comparison betw. wood.

Can be compared to hardwood. comparable in terms of hardness and load failure rate.

Can be used to build houses up to 2 storey high.

Will not warp, and shrink, and need no toxic in treatment.


Price wise                                1/2 of hardwood

Texture and color                    You decide.

Length and shape                  You decide, mold


I think that is as far as I know abt this new material... and I wish to have its furniture made in every continent, maybe let it replace wood....


Be environmental with Love.

Quoting from [francis teo]:





comparison betw. wood.


Can be compared to hardwood. comparable in terms of hardness and load failure rate.


Can be used to build houses up to 2 storey high.


Will not warp, and shrink, and need no toxic in treatment.



Price wise                                1/2 of hardwood


Texture and color                    You decide.


Length and shape                  You decide, mold



I think that is as far as I know abt this new material... and I wish to have its furniture made in every continent, maybe let it replace wood....



Be environmental with Love.

Still no answers to my questions! Evidently these answers would make your "wonder product" look bad!

And half the price of hardwood? That sounds expensive to me, especially since you are the first to call this product "rubbish". I can get much cheaper rubbish!

3 Cheers for Grandfather Germax

Hurray...


Thanks for your encouragement... We know that it shouldnt be 1/2 price of hardwood.

it should be cheaper.  But if we dont make it 1/2 price how can we use the revenue to donate to Myanmar and China.


So waiting for Grandfather Germax to be our Chairperson in donation.

3 cheers

Quoting from [francis teo]:

I personally believe in green and clean.Green to protect our Earth, use recycled material.Clean remove the rubbish, recycle and reuse.

Yeh.. recently come across a new material in wikipedia.org  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_reinforced_composite

The material is created via advanced composite technology combining Rice Hull / Rice Husk and Plastic bottles. into a timber like material...Rice husk... burnt away in millions of tons per year in South East Asia.Plastic Bottles... thrown in large quantity and used for recycling.

These two ingredients become the perfect ingredient for the new material known as fiber reinforced composite. Currently it is commercialized, I think that is the reason why it is in wikipedia.org... The only thing that catch my eye besides using Rice Hull and plastic is that . the Material can be recycled 20 times.   That is interesting.  Cos, the house material can be use again and again... for up to 20 times... This is unheard of...

Anyway. I contact the scientist and manage to get a container load of it for building a house. Yeh.. after using it. We realise that that the material is great for building houses.... and we build two low cost house with it.

Without using Timber... ZERO trees are cut.It is built like BUILDING with LEGO, as the materal is molded to have tongue and groove and all the color are mixed in the material before hand .... No painting needed.Yeh... Criteria for low cost housing ... The first criteria for me.

- ZERO timber usage,

- Long LASTING, and

- termite free,

- Toxic Free.

- Fast to Build 10 days or less per house and LOW COST.... preferably around 10,000 USD or less for 500 sq feet.

 

Hi,

 

I am very interested in your product. Can you please tell me if you are selling it in Australia. Can ypou please give me more details .

Best Regards,

Dorothee Meyer

 

Quoting from [germex]:

There is a fine line between being persistent and hard-headed...

First, now you make it pretty clear that were indeed trying to fool us and that your blog is commercial. Thanks for showing your true face!

Second, you claim that you endorse "green", but don't spend one single word about the contamination you create with your system - or how you would avoid that if there were a way.

If you really appreciate my input, show it!

I think a blog is an excellent way for this inventor to allow people to preview his cool-looking house.  People can then give him their comments & ideas.  Just like large American corporations conduct "Focus Groups" to see what people think about a product they are not selling AT THAT MOMENT, but hope to sell in the future.  And secondly, cute grandfather, please explain how he is contaminating -- if he did not do something with so much plastic garbage, it would cause much trash piling up.  I am glad he is trying to do something good with the trash plastic -- making something useful out of it.  The house looks so cool I'd like to have one as my fishing cabin.  But I do worry about off-gasing, so perhaps there is a way to insulate the inside against off-gasing?

Being Objective:

Francis: I like the house, but half the price of halfwood is still very expensive, how can indonesians, chinese, nyanmar, burmese, bangladesh and other 3rd world nation's poor can afford to use it? I think this product is more of a green alternative for people with money in the 3rd world country, or mid income developed nation. I for now, do not believe that this product can build a house that will last 5 years, let alone 30 years. But please correct me if i am wrong.

Germex: Can Ferrocement be molded into solid stackable materials? I am not well informed in this. I remembered listening to a discussion that Ferrocement is quite hard to "cure".  And Back to this ricehusk plastic thinggy - I think the only upside to this material is the recyclabilty. 

 

Being Drama:

Francis: I think yes, your blog have commercial implication, if you have been more forthright with it form your first posting, Germex might be less offensive to your posting.

Germex: I know you hit rather hard and sacarstic because you wanted to point out that Francis motive of posting here is to raise awareness so he can sell; well i think most of us are wise enough to see that, no need to get worked up over it. this products have its merit, like an ancient saying "we cannot refuse or detest wisdom or truth just because it comes from detestable (not saying that francisis) sources."

First to "heynat" before I forget. You will be hard pressed to find any plastic that doesn't outgas; they all do. As soon as it is ground, it will outgas even more, as you increase the surface area. And you'll have additional contamination/pollution just because of the sheer fact that you have an energy input to transport, grind, inhect, etc. this material. This energy might not be generated on-site, but it is generated somewhere and does contaminate.

Francis doesn't want to answer my questions, and that makes matter much worse. I have seen many enthusiastic "ecologists" who can't tell a compost heap from a garbage pit. In such a case I just explain, and the problem is solved. But he is proving over and over again that he is aware of the shortcomings of his products and only sings "la-la-la, I can't hear you" when somebody asks clear questions that show knowledge.

He tries to come across as an enthusiast, he tries to fool us with a fake "blog" that in reality is a commercial website, and then doesn't have clear answers to clear questions. As I realized from the beginning what kind of person he is, I couldn't help but reacting in a sarcastic manner. He was trying to pull the hair of a bald man! Hah!

Now to "breakfast"! Yes, ferrocement can be molded into stackable material, but that doesn't make much sense. Its primary use is as a thin layer over something. So you might think in covering blocks of an extremely cheap material with ferrocement.

Though I would (in any case) forget about individually encased blocks at all! For example, recently I found out that if you convert paper and cardboard into a slurry, cast it in a suitable mold, press "the heck out of" it and let it fully dry, you get very hard blocks that on top of that have extremely good insulative characteristics. You would have to make absolutely sure that these blocks never get water-logged, but otherwise there is no problem. They won't even burn, sandwiched between two layers of ferrocement. - Now, what do think how Francis' house will behave in a fire?

Just had another look at your post and saw the subject of "curing". Maybe you misunderstood something, because ferrocement cures very well. The only detail with ferrocement is that you have to positively ensure a good bonding between the cement and fiber. That is often overlooked and not done right. So if you want to tackle a ferrocement project yourself, you might want to go to www.ferrocement.net and become a member (free of cost; it's just a discussion list). These people can tell you exactly how to proceed, and there are archives to look at, as well as articles and books.

Last of all, I have no problem with Francis wanting to sell this stuff. As long as he is honest (is he?) and believes it's good, I don't really care if he makes mistakes. We all do, and it's just a matter of correction to make sure nobody is deceived. But he was clearly being deceptive from the very beginning, and that's something I don't tolerate. My sarcasm was a "natural" reaction to his silliness, believing he could "pull the wool over our eyes".

three Cheers. For Germex to be objective.


betw. as in this forum indicated. no selling. and what I did say in my introduction is true.

Cos I found the product and build my house, then decide to promote it.

No guesswork, No fooling.

Cos if pple want to find more information they simply just go to my website. which is not even listed in alibaba.

Quoting from [francis teo]:

three Cheers. For Germex to be objective.

betw. as in this forum indicated. no selling. and what I did say in my introduction is true.

Cos I am not the inventor... and I found the product, and build my house.


Of course getting pple to my blog is the ultimate objective. to increase the awareness of it.and I did mention that... honestly... Of course those who are interested in details they will ultimately go to my website. But they really have to go through numerous links before getting to my sales page.


As for Germex question on whether it will outgas... I have no answer at this moment. cos I am no technical person. But as far as the material has been concern. the inventor has been testing it for the last 10 years.. before it is finally been release only recently.


the house first version is still standing... it has already been its 10 years... now. No warping, no shirking etc. From my understanding it has gone through the accelerated aging test in the university.


The problem of gasing is due to the choice of plastic. cos there are many plastic out there, and some toxic like PVC, and some brittle, PP, etc. so a real consideration and choice of plastic is needed. But we know that Wood Plastic composite has been in the market for many years. as far as 50 years. so we can look at their gassing data. WPC is a material that is mostly use for decking and flooring, it doesnt have the structural hardness and load bearing capability for building of houses. But it is similar in ingredient as FRC. WPC is the non recyclable alternative of FRC, FRC is recyclable 20 times.


As far as I know, Singapore government ( First world country) has been installing WPC in many location. WPC (wood plastic composite ) you can find the information in the wikipedia. while FRC is actually a mix of rice husk + plastic.


I trust testing laboratory and unversity and test results. and my own eyes. currently the material is test in UK university. and will be deploy in UK soon. As for Malaysia government has already ascertain its quality and allowing building of houses up to 1500 houses in different parts of the country.


Cos I did do a bit of selling and I know that I sell it extremely well in poor countries.


and in fact, currently we are selling in Myanmar, and Puapa New Guinea, and Indonesia. Reason why first world country will not take it is... becos like yourself. you are skeptical... and therefore lots of money has to be spent into testing and testing ...


First, to import into AUSTRALIA. the government will test, 100,000 USD spent. To import into Singapore, the government will test again. another lot of money to be spent.


it goes on the never ending list.


While in 3rd world country like Myanmar, you be surprise that they are timber exporting country, and the government will like to reduce the cutting of timber. and to get large amount of timber in short time is nearly impossible in that country as timber needs 3 years to travel from the timber source to the port.


Third world countries are actually our target sales area, instead of first world country..


and In fact, our material is actually priced cheaper than most wood that they are extract from the jungle.


As the ultimate aim of the creating this material is TO replace most timber usage


Back to you..

At this point it is at the very least extremely hard to continue an objective discussion, but I'll try. If I don't always manage to remain objective, please bear and grin. I'm human after all.

What is accepted even in First World countries regarding gas emissions from plastic doesn't mean a thing! For example, scientists have proven that even those tiny traces of alpfa bisphenol in the strips that hold bras make women appear "men-like". And that is only the first visible symptome. There is much more, and much more serious!

This has been known for many years, and yet, plastics with alfa bispheniol haven't been banned. You know why? Because then you would have to ban almost all plastics! Guess what the big oil producers would say about this.

Regardless of some phony government approval (not your fault), you can bet what you want that from a practical point of view these houses do a lot of damage to people. Many years ago I had similar ideas and started digging into the subject. That's just how I am, but anyway, I found out that houses made with plastics (including synthetic flooring, carpets, etc.) are real gas chambers, with all the negative side effects!

On the other hand, why would I spend so much money on a house if I don't care how fancy it comes across to others, but serves its purpose for me? Even in the US there are people who have built better and cheaper houses, and the US is not exactly a cheap country! Some did "dumpster diving", recovering valuable materials from the trash, others used modern forms of the old adobe material, while others had even better ideas I can't remember right now.

The bottom line for me is that the inventor might be a real nice guy, he might have had the best intentions, but in this case he would have been irresponsible at best. He should have investigated about alfa bisphenol (if I found that out, it is obviously not classified information), he should have done his calculations regarding embedded energy, etc. The way it was done (amateurish), this house is nothing but a dream - a nightmare, for those who live there for a long enough time!

And you want to cover all this up with your exhibited enthusiasm! Now you understand why I'm so mad?