The ever-increasing cost of building and maintaining a home has led many South Africans to look for alternatives to traditional building materials and construction methods.
Bricks and mortar are excellent building materials that have stood the test of time. In addition, banks are geared to finance homes built from these traditional components, whereas they may apply additional lending criteria when it comes to financing homes made of other materials.
To compete, alternative building materials must be able to contribute towards healthy, affordable, durable, and energy-efficient buildings that are quick to build.
Other options
Two Cape Town-based companies that are making a name for themselves in the alternative building materials field are MagnaStruct and Stumbelbloc.
Magnaboards
MagnaStruct is the distributor of MagnaBoards, which are large boards made from magnesium oxide. Advantages of the product include superior insulation properties, and above-average fire resistance – an important consideration given the increase in fires in certain areas over the past few years.
“Another advantage of building with MagnaBoards is how quickly construction happens, with many homes being completed in a substantially shorter timeframe than when conventional materials are used,” says MagnaStruct chief executive, Dave Lindup.
Further benefits of these boards include being impervious to water and insect infestations, mould- and mildew-resistant, and excellent acoustic and thermal advantages. Because of their non-toxic nature, the boards can be used for interior and exterior walls.
Lindup says: “Today’s property owners are very aware of their carbon footprints and carry out extensive research on sourcing of sustainable building materials. Over the past three years, we have noted a huge increase in the number of architects choosing to use MagnaBoard for domestic and industrial applications.
“Because they are non-toxic and energy-efficient and enable speedy construction, they are ideal building materials for environmentally conscious property owners. They are also well-suited to low-cost housing projects, where the fire-retardant properties are particularly important.”
Stumbelbloc
The Stumbelbloc system has proven to be a cheaper way of building as well as creating thermally efficient buildings to live in, says Jan Minne, senior architectural technologist and owner builder, who has worked on many residential and commercial buildings using brick and mortar in the course of his career.
After much research into previous projects and the Stumbelbloc factory, he decided to build his own 400m2 Pretoria home using the Stumbelbloc building method developed by Cape Town-based Andre Esterhuizen.
The Stumbelbloc blocks slot together using the minimum of bonding material. Readymade blocks are available from the factory, or builders can make the blocks on-site using patented moulds.
“Stumbelbloc’s building method optimises construction, and its insulation properties assist in reducing future energy costs,” says Esterhuizen.
Other benefits of using Stumbelboc include:
The blocks are self-aligning and self-levelling, which saves on plastering the walls.
They are ideal for DIY enthusiasts.
Electricity conduits and water pipes can be installed inside the empty cavities.
“The blocks are approximately eight times larger than traditional bricks so walls go up faster and they slot together, much like Lego blocks, making construction easier. Once a wall is complete, polystyrene grind is pumped into the cavity from the top of the wall to insulate it, which saves time compared to other construction methods.
“Polystyrene is an excellent insulator and using it in this way helps to reduce waste in landfills,” says Esterhuizen. “The Polystyrene Packaging Council is working with recyclers to develop new uses for recycled polystyrene to prevent the product from creating waste.”
Uses
Both alternative building systems have a wide application - from luxury homes to commercial and industrial buildings and low-cost housing.
They could provide a stylish, cost-effective solution to the problem of reducing the housing backlog in South Africa.
