This builder’s journey to national code approval could be the blueprint for your next panelized system.
- Eric Benavides earned ICC-ES certification for his wall system using standard materials and a detailed, multi-year process.
- The certified system streamlines local permitting and is treated as a code-compliant building product.
- He plans to scale through partnerships, aiming to provide fast, affordable housing with minimal capital investment.
What’s it like to go through the process of developing a new type of wall panel and then getting code approval and market acceptance? Eric Benavides, Owner of Component Construction Systems LLC, DBA Fornidos Construction, did this for his HomeSystem. His experience should offer valuable insight to anyone looking to develop a new offsite construction product.
As a homebuilder for four decades, Benavides, who serves the Dallas, Texas market, didn’t give much thought to offsite construction methods other than for the use of roof trusses. But a confluence of events — a recession, a housing affordability crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic — gave him food for thought, and time to let his creative mind take over.
Benavides also owned a metal shop. He wanted to keep those employees busy during COVID, so he had them “play around with shipping containers,” he says. With more people working from home, he reasoned, they might need Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). But permitting issues led him to quickly decide that shipping containers weren’t where he wanted to focus.
His next step was to try and create ADUs with structural steel foundations and Structural Insulated Panel (SIPs) shells, which required sign-off from an engineer. That wasn’t a problem. “We were able to get permits and we built close to 100 units with this system,” he says. “However, we were unable to scale a system based on SIPS products in the areas we needed. So, we did a reset.”
Benavides’ background as a stick builder meant that he knew how most walls were constructed. “I eventually began to see how I could make panels out of them. I didn’t come from the modular field, so my approach was from a different angle, and I had no idea of the engineering and design work needed.” Once he figured it out, he says, the process of making the panels was straightforward.
The first iteration of his completed ADUs included electrical wiring, but no water. “We would pull permits, set the floor, set the walls, set the roof and handle everything. We built the pieces in the shop, but delivered a finished product,” Benavides says.
He learned quickly that putting utilities in the walls brought out the inspectors. “Then you became a modular manufacturer, and that was my first taste of learning that the real challenge of offsite has a lot to do with inspections.”
Working With ICC
Mention inspections, building codes, or regulations and every builder has a story, usually a tale of woe. That’s certainly the case for Benavides.
He sees his personal mission as the creation of affordable housing, and the new system as something that supports that mission. “My ultimate goal is to house people,” he says. But while he thought he’d hit upon a winner with his panels, things were complicated by the fact that in Dallas alone there are 34 surrounding municipalities. Each of those has its own set of inspectors who would have to inspect what was inside those factory-built structural panels.
Benavides admits he was naïve, but he envisioned a “section of a house that was finished and painted and could be put together so that at the end of the day I could see a house,” he says. The inspection problem was making that goal elusive.
Fortunately, he had bigger ideas. Why should he have to worry about inspectors in each city? “I really thought there was an opportunity to be nationwide,” he says.
A fortuitous meeting with an old friend and former building inspector led him to the International Code Council – Evaluation Services (ICC-ES), which evaluates building products, materials and systems for code compliance through its Evaluation Service Report (ESR) program. If Benavides could get his component system certified via ESR, his products — which include wall, floor and roof panels — would be code-compliant and able to be used nationwide.
“We’ve seen a lot of innovative offsite products in the past few years,” says Vincent Chui, Vice President of Evaluation Services at ICC. He adds that while offsite is booming, it can be difficult to get certified, and Chui has seen a lot of applications fail.
Benavides says it took “two years of design effort, testing, engineering and a lot of thought tied to the provisional patent applications. Then, engineers at ICC-ES evaluated the product itself, the development and evaluation took about a year, and then we made modifications.”
The initial ESR was approved in March of 2024, after which the system needed an Equivalency Evaluation Report (EER), which took another year. The ESR was updated and republished in March 2025 and the EER followed shortly.
Benavides’ Component Construction Systems now has ICC-ES EER-5284 certification under ESR 5284, making the panels pre-approved to meet international building codes and the prescriptive requirements of the International Residential Code, which should streamline local permitting and inspections. The system, which consists of many components and different materials, is treated as a single entity for code purposes.
Material Choice Matters
There’s a lesson here for other component designers. “There was no cloak and dagger stuff,” to getting the designation, says Devin Perry, Assistant Vice President leading content strategy for NAHB (National Association of Home Builders). “Benavides used a viable pathway that anyone could follow.”
While Benavides’ component formula is proprietary, the secret sauce in getting approval for his HomeSystem is that he chose to use conventional, code-compliant components and materials. According to Chui, “ICC-ES evaluated all the components and materials and made sure they aligned with the specifications Benavides called for. Then we looked at all the components and the materials he used and the calculations he performed and made sure they all comply with codes.”
The ESR designation means that Benavides’ panels are compliant with the International Building and International Residential Codes. He says that with the HomeSystem, framing can be completed in as little as two days. Then the builder can begin installing mechanical, electrical and plumbing infrastructure.
But Benavides says that acceptance has been slow, even with the certification. Eventually, though, he’s beginning to see results. He spent three months in conversation with the chief building official of the City of Dallas. In early April 2025, he received a letter saying that the official had instructed his staff about the ESR 5284 certification. “He was kind enough and excited enough to tell his staff that this is used essentially as stick-built construction. It’s not modular, and it’s not manufactured. It’s a building product that makes houses,” Benavides says. “I was very fortunate to get that letter.”
He is hoping to scale up business by collaborating with national homebuilders, building supply companies and existing factories that have extra capacity looking for an additional revenue stream. He eventually wants to create micro factories near rail lines or at disaster sites, where homes are needed quickly.
“Fornidos Construction was created to empower builders and communities with a path to lasting change — a way to tackle the housing crisis without large capital investments or major changes to their existing business, while remaining profitable,” Benavides says. “We’re not here to build every home — just those that make homeownership a reality for families priced out of the current market, and to do so on an unprecedented national scale.”
Stacey Freed is a freelance writer and editor based in Pittsford, New York. She focuses on construction, remodeling, real estate, sustainability and wellness.
Photos courtesy Eric Benavides
