Meet the South Bay company designing fire-resistant, eco-friendly homes

Living in California, the possibility of catastrophic fire is never too far from many residents’ minds. But what if there was a way to build homes so that the risk of fire was much lower while also lessening the environmental impact that contributes to climate change in the first place? 

According to South Bay resident and engineer Manmohan Mahal, the materials and technology exist, and now is the time to start using them in residential construction. His company, SIDCO (Sustainable Innovative Design Company) Homes, builds net-zero, flame-resistant homes that Mahal said are radically more environmentally friendly, energy efficient and fire-safe than conventionally built properties. 

In recent years, Mahal built a SIDCO home on Park Boulevard in Palo Alto’s Ventura neighborhood that is completely fossil fuel-free and boasts a Tesla solar roof, a garage with built-in EV chargers, a greywater system, a steel frame, fire-resistant paneling, an air-filtration system, and radiant heating and cooling, among other amenities. 

The 1,901-square-foot house, which was featured on ABC 7 news in October. recently sold for $3.2 million, according to Zillow. 

How a heart attack inspired a new way of building homes

For Mahal, the journey to SIDCO Homes is one that stems from his own personal journey. Trained as a mechanical engineer at U.C. Berkeley, he suffered a heart attack at a young age and, in 1993, got a heart transplant at Stanford Medical Center. With this major life change, he was forced to slow down.

“I began to question myself, ‘God why did you save me?,” he recalled. “I want to do something different, do something that will make an impact on people’s lives.”

After a trip back to Delhi, India, where he grew up, Mahal became increasingly concerned about the impacts of pollution and climate change, and attended the COP21 United Nations climate conference in Paris. He devoted himself to learning all about passive homes, as pioneered by Wolfgang Feist in Germany.

“I started looking into sustainable homes. My focus completely changed to make homes healthier and safer.” 

He launched SIDCO Homes in 2016, with the help of his wife and two daughters. 

Mahal soon realized that in California in particular, wildfires were an increasing complication of climate change. He visited the town of Paradise after it was devastated by fires in 2018. 

“My thoughts were, ‘Why don’t we have a house that is being built to be resistant to all these things? Why did all that burn?’” he said. “To me it was very obvious that all the homes that were built and designed have been designed with the same concept of using lumber, with the same concept of using shingles on the house, with the same concept of putting attic spaces in between; there were standard designs. I said, ‘Wait a minute, why do we have to build it this way?’” 

SIDCO’s patented fire-resistant panels

Mahal decided to call on his mechanical engineering background as well as his dedication to sustainable design to come up with a solution. He researched fire-resistant homes and materials, including techniques used in Australia; traveled to Canada to obtain the materials he needed and took two years to get a patent on what are now SIDCO Homes’ ESP (Eco Smart Panel) technology. SIDCO’s panels are made with magnesium oxide and are listed for sale on SIDCO Homes’ website. 

The panel “does not catch fire. You can torch it. It does not catch termites; it has no impact on the water; it does not deteriorate over time,” Mahal said. In a 2022 video posted to YouTube, Mahal even demonstrated the fire-resistance of the panels to Paradise’s mayor and firefighters. 

A Palo Alto prototype

Mahal has built and sold two of his fire-resistant prototype homes in the Bay Area. The first was in Hollister and the second on Park Boulevard in Palo Alto.
He bought the Park Boulevard property, located near the railroad tracks (the home’s insulation blocks out any train sounds, he said), and developed the project, with his daughter Simran Mahal serving as designer and project manager. 

Getting the home approved, built and sold was not an easy process. 

“Since it was such a new thing for the city, it took many, many years to go through the permitting process, going to the neighbors … it took me a long time to get Tesla to provide me with ceiling tiles, it took me a long time to get the greywater system installed – I wanted to conserve water; water is the next biggest shortage,” he said. 

He ended up spending more on the house than it sold for. But ultimately, “I feel really good that I made something that I can show people there is the technology that exists,” he said. 

The environmentally minded couple that ended up buying the property made an offer within three days, appreciative of all the sustainable elements, he said. Their enthusiasm and understanding of Mahal’s vision was gratifying to him, he added.

“I fulfilled my dream of building a passive house. I cherish that one day at least I’ll die in peace that I’ve done something good with my transplanted life,” he said. 

Preapproved model homes & ADUs

Mahal said he has more plans for SIDCO’s future. He’s working on designs for six models of homes – four Accessory Dwelling Units and two larger homes – all designed to be sustainable and fire-resistant, so that in the future, potential customers will be able to view plans and 3D visualizations online and go through an easy, streamlined process to get the passive home of their dreams. 

“People don’t have to reinvent these wheels,” he said. “I want to get these homes preapproved from the city even before I break ground.” 

Building sustainable homes on a large scale will require developers and cities alike to be open to new ways of doing things, he said, something that will have to be reckoned with sooner or later.

“Unfortunately, Mother Nature, with global warming and climate change, is going to make a major mindshift,” he said. “It’s about time; we’ve got to start changing their thinking pattern.”

More information is available at sidcohomes.com/.