-lot subdivision in Rosamond just outside the gates of Edwards Air Force Base.

Konstantine and his partners, contractors Merle McKnight of San Jacinto, Patrick Lawrence of Murrieta and Paul Walker of Apple Valley, aim to build a neighborhood that costs less to build and operates less expensively than traditionally constructed homes, with all the greenery included.

The average home in Konstantine's Kern County planned development will be 1,800 to 2,400 square feet and retail in the $300,000s. The project is expected to take about $25 million to complete. Initially, Konstantine hopes to raise $10 million in capital to grade the land, pave streets and build model homes.

"I want to spread the word as quickly as possible that this kind of construction is available," Konstantine said. "It's important for the masses to experience homes that have affordable utilities and these other advantages."

Konstantine is thinking of building a smaller tract in Apple Valley.

Story continues below

Blue Ocean homes are made of recycled Styrofoam and concrete.

Investor Hendon Harris is taking small steps toward green building in the commercial office building he owns in Victorville.

"Huge things are taking place," Harris said. "This type of building is here to stay. But the process is slow and it has to be affordable to take hold."

Harris is a 10-year veteran real estate developer in the High Desert and president of Sentry Home Loans, a mortgage company in Thousand Oaks. Harris is managing member of Springfield LLC, also in Thousand Oaks. Launched in 1990, Springfield is a real estate investment group that purchases commercial, apartment buildings and land in the High Desert. Harris is a managing member of seven other real estate investment companies.

"We're are trying to be green, but it has to make economic sense," he said

Investing in a tract of green homes is a great idea with poor timing, Harris said.

"In a better economy, yes," he said. "In real estate right now, we're not in position to do that. But under normal conditions, yes."

San Bernardino County is one of the first counties in the state to adopt the California Green Builder Program, an incentive-based program with local jurisdiction over Title 24 standards, which govern economic and energy compliance of green building, said Jeff Simonetti, spokesman for the Building Industry Association Baldy View Chapter in Rancho Cucamonga

"This is exactly the type of thing we're promoting and we're glad to see people using recycled materials, said Deniene Husted, spokeswoman for The Green Valley Initiative. "We're glad that they are making the effort to promote using materials that are good for the environment."

The U.S. Green Building Council is a nonprofit organization working to make green buildings accessible to everyone within a generation. More than 90,000 members from 15,700 organizations make up the nationwide group that includes corporations, public agencies and nonprofit organizations.