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Octolithic 400-1B
Concrete panelCannot be ordered todayOur kitOctolithic ↗
The 400-1B, a concrete panel kit from Octolithic, is published at $29,997 for the kit and covers 400 square feet.
Octolithic does not publish a wind rating or a snow load for this model, so 25 percent of the fields we score are blank.
None of that tells you whether it works on your land. Wind, snow, seismic and flood performance are site specific engineering, so the only useful answer comes from running this kit against your address.
Completeness
75 percent of the fields we score are backed by something Octolithic published. Why completeness is never part of the grade.
Conflict of interest
Octolithic's owner, Jeremy Vest, also owns this maker. It is listed here because leaving it out would be its own kind of dishonest. It gets no forgiveness for missing data, it cannot be ordered through this site, and you can hide every kit we own with one switch on the Index. Our scoring code cannot read a commission rate on any kit, including this one.
The thing nobody else will tell you
This kit cannot be scored on its own. Nothing on this page tells you whether it works on your land.
Wind, snow, seismic and flood performance come from your address, not from this kit. Put in an address and the gates run against the real requirement at that point.
Free, and it stays free.
What this maker says it is aiming for
DESIGN INTENT, NOT A RATING, AND NOT VERIFIED. Octolithic is being engineered to meet or exceed the registered design pressure on Florida Product Approval FL30050-R4 (Gulf Concrete Technology, approved 27 March 2026), which is +124/-124 psf, HVHZ approved and impact resistant, and to qualify for use inside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone. The shape is intended to help: a closed eight-sided shell has no flat broadside and no roof-to-wall seam, though ASCE 7 gives no prescriptive credit for a polygonal plan, so any benefit has to be demonstrated rather than assumed. NOTHING HERE IS ENGINEERED, TESTED OR STAMPED YET. No number in this paragraph may be compared against another maker's published rating, and none of it counts toward this listing's grade or passes any gate. When a Florida PE stamps the design we will publish the number and the report, and it will appear in the rated fields above rather than here.
This is an intention, not a measurement. It is shown separately from everything this listing publishes, it is excluded from the grade, and it cannot pass a gate. Treat it as a plan you can hold us to later, not as a specification you can build from today.
What we are building toward · not achieved yet
Our targets, and the document each one is measured against.
Every other kit on this site is compared on what it has published and tested. We have not tested anything yet, so none of these is a rating and none of them belongs in that comparison. They are here because a buyer should be able to see what we are aiming at, and hold us to it when the engineering lands.
| Our target | Measured against | |
|---|---|---|
| Design pressure | +124 / -124 or better | Florida Product Approval FL30050-R4, Gulf Concrete Technology, approved 27 March 2026, registered design pressure +124/-124 psf |
| High Velocity Hurricane Zone | Qualified for use inside the HVHZ | FL30050-R4 is HVHZ approved. Our current panel supplier's approval, FL46983-R0, is not. |
| Missile impact | Large missile impact, TAS 201 Level D | 9 lb 2x4 at 80 ft/s, the standard HVHZ pass criterion for wall components below 30 ft |
| Seismic | ASCE 7-22 Seismic Design Category as stamped for the site | Florida is low seismic; this closes on the stamp rather than on testing |
| Roof R value | R-30 or better for the roof assembly | To be reported with the assembly and test method named, which most makers do not do |
| Wall R value | R-20 or better for the wall assembly, reported with the assembly named | We currently publish a wall figure and an envelope figure without naming either method. That is the gap. |
| Safe Room | An interior room designed to ICC 500 and FEMA P-361 as a hurricane safe room, in every size | FEMA P-361 requires 7 to 10 sq ft of floor per occupant for a hurricane safe room, because occupants shelter for 24 hours or more rather than minutes. ICC 500 sets the wind load, debris impact, ventilation and door hardware requirements. An interior room is preferred over a detached one for hurricanes because it is reachable without going outside into wind and debris. The centre walls already create rooms with concrete on every side and no exterior glazing, so the gap is an impact rated door and frame, protected ventilation, a documented load path and a stamp, not a different building. |
Forward-looking statements. These are design targets and forward-looking statements, not ratings, not test results, and not a representation that the product achieves them today. Nothing has been engineered, tested, stamped or approved. Targets may change during engineering. No target may be relied on for permitting, insurance, or a purchase decision, and none is comparable to another maker's published, tested figure. They are published so a buyer can hold us to them and see whether we hit them.
The Octolithic Kit Grade
| Buyability weight 25 | 42 not taking orders, publishes a price, delivers to a stated region |
|---|---|
| Cost honesty weight 25 | 85 publishes a price, itemises 10 of 14 build stages, states plainly what the price excludes |
| Materials and carbon tier weight 15 | 40 new steel framing, a higher embodied carbon class |
Rubric v1.0, August 2026. Site fit is not in this grade, because it depends on your land rather than on the kit. Every weight, and what we refuse to grade.
What the maker publishes
Everything here came off Octolithic's own pages, cited at the bottom. A blank is a blank: we never fill one in.
| Build type | Concrete panel |
|---|---|
| Structural system | SCIP, steel reinforced concrete insulated panel, eight sided. An expanded polystyrene core, ASTM C578 Type I modified at 1 pound per cubic foot, between two sheets of 11 gauge galvanized welded wire mesh to ASTM A1064 with a 115 ksi yield, tied through the core. Structural mortar of at least 2,500 psi is applied on site to both faces, curing into a monolithic reinforced concrete shell. Exterior walls are a 5 inch core at 7 and three quarter inches finished, floor and roof an 8 inch core at 12 and a quarter inches. The model name is the floor area, and the floor area is the fixed input: this one is 400 sq ft measured to the finished inside face of the wall, which puts the octagon at about 23 ft 4 in across the flats on a 448 sq ft footprint. If the engineer changes the wall thickness the diameter moves to hold the area, not the other way round. Each face is about 2.45 panels wide at the 1,200 mm machine width, so one panel on each of the eight faces is cut narrower than the rest. The eight faces tie back to interior centre walls and to a reinforced concrete cage at each of the eight corners, eight per level, encased when the walls are sprayed. |
| Finished size | 400 sq ft |
| Bedrooms | 1 |
| Bathrooms | 1 |
| Wall R value | R-19.3 for the finished exterior wall. One panel, one thickness, no options: a 5 inch core, 7 and three quarter inches finished, with 1 inch of structural mortar on each face. Tested on the complete assembly including the concrete on both faces, not on the insulation alone, at 70 degrees F. Core to ASTM C578. The panel system's evaluation report is ICC-ES ESR-5623. There is no framing anywhere in the wall to conduct heat, which is where most insulated walls lose a large part of their rated value in practice. Interior walls are thinner because they are not part of the envelope. Final thickness is subject to the structural engineer. |
| Roof R value | R-30.8 for the finished roof. One panel, one thickness: an 8 inch core, 12 and a quarter inches finished. The floor uses the same panel. Tested on the complete assembly including the concrete on both faces, not on the insulation alone, at 70 degrees F. Core to ASTM C578. The panel system's evaluation report is ICC-ES ESR-5623. Worth knowing when comparing this to a normal Florida house: there is no attic. The roof is the ceiling, so nothing conditioned runs through an unconditioned space above it, and the insulation is continuous with no truss or joist bridging through it. Final thickness is subject to the structural engineer. |
| Foundation types | Two options, and they are not an upgrade path, they are a question about the lot. On a slab at grade, or raised on its own eight sided garage story with a structural elevated floor. In a FEMA VE zone slab construction is not permitted at all and the space below base flood elevation must use breakaway walls; in an AE zone the lowest floor has to sit at or above base flood elevation and enclosure below it needs flood vents. So a buyer on a flood zone lot cannot choose the slab version at any price. The raised version is carried on eight reinforced concrete cages so the space below can be open, vented or breakaway per FEMA rather than load bearing. The published raised price assumes a 9 ft elevation. A lot needing less costs less, roughly $2,000 to $4,000 per 2 ft of height depending on size, and the maker quotes it down rather than pocketing it. |
| Lead time | Not published |
| Delivers to | Florida only. The engineering stamp is state specific. |
| Country | United States |
| Build difficulty | Specialist crew and equipment Concrete is placed on site, which needs a pump, a crew and a finisher. This is not an owner build in any ordinary sense. Read from the construction method. |
What the maker says it resists
Design capability as published. Not a certification, not a rating of your house, and not proof against anything.
| Engineered wind speed | Not published |
|---|---|
| Roof snow capability | Not published |
| Seismic | Seismic Design Categories A and B for shear wall applications, per ICC-ES ESR-5623. Higher seismic categories are possible with project specific engineering and additional reinforcement, and we have not done that work. Florida is almost entirely SDC A, so this limit does not bite here, and it would bite hard in California. We publish it because it is the kind of limit most makers leave out. |
| Fire | One hour fire resistance rating on the complete wall assembly and on the complete floor and roof assembly, tested to ASTM E119 and listed in ICC-ES ESR-5623. The EPS core meets the IBC section 2603 flame spread and smoke developed requirements, with a flame spread index of 25 or less and a smoke developed index of 450 or less. This is the panel system's rating, which is what a rating in this industry always is, and the assembly as built has to match the tested one. It is not a claim that the house cannot burn. |
Price
$29,997
This is the number the maker publishes. What it covers is in the line below, and it is almost never the finished cost of a house.
| What that number covers | Kit only, an estimate rather than a quote. Positioned as an accessory dwelling unit, guest house or rental rather than a primary family home. $29,997 on a slab. Not offered raised on a garage story: a full garage level under a 400 sq ft dwelling is out of proportion to it, and a flood zone accessory unit is a piling question rather than a garage story question. Published as the wall, roof, floor and centre wall panels finished ready to hang, cut to exact size with door and window openings formed at the plant, the corner cages and base plates, mesh and tie wire, sill pans and flashing, channels for wiring and plumbing, interior partition panels, and the full blueprints and engineering stamps. Shipping is not included and is paid by the buyer. No sprayer ships with the kit: the maker recommends hiring a plaster, stucco or shotcrete crew and putting them through the panel manufacturer's system training first. Stairs, porches and decks are not in the kit. Land, the breakaway walls of the garage story, windows, doors, trades, mechanical and the entire interior are all on top. The maker publishes an estimated finished cost of roughly five times the kit price and says the kit price alone is not what a house costs. |
|---|
What else we found
This is the site owner's own company and it is held to the same rubric as every other maker here, with no forgiveness for what it does not publish. Nothing can be ordered and nothing on the site is for sale. Four sizes named for the floor area you get: 400 sq ft to the finished inside face, on a 448 sq ft footprint. A bedroom of about 130 sq ft, a bath, a kitchen and a living and dining space of about 110 sq ft. Each size is available on a slab or raised on its own garage story, and that is a code question about the lot rather than an upgrade. The maker states that no kit ships to anyone until the founder's own house is finished, standing and documented, targeted for late 2028, and production is capped at 240 kits a year across all sizes to start, a cap the maker says is set by trained crew capacity and which it intends to raise toward 1,200 a year. The buyability gate fails for that reason and not as a judgement of the product. The site describes the house as built to outlast the storm and stay insurable but publishes no design wind speed, so there is no number here that can be compared against another maker or against a Florida building department requirement. Snow load and a Florida product approval number are not published. Every price is an estimate built from a modelled panel rate, not a supplier quote, and the maker says a real quote is months away.
Questions to send this maker
Generated from what they left blank. Every one of these is a thing they could answer today and have chosen not to publish. Copy them into an email. If they answer, tell us and we will update this page with the citation.
- What design wind speed is this model engineered to, in miles per hour, and at what Risk Category and Exposure Category?
- What ground snow load can the roof carry, in pounds per square foot, and is that the ground load or the roof load?
- What is the lead time in weeks from deposit to delivery, right now?
Across the whole Index, the average kit publishes about a quarter of what a buyer needs. This maker is at 75 percent.
Questions people ask about the Octolithic 400-1B
Answered from what Octolithic publishes, including the answers that are "they do not say".
How much does the Octolithic 400-1B cost?
Octolithic publishes $29,997. Kit only, an estimate rather than a quote. Positioned as an accessory dwelling unit, guest house or rental rather than a primary family home. $29,997 on a slab. Not offered raised on a garage story: a full garage level under a 400 sq ft dwelling is out of proportion to it, and a flood zone accessory unit is a piling question rather than a garage story question. Published as the wall, roof, floor and centre wall panels finished ready to hang, cut to exact size with door and window openings formed at the plant, the corner cages and base plates, mesh and tie wire, sill pans and flashing, channels for wiring and plumbing, interior partition panels, and the full blueprints and engineering stamps. Shipping is not included and is paid by the buyer. No sprayer ships with the kit: the maker recommends hiring a plaster, stucco or shotcrete crew and putting them through the panel manufacturer's system training first. Stairs, porches and decks are not in the kit. Land, the breakaway walls of the garage story, windows, doors, trades, mechanical and the entire interior are all on top. The maker publishes an estimated finished cost of roughly five times the kit price and says the kit price alone is not what a house costs.
What wind speed is the Octolithic 400-1B engineered to?
Octolithic does not publish a design wind speed for this model. Only about one kit maker in ten publishes one. Note that "hurricane rated" has no legal definition in the United States, so a page using that phrase without a number has told you nothing.
What snow load can the Octolithic 400-1B roof take?
Octolithic does not publish a snow load for this model. Around one maker in twenty does.
Can you actually buy the Octolithic 400-1B?
No. Octolithic is not taking orders for this model today, whatever the renderings suggest.
What foundation does the Octolithic 400-1B need?
Octolithic publishes: Two options, and they are not an upgrade path, they are a question about the lot. On a slab at grade, or raised on its own eight sided garage story with a structural elevated floor. In a FEMA VE zone slab construction is not permitted at all and the space below base flood elevation must use breakaway walls; in an AE zone the lowest floor has to sit at or above base flood elevation and enclosure below it needs flood vents. So a buyer on a flood zone lot cannot choose the slab version at any price. The raised version is carried on eight reinforced concrete cages so the space below can be open, vented or breakaway per FEMA rather than load bearing. The published raised price assumes a 9 ft elevation. A lot needing less costs less, roughly $2,000 to $4,000 per 2 ft of height depending on size, and the maker quotes it down rather than pocketing it.
How well does the Octolithic 400-1B stand up to a hurricane or a wildfire?
The honest answer is what it resists, and under what conditions. No kit home is proof against either, and any page telling you otherwise is selling. "Hurricane rated" has no legal definition in the United States, no house can be tornado rated, and whole building certifications like LEED, Passive House and HERS all require a built, sited, inspected home and cannot be attached to a model from a spec sheet. What a maker can honestly tell you is what the design resists and under what conditions. For this model, they publish nothing at all.
Will the Octolithic 400-1B work on my land?
Nothing on any spec sheet can answer that, including this one. Wind, snow, seismic, flood and soil requirements come from your address, not from the kit. The Octolithic runs every kit in the Index against the published hazard data for your point and shows you what survives and why the rest did not. It is free.
Compare
Nothing here is ranked by what anyone pays us, because no kit maker has ever paid for placement on this site.
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Documented31%How it compares
It documents more than the average concrete panel kit, 75 percent against 16, and more than 122 of the other 123 we hold. It publishes no wind rating, where 10 percent of concrete panel makers do.
Computed across all 515 kit homes in the Index, 124 of them concrete panel. Recomputed on every build.
Sources
| Where these values came from | https://octolithic.com |
|---|---|
| Maker's site | https://octolithic.com |
| Last checked | 26 August 2026 |
Values are what the maker published on the date above. Makers change pages without notice. If you find something out of date, use the contact form and we will recheck it and re-cite it. Members can dispute any figure on the page, and the dispute and its resolution are both published.