Fireproof Papercrete Panels

FROM MY PREVIOUS POST you got to know that prototypes of concrete blocks and papercrete panels were made successfully, according to the recommendations of the soils mechanic and materials testing laboratory of a local university. That means they passed the test related to resistance to the pressure force. Now it is very important to test the papercrete panel prototype to see how resistant it is to fire.

So, the leader of the technical part of the project, Eng. Pablo Muguerza Toro, was heading this test together with Mr. Orlando Bemúdez, executive director of the non-profit organization CHOI and responsible for the administrative part of this project. He put a piece of papercrete panel through fire for a reasonable time and it did not catch fire. This way its resistance to fire was demonstrated.

While materials like estera (a kind of panel made of reed woven and used for wall and roof), paper, cardboard, etc. burn quickly, it was evident, by this test, that papercrete is resistant to fire, since even though it was put through fire, this material never caught fire.

Considering the successful result of this test, we now expect to be able to make concrete blocks for floor and papercrete panels for walls in gradual quantities to build houses using these affordable building materials in poor neighborhoods of Chimbote, and this way helping the motto of the project to come true: Better House, Better Life.

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