One-storey House Built in 8 Hours

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 65, 3 April 1937, Page 18

One-storey House Built in 8 Hours

VIE3STNA — A new building me'thod enabling the construction of a complete floor of a house in eight hours, and immediately dry and ready for habitation, has been developed by two Austrian engineers, Dr. Erich Honigmann and Mr Bruckmayer, after ,-,long esperimentation. • Instead of mortar, a mineralized wood-wool is used, i.e., iine shavings converted through a chemical treatmen't into a stone-like substance called Novadom. Sheets of this Novadom, two meters long and oue centimeter thick are placed between the layers of bricks and hold them together so firmly that no mortar is needed, hence it is claimed no dampness results. It has been shown that a one-story house, built on an aTea of 56 sqnaTe metres (about 620 square feet) contains in its walls, when 38 centimeters thick, an amount of water suffieient- to saturate 8,000,000 cubie metres of air with moisture, that is, 2500 times the volume of the house. The new method is said to save 17 per cent of the pjrice when ordinary bricks are used, and 36 per cent in the Case of hollow ones. Furthermore, since Novadoin is not so dependent on fair weather, the seasonal unemployment in the. construction business may diminish. It has already proyed successful in homes and factories in Austria, Germany, Yugoslavia, France and Switzerland. It is believed that the greater durability of such houses will lower rents, while the capacity of the, walls to hold heat will cut tho fucl rates. Dr. Honigmann has lectured in .the United States and i'n Canada about his specialty, thermodynamics, and took ^>art in the World Power Conference in Washington in September, 1936.