After the fires in California last year, Wafflemat stepped up to assist in the rebuilding. Napa is the heart of the California Wine Country, and a recent Wafflemat project was completed in the middle of a major vineyard. The developer did a detailed hard dollar cost and CO2 comparison of foundations systems, building one home with Wafflemat, another with a slab-on-grade foundation. Three points:

– Hard dollar costs for Wafflemat were $46,129 less ($72,414 for slab on grade vs. $26,285 for Wafflemat) when exact amounts for concrete, steel cable, iron rebar, aggregate, diesel fuel, and labor are compared.

– Total foundation cycletime was reduced from 14 days for the slab on grade to 8 days for Wafflemat, a 57% difference.

– Wafflemat released 46,000 lbs less CO2 than the alternate foundation (86,700 lbs for slab on grade vs. 40,700 for Wafflemat), a 53% difference.