"Since moving into our Cornerstone home last April our family of four have been greatily impressed with the degree of warmth sustained throughout a very cold winter, yet are also happy with the pleasant coolness experienced on some very warm spring days. Results are a lowered heating cost, and an overall improvement in family health." says Maureen.

"We have have been greatly impressed with the insulation value and the fact that our house is so easy to heat. We were also impressed by the speed of construction and the very pleasant appearance of the finished house." says Chris.

Elizabeth Meek with her teenage family, including herself of four, is happy with the comfort and design of her home at 33 Elmwood drive. "The house is always comfortable and with the Air-conditioning unit taking no time to adjust the temperature when we have been away for the day, the electricity usage is minimal" comments Elizabeth.

"I have been in my Cornerstone home designed by James Thompson for 3 years. With the polystyrene walls and double glazing it is very quiet and comfortable. I do not get any house vibrations even though I am located high above Taupo and exposed to the strong southerly winds. In winter I find I can heat the house economically because of the insulating properties of the polystyrene panels. I definitely feel this type of house construction is the way of the future." says Lisa.

"Living in the Cornerstone house has strongly confirmed in my mind the advantages of this system." says David. Bernadette & David have built a second Cornerstone home. Bernadette comments "Our current home, constructed by Future Homes, is the second we have built using the Cornerstone system. We could not be happier with the standards of comfort and cost of living and have nothing but praise for both system and builder."

Pensioner, Mrs. Grimmet of Motueka, Tasman, is a happy homeowner, who has lived in her 2 bedroom Cornerstone home for several years now. "I am very happy with my home." said Mrs. Grimmet "it's very comfortable ambient temperature."

"It was so hot in the coldest months of winter, we had to turn off the under floor heating, and the night store, we thought we might need. We only use a small fan heater while we have breakfast now on the frosty mornings, and the heat just stays inside." says Colin. "And the power bill is much lover."

After their first year living in their new home Peter comments: "We are very happy with our home, it is a very comfortable, healthy home to live in, easy to heat, quiet with a nice airy feel to it. The 240m² plan sited on 607m² freehold section, with open living plus bathroom on the top with another 45m² of decks on 2 sides to enjoy the vista's, 4 double bedrooms 2 bathrooms one with spa bath on the middle floor and Garage with entrance and stairwell on the ground floor. It was architecturally designed by Bob Jamison and is a very practical yet simple layout, well suited to the elevated section on the high side of the road, catching the views, the sun and with the Cornerstone walls having such a high insulation value, the heat is retained for long periods keeping the house a nice ambient temperature"

"We wanted to build an energy efficient house with glass to collect the sun's free heat, mass to store heat inside and insulation to keep the heat in. With our two storey house, this meant windows to floor level and exposed upper and lower concrete floors as thermal mass to absorb direct sunlight. The Cornerstone building wall system offered the most logical choice, not only with its high bracing and strength to support the upper concrete floor and upper storey but also with its built-in high insulation values to keep the heat in." "It is winter now and we are most impressed by the uniform indoor temperature. No heating is required at all except sometimes at night after a cloudy day. Even on a cold frosty morning, no heating is required."

"My wife and I visited NZ in 2001 from the UK with view to immigrating. Checked out the house building in Auckland. We were not at ease with the "Matchstick" type of construction (as our son Jonathan called it). When we arrived in 2003 to live in NZ we decided to investigate what other method of building was available. We came across "Cornerstone" Coming from an engineering background we decided Cornerstone and bought one because of the thermal value (4.6) We were so pleased after 3 years with our Cornerstone house, almost nil heating bills in the winter and cool in the summer. Our neighbours in traditional houses were too hot in the summer and needed considerable heating in the winter. We decided to build Cornerstone OURSELVES. We sold our house to another family with an engineering background because of the THERMAL VALUE. They had a traditional type of house and had been too cold in the NZ winter, and like us, they wanted better .The Cornerstone house we sold had walls 8" thick "(200mm)" we decided that we would increase the wall thickness to 10"(250mm) and double Glaze The thermal Value Is a Whopping 5.7. Building regs require 1.8. Whether in the North Island or South Island all houses should be built like this. Other advantages: Speedy and simple construction. Very strong Should stand up well to an earthquake. The outside reinforced concrete wall columns are mechanically bonded to a waffle raft. A reinforced concrete Ring Beam mechanically bonds the tops of the outside wall columns. This Ring Beam forms the anchor for the roof."

"When i was hunting for a natural earth finish, Cornerstone polystyrene panels offered me an alternative building method that had versality for a whole range of designs. With polystyrene being used more and more because of its energy efficient properties, Cornerstone more than met the design criteria. As well as providing superior strength to the building, its ease of construction and resultant low construction time made Cornerstrone panels a very cost effective product." says James.

"The system was a breeze to build with" said Andrew. "It was light to handle which was a plus on such a difficult site... the less concrete required the better it is when you are going up three floors. With the Cornerstone building system we were handling a large section of wall at one time and that was the structure, bracing the substrate for the cladding and the insulation all rolled into one process. Getting to an enclosed position needs to be happening fairly quickly especially when working through the winter months, once that was achieved the working environment was very comfortable for all of the trades people." Andrew goes on to say "I was so impressed that when my dad who was about to build his own house in the Nelson region, I suggested he should check the system out while I was working on the Lyttleton project. The result was I ended up spending the weekend with him to help put up his Cornerstone walls which went together in the weekend and poured the concrete on the Monday... It was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together with all the parts numbered... kids play really."

"For several years I have felt like a lone voice in the wilderness, as I've seen a change in what I call the 'modern building culture'. Repeated warnings to various building contractors seemingly fell on deaf ears because at the time the leaky/rotting building syndrome wasn't an issue. Personally I had refrained from using certain types of cladding because of the compromises of building standards involved. Can you imagine my exclamation when I came across an advertisement for the Cornerstone Building System. I felt like Archimedes in the bath, crying out to his wife - Eureka! Eureka! I found it! One system that satisfies all the needs and problems of the homeowner. After being in the building, engineering and plastics industries for over 40 years. I came away from a building industry meeting more resolved than ever before that what Cornerstone is one of the solutions to the 'sick homes' epidemic. Homeowners who can build having a peace of mind that no matter how hard it rains, their home will stay intact. Not only a durable product but a healthy product. Here again I feel like a lone voice in the wilderness. I have met a number of people over the years who believed their illnesses were related to the home they lived in. Now we are just beginning to hear a trickle of this truth coming to light. I often tell people it should be criminal for people to live in cold houses." Article written by Ty Hartnett.