- Rapid Assembly of PVC prefabricated houses
- Safe roofs made of PVC/acrylic corrugated roof panels
- New GHS works opened in Venezuela
One hundred PVC prefabricated houses of Global Housing Solutions (GHS) protected their inhabitants in Santiago de Cuba from Hurricane Sandy. While more than 130,000 houses were damaged or destroyed in the province of Santiago, the houses built with GHS technology were said to have defied the hurricane. GHS customer Petrocasa built the houses in Cuba five years ago.
Hurricane Sandy hit Cuba’s south eastern coast in the early hours of October 25, 2012. It wreaked major damage on the coastal city of Santiago de Cuba, before later hitting the east coast of the USA. At speeds of up to 177km/h (110mph) the hurricane destroyed over 130,000 houses in the province of Santiago.
One development of PVC concrete houses built by the Venezuelan producer Petrocasa five years ago withstood the catastrophe entirely undamaged, states GHS. The Venezuelan company also manufactured the wall, window and door profiles to build the GHS family homes in Latin America.
Petrocasa manufactured the wall, window and door profiles for building the GHS family homes in Latin America. (source: GHS)
To withstand the high wind speeds which are not uncommon in the region, the surface areas of the houses were constructed of robust PVC. Further protection was provided by anchoring the ceilings and wall profiles into the foundations. Residents of this development in Santiago de Cuba got off very lightly indeed. The family homes based on GHS technology are constructed to take into account natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, and safely withstand them.
Housing units are constructed to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes (source: GHS)
Based on the completed profiles the houses are said to be ready to move into in a short space of time yet are designed for a long service life. The intelligent use of materials and joints make the houses earthquake and hurricane-proof. GHS Global Housing Solutions is responsible for the engineering, production and installation of the profile production facilities. The profile manufacture plants are operated by regional companies.
Rapid Assembly of PVC prefabricated houses
GHS family homes can be rapidly assembled, it is claimed. The steps are as follows: first, the ground is prepared and levelled, the rebars are placed and sanitation pipes laid and the foundation is poured. Then the walls are erected by putting in place the wall profiles and fastening them to the foundation. Next, the wall profiles are filled with concrete by means of a concrete pump or manually with buckets. In the next stage, the roof framework, which is currently made of wood or metal, is put into place and covered with locally available materials, such as clay tiles. Any locally and culturally typical roofing can always be adapted to the house. To finish, the doors and windows are fitted in the already installed frames. Finally, the sanitary facilities are installed, tiles and floors are laid. The PVC coating can be blasted rough, painted or plastered as preferred. Lighting and other electrical features are installed and the furniture moved into place.
How to build a PVC-concrete house? (video: GHS)
These family homes are not only suitable for private use but also for the construction of public facilities such as kindergartens and schools, office buildings, hospitals and public sanitary facilities. GHS also offers a mobile house system of lightweight panels that, due to its easy handling, is suitable as emergency housing in the wake of natural disasters.
Safe roofs made of PVC/acrylic corrugated roof panels
As of now, Global Housing Solutions offers solutions for the production of roof panels. The GHS wave panel has been conceived not only as a roof for PVC-concrete houses, but also for roofing all types of buildings.
GHS also supplies plants for the production of PVC/acrylic corrugated roof panels for all kinds of houses (source: GHS)
The roof structures are designed individually, depending on the geographical and climatic situation of the houses, and using materials customary in the location. Due to the varying requirements of the customers, GHS Global Housing Solutions has up to now left the selection of the roof to the local client.
Engineers of the enterprise have now developed a special corrugated roof panel for the PVC-concrete houses. These special wave-shaped panels are suitable for all roof structures and weather conditions. Being a coextrusion product, the panels consist of a PVC basis coated with an acrylic surface layer.
As of now, Global Housing Solutions offers machines for the production of these stable roofs. The customers are primarily enterprises already producing wall panels by means of the GHS technology. To ensure sufficient flexibility in terms of colour design and the possible application on all common roof structures, the machines are also delivered as stand-alone units. Independent of the production of PVC elements for GHS houses, the roof panels are a useful solution for all kinds of houses.
www.ghs-housing.com
New GHS works opened in Venezuela
Recently, the Venezuelan company Petrocasa gave the production green light for two new plastic extrusion works for window production. The two works in Guacara und Maracaibo will produce over one million plastic windows a year. The windows will be used in the construction of composite housing in GHS technology.
The late lamented President Hugo Chávez at the opening of the new window production works. GHS provides the know-how and the extrusion plant for these production lines (source: GHS)
