Why are all houses these days made with Styrofoam????!!

Dr House · Feb 06, 2014 12:02 am

I am just about to sign the contract with Plantation Homes and as I was reading through the construction drawing I noticed the word "render over polystyrene cladding" which has me alarmed and I googled - turns out "polystyrene cladding" is used extensively nowadays especially on upper floor. The whole wall is nothing more than a sheet of Styrofoam fixed to the stud wall on the exterior side and then rendered over it!! On the internal side they just fix plasterboard (drywall/gypsum board/gib board - basically just a sheet of plaster glued to paper) to the stud wall.

I am quite alarmed by this, the plasterboard wall is filmsy as it can get, one time I accidentally tripped and my shoulder bumped into the wall and made sizeable hole in it and that wasn't even very hard bump! Now I can't shake this scenerio out of my head that what if I trip and just crash through the walls (plasterboard wall, then through the cavity between the studs and proceed to crash through the filmsy "polystyrene cladding" AKA Styrofoam wall!) on my upper floor bedroom (maybe having very "kinectic sex") and then fall to my death?! I just can't believe the buildings these days that cost over $350,000 on construction cost alone would be made this filmsy! Kids can just play cricket outside and smash a hole right through my house! I mean back in the days houses were made from more sturdy stuff, you know bricks, hardwood and even concrete, and they cost less than $100,000 but nowadays not only is house more expensive to construction it is also as filmsy as it can be!

So forget about your house is your castle! It can't even stop a cricket ball let alone bullets from drive-by shooting!

Dr House · Feb 06, 2014 12:16 am

Also before anyone mention - I KNOW the reasoning behind this - it is far cheaper to use styrofoam (cost wise, plus you don't need engineers to certify) plus it is much lighter (so you don't need to a crane or extra labourers to construct outer wall) and provide much better thermal insulation. It is also much much faster in term of construction as you can just easily cut holes out for doors and window out of these Styrofoam. These "cost cutting" measures couple with the rise in price of construction means MASSIVE profit for these builders.

Forg · Feb 06, 2014 7:03 am

I don't think you'd be seeing builders folding as regularly as they do, if they were making such massive profit ...

(

? ).

Stewie D · Feb 06, 2014 10:23 am

I think you need to take off your rose coloured glasses Dr H. You have answered your own questions in your second post. To achieve the same thermal rating and speed of installation etc you would have to spend considerably more using other products.

Quote:

(maybe having very "kinectic sex")

I have no idea what kinectic sex is ( I'm showing my age aren't I ). Maybe you mean tantric sex.

Stewie

EmyN · Feb 06, 2014 10:26 am

I think you're overreacting a tad haha falling to your death. Don't forget there's framework and insulation and sisalation all between. I think you'd be surprised how strong it is. Also I'm not sure what gyprock you accidentally poked a hole in but it sounds rather cheap and nasty. Plantation's is 10mm thick which I've been told is better than other project builders which are often 8mm thick.

If you can't get past it you could insist on them bricking it or something and see how the cost comes back for steel lintels etc over the windows.

B STAR · Feb 06, 2014 1:29 pm

Builders go broke because they dont know how to run a business. No matter how much they make they like everyone else find something to spend it on.

Saint Mike · Feb 06, 2014 3:06 pm

Am I missing something here - are you saying they use PS rather than bricks - or as well as.

I hate that "wood" look you often see on the first floor - is this what you mean ?

We have a Pl house and gyprock seems ok to me - I've put screws in etc etc and had no issues.

Saint Mike · Feb 06, 2014 3:07 pm

As a sleep walker - occasional - I'd hate to get up and fall through the wall ...

Stewie D · Feb 06, 2014 7:54 pm

No, they screw sheets of 50 - 75 - 100mm polystyrene foam to the timber frame then render it with an acrylic render. You can hardly tell the difference between that and bricks/render.
Usually this is for the first floor with bricks on the ground floor but some do the poly on both levels.
The false wood look you are talking about is Hardies woodgrain hardiplank; fibre-cement sheets with a wood pattern and yeah it does look cheap and nasty in my opinion too.

Stewie

Dr House · Feb 06, 2014 8:47 pm

EmyN

Don't forget there's framework and insulation and sisalation all between. I think you'd be surprised how strong it is. Also I'm not sure what gyprock you accidentally poked a hole in but it sounds rather cheap and nasty. Plantation's is 10mm thick which I've been told is better than other project builders which are often 8mm thick.

If "framework" you mean stud walls - there are cavities between those studs :
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The "sisalation" is just a sheet of aluminium foil woven to some kind of polymer sheeting - could easily poke right through it if not it surely won't stop my fall to my death!

Now, the construction technique nowadays for making these "polystyrene cladding" walls AKA Styrofoam walls means you do not need to put insulation into it - the polystyrene/Styrofoam outer wall is it! There all there is to it.

This is what it looks like :

EmyN

Also I'm not sure what gyprock you accidentally poked a hole in but it sounds rather cheap and nasty. Plantation's is 10mm thick which I've been told is better than other project builders which are often 8mm thick.

10mm and 8mm aren't that much difference - they are PLASTER glue to PAPER! If you don't believe how fragile they are try bounce a basketball off it

Dr House · Feb 06, 2014 9:06 pm

Saint Mike

Am I missing something here - are you saying they use PS rather than bricks - or as well as.

I hate that "wood" look you often see on the first floor - is this what you mean ?

We have a Pl house and gyprock seems ok to me - I've put screws in etc etc and had no issues.

No, they usually look like they are rendered (flat). The one you are talking about is Linea board AKA weatherboard although in the old days they are made of timber but nowadays they are made of fiber cement. They are at least cement which is stronger than Polystyrene AKA Styrofoam.

Bluesuede · Feb 06, 2014 9:07 pm

Seriously? The alarmist way you're talking about it you'd think you're talking about a house made out of straws and crepe paper.

Dr House · Feb 06, 2014 9:36 pm

I am just saying, buildings these days sure aren't as sturdy as they used to be. They sure won't stop bullets for sure (luckily the gobberments took the gun ownership away thank god!) so the home you think is your castle is no castle at all!

malamute · Feb 07, 2014 7:24 am

These walls should be better at stopping heat, cold and sound though. And they are more common concerns than bullets.

joshnjacqui · Feb 07, 2014 7:48 am

You're off chops. No one is going to fall through that kind of wall.

R34 · Feb 07, 2014 8:20 am

You're right things like Micrometeorites could pass right through the wall and get me in my sleep :shock:

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/earthscience ... meteorites

AussieMark · Feb 07, 2014 8:43 am

Actually I think the core filled reo stryofoam blocks are a brilliant idea as they are very easy to build and go together like lego. Essentially the walls become moulds for concrete walls.

I would not want the walls above as my primary protection in a war zone, but then weapons these days can easily make it through walls......

Bluesuede · Feb 07, 2014 8:46 am

Yeah a nuclear strike would just melt those polystyrene walls too.

Liliana · Feb 07, 2014 9:13 am

Dr House

10mm and 8mm aren't that much difference - they are PLASTER glue to PAPER! If you don't believe how fragile they are try bounce a basketball off it

I"ll support Dr House here on the fragility of plasterboard walls. We already have a few dents in the plasterboard walls in this house made by I know-not-what. In our previous house we had to repair a couple of holes in the plasterboard walls made by my son who was only about 9 or 10 at the time. I can't remember how he made one hole but his foot made the other rolling over the bed and into the wall. When my husband complained about the size of the hole he'd had to fix at work, one of his colleagues made him feel better by telling him how big the hole in the wall left by his son's bottom was!

jsjs103121 · Feb 07, 2014 9:17 am

I have a friend who is an architect based in S. Korea and Japan and I had a chance to have a long chat with him comparing the building material and process used in AUS and the two Asian countries. During our chat he said using Styrofoam for external wall is generally a bad practice because it absorbs water and moisture and can expand or shrink (i.e. during humid seasons it can go larger and in dry seasons it shrinks back). Korea and Japan have very long rainy season during the summer so that's probably why they are more strict in using Styrofoam (they only use it as insulation material like between brick and plaster).

And I am not really sure if the one they use in AUS is any different from the normal Styrofoam we know. If it is less porous and stay in the same size all the way, I guess it is not a bad choice because like other people already said you will get better heat and sound insulation. And the labour cost will be much lower than laying bricks too.