Little Instant Houses for You and Me (and the World)

April 20, 2005 8:16 AM

Styrofoam + Ceramic Spray = Profit Instant Housing
A styrofoam house sounds like a really stupid idea but, when the styrofoam is sprayed with a special ceramic spray called Grancrete (pdf), it becomes twice as strong as structural concrete.

It is also cheap, $10 a square foot to build a house as opposed to $150 a square foot for a regular home. And, where regular concrete can take up to three weeks to fully cure, Grancrete dries in a single day.

The potential impact of this product for developing countries and natural disaster prone areas could be truly incredible.
posted by fenriq (38 comments total)

I wonder if this would work with thouse automatic cement-wall building machines mentioned a while ago. We could soon be entering the era of huge, cheap, automaticaly created homes...
posted by delmoi at 8:22 AM on April 20, 2005

Screw developing countries. Let's get it here.

(Of course, it'll be outlawed by the building contractors' associations and the construction workers' unions, but i can dream, right?)
posted by orthogonality at 8:30 AM on April 20, 2005

This material does hold great promise. I know of two organizations that are trying to combine community college construction curricula with community efforts for low cost housing. These organizations introduced me to this grancrete material (they wanted some assistance with grant writing and planned on using this or similar material). One is based just outside of NYC, where a group of activist-mided attorneys are giving back to their communities through a charitable (503C) organization that underwrites and plans new construction, at the same time employing local, so-called hard core unemployed young people as builders and trades apprentices with cooperative work-study programs at the local 2 year colleges; the aim is for the youth to gain job competencies, while also taking classes in small business management, entrepeneurship, and a (small) range of humanities (writing required and electives). I truly hope they are successful. Putting control in the hands of the community rather than in the hands of opportunists will make for better communities in my opinion.
posted by beelzbubba at 8:32 AM on April 20, 2005

Didn't I just read about this in one of Cory Doctorow's novels?
posted by Nelson at 8:34 AM on April 20, 2005

Reminds me of the cement-impregnated fabric building, another brilliant use of material technology.
posted by jasonsmall at 8:38 AM on April 20, 2005

Grancrete sounds like an idea building material--easily created, can be applied by local peoples, and it both protects the land from poisonous materials and can revitalize the earth when it crumbles.

Great for developing countries, of course, but I hope it becomes available here. I'd love to have a nice, big, well-insulated house for $10,000 or so.

*waits to see the unions explode*
posted by kalimac at 8:51 AM on April 20, 2005

This is a wonderful idea. They should get Jimmy Carter involved too--for the Habitat for Humanity stuff.

What about the stryrofoam tho? Making tons of polystyrene can't be good for the environment?
posted by amberglow at 8:54 AM on April 20, 2005

Interesting. I wonder how it will hold up in the hurricane and earthquake tests. beelzbubba: that program sounds like a great idea.
posted by fshgrl at 8:55 AM on April 20, 2005

An architect I know in Texas built his house using this. It insulates really well, looks great and is not flammable.
posted by caddis at 9:01 AM on April 20, 2005

What about the stryrofoam tho? Making tons of polystyrene can't be good for the environment?

The article states: To build a home, Grancrete is sprayed onto Styrofoam walls, to which it adheres and dries, according to the developers. The Styrofoam remains in place as an effective insulator, although Wagh suggests simpler walls, such as woven fiber mats, also would work well and further reduce the raw materials required.
posted by Kwantsar at 9:08 AM on April 20, 2005

But I do wonder, does it add much weight to the styrofoam? It's a bid sad to buy a house like that, just to have it blown over in the first autumn storm.
posted by ijsbrand at 9:08 AM on April 20, 2005

A-and, what would you use for insulation?

Having grown up in Oklahoma, I imagine the spring thunderstorms would wreak havoc on this--might make trailer parks look stable. Maybe if enough weight is piled on top?
posted by palancik at 9:32 AM on April 20, 2005

This is awesome!

On the other hand, the traditional stud wall with drywall cladding is very flexible. It is relatively easy to hang a picture, run new wires, install new light fixtures, cut in a new doorway or window, etc. People in condos realize this when they come into conflict with concrete walls...
posted by Chuckles at 9:34 AM on April 20, 2005

Maybe now we'll all be able to live in Roger Dean house.
posted by doctor_negative at 10:06 AM on April 20, 2005

$150/ft^2 for a regular home? That means a 2,000 ft^2 home would cost $300k WITHOUT a lot to put it on? Something doesn't sound right...
posted by ZenMasterThis at 10:22 AM on April 20, 2005

If they're going to substitute styrofoam with woven grass mats, why not just make it a straw bale structure?
posted by Specklet at 10:22 AM on April 20, 2005

I was going to mention the straw bale homes, Specklet. I saw an episode of Bob Vila's Home Again featuring one being built. Quite fascinating watching it being built and the end result is nice to look at.

Did anyone else think of modern Hobbits when looking at doctor_negative's link to the Roger Dean house? I want one! Er...the house, not a Hobbit.
posted by deborah at 10:40 AM on April 20, 2005

Cool technology, but homes built with it will not be flexible. This strikes me as a "better than nothing at all" option.
posted by mrbula at 10:45 AM on April 20, 2005

This does indeed sound promising. I wonder tho, do they still need wood to frame up the styrofoam walls? How many 2x4's will they need?

It seems to me that milled wood, even in small quantities would be difficult to find in many areas of the world.

Also, Chuckles, if you're building this kind of structure here in the US, then running conduit throughout the house before spraying is a definite solution.
posted by Parannoyed at 10:48 AM on April 20, 2005

I love Grancrete! Where can I get some? Home Depot?
posted by crapulent at 10:53 AM on April 20, 2005

Combine this with Monolithic Dome construction and fear nothing!!
posted by Floydd at 11:03 AM on April 20, 2005

But I do wonder, does it add much weight to the styrofoam? It's a bid sad to buy a house like that, just to have it blown over in the first autumn storm.
posted by ijsbrand at 12:08 PM EST on April 20 [!]


A-and, what would you use for insulation?

Having grown up in Oklahoma, I imagine the spring thunderstorms would wreak havoc on this--might make trailer parks look stable. Maybe if enough weight is piled on top?
posted by palancik at 12:32 PM EST on April 20 [!]

See: What stands up to a Category 5 storm?

Concrete and styrofoam housing has been around for a while and is an established industry. These guys have just stripped it down to the minimum to meet a particular need. Habitat for Humanity is already using a similar technology.
posted by caddis at 11:29 AM on April 20, 2005

but that's just for insulation mostly, caddis, no? Habitat uses traditional construction methods.
posted by amberglow at 11:35 AM on April 20, 2005

Making tons of polystyrene can't be good for the environment?

Maybe the house can be made out of recycled coffe cups. Or would that just be like the Beer Can House?
posted by wendell at 12:10 PM on April 20, 2005

That last link in my post is probably not the best one to illustrate how Habitat for Humanity uses this stuff. The one from Concrete Homes Magazine had this to say:

"Habitat for Humanity likes concrete housing not just because of its durability, quietness and lower insurance rates," he said. "They like it because it is energy efficient. Sadly, what some Habitat families discovered once they got into their traditional homes was that they couldn't afford the utility bills. Energy savings takes stress off the family budget, saving as much as 44 percent to heat and 32 percent less energy to cool."

They were describing a house constructed using the Dow Styrofoam T-Mass system which is quite similar to the way the Gancrete houses are built.
posted by caddis at 1:05 PM on April 20, 2005

Maybe the house can be made out of recycled coffe cups.

Why just recyled cups, why not ALL recycled styrofoam? Immediately after reading that headline I wondered if we could finally find someway to use ths awful, non-biodegradable, stuff, because I hate throwing it out and just keeping my in my basement would take up a lot of space--along with serving no real purpose since I'd never use for anything.

Sidenote: I read an interesting article in The Toronto Star about building houses out of straw bales, it sounds pretty neat and is becoming more popular than you'd think.
posted by haasim at 1:24 PM on April 20, 2005

I'd imagine there is plenty of styrofoam already around to not have to produce anymore for a good long time.

And yes, I do want to build my next house out of this stuff, especially if I can save a huge bundle and have a stronger, safer and more freeform structure.

By the way, this was my 100th FPP, do I get a cookie?
posted by fenriq at 1:52 PM on April 20, 2005

posted by caddis at 2:11 PM on April 20, 2005

Thanks caddis! I'd just been on the 420 thread and was a little hungry!
posted by fenriq at 2:38 PM on April 20, 2005

Styrofoam is a total bastard to recycle -- it's usually ground up instead and used as packing (ie., as loose-fill material). That's not what you'd want from a structural material, unless you could mix the ground-up styrofoam material with something stronger (epoxy? plaster?).

...and your biggest obstacle in all of this (as far as the US is concerned) isn't construction unions, it's building codes. The fire safety guys, for example, would want to see lots of expensive tests on flame spread and the like. That's one reason why these sorts of things are always aimed at the nebulous "developing world" -- nobody wants to bother getting them approved for use here. If it works in the developing world *then* someone will start thinking about importing it back to the US, and if it doesn't work out, well, no money lost.
posted by aramaic at 3:14 PM on April 20, 2005

ahh caddis--thanks.

Whatever happened to bamboo? I seem to remember (late 90s?) lots of talk about it as a better and more replenishable building material than regular wood. (and those bale/tire/etc houses are amazing--a favorite of mine)

aramaic, and when they do import it back, it's usually not cheap anymore.
posted by amberglow at 3:52 PM on April 20, 2005

aramaic, the resulting concrete like product does not burn and the ceramic spray makes the styrofoam stronger than industrial concrete, I don't really think there would be any issues for building codes.

amberglow, they realized they could make a whole lot more money making bamboo flooring.
posted by fenriq at 4:27 PM on April 20, 2005

why not just make it a straw bale structure?

Straw comes from wheat or oats usually, which are northern crops for the most part so I don't think straw would be easily available in the kinds of areas they are talking about. You can't bale corn or rice. Not to mention that a baler is an expensive piece of material that most subsistence farmers aren't going to have access to, never mind the fuel, or the metal wire needed to run it.
posted by fshgrl at 4:38 PM on April 20, 2005

if this stuff withstands hurricane forces, i'll be tickled pink to coat my current house with it - aesthetics be damned!

(we were lucky, we only got hit with 2 of the 4 storms...)
posted by snack at 6:00 PM on April 20, 2005

I have been in a similar house. warm, great acoustics and toxic as hell. Smelled like the inside of a new cooler. I am not one of those that usually gets headaches from stuff in the air but for the next four hours I had one big time. and that taste in the back of my mouth- yeah that one.
posted by pointilist at 6:19 PM on April 20, 2005

I don't really think there would be any issues for building codes.

...then you've never worked with the codes enforcers. Rational thought has surprisingly little to do with the process, especially when fire safety is involved.

Also, straw bale houses can be made from rice straw.
posted by aramaic at 6:48 PM on April 20, 2005

Styrofoam is a total bastard to recycle -- it's usually ground up instead and used as packing

Ground recycled styrofoam can be mixed into the concrete when building these houses. The concrete maintains most of its strength and the styrofoam vastly increases the insulation value of the concrete.
posted by caddis at 7:13 PM on April 20, 2005

Ground recycled styrofoam can be mixed into the concrete when building these houses.

Neato. Is there a generic term for this process? I'd like to read some more (particularly as regards strength etc.) and my Googling leads mostly to ICF & Rastra.
posted by aramaic at 9:34 PM on April 20, 2005