Plastic Houses in the DR

NALs

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,482
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Yes, you read that correctly. In Moca a new type of house is being constructed and it´s made entirely of recycled plastic. According to the video, the plastic doesn´t burn or melts. The inside of the home remains considerably cool, despite the outside heat and the strong sun rays. Its durable, better than cinder blocks, and much more economical.

[video=youtube;-0wZshQcqP8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0wZshQcqP8[/video]
 
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ctrob

Silver
Nov 9, 2006
5,591
781
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The video is a parlor trick. Plastic will burn. And give off deadly poisonous fumes while burning. Not only that, but after melting and reforming they will probably out-gas again and poison everybody inside the box. Any of that stuff that you ingest or breath is accumulative in your body - think cancer in about 10 to 20 years. The worst thing you could do is put your family inside one of these death traps.

Masonry block are not designed to take whacks from the side, they support from the top down in conjunction with mortar and other blocks.

This is a poor solution to a horrible problem. Just ban plastic.
 
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william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
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My neighbor has a different type.

It's a 'block' look alike that you fill with sand ...
stack and fill.
It collapses flat for shipping & handling and snaps open when ready to use.

The new foam type construction is also faster & cheaper - they tell me.
 
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dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
0
the fire test is misleading, to say the least. the cement block does not really burn by itself. what burns is all the fuel the house is filled with: furniture, appliances, fabrics and so on. i have seen block and/or brick buildings after fires and the structure itself often remains stable. not livable, due to smoke damage but it stands nonetheless. the test here should be to toss a molotov cocktail into the plastic house inhabited by that nice family and see what happens.

secondly, the cement blocks in actual construction do not break that easily. they are filled with cement and rebar. breaking a well built wall with that plastic block would be a hard task.

having said that, a house built with recyclables is neat.
 
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william webster

Platinum
Jan 16, 2009
30,247
4,330
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william webster said:
My neighbor has a different type.

It's a 'block' look alike that you fill with sand ...
stack and fill.
It collapses flat for shipping & handling and snaps open when ready to use.

The new foam type construction is also faster & cheaper - they tell me.
Click to expand...

I should explain

you stack a few rows of the empty plastic blocks & fill them
repeat as you stack up to your height

Same as concrete but easier to work with -- and maybe cheaper
 
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