Low-cost housing with plastic

2010-02-22 13:05

Lauren Hess

Cape Town - As many South Africans struggle with chronic shortage of low-cost housing, a company has stepped in to help the poor build their own houses at relatively low cost.

Stumblebloc, brainchild of Andre Esterhuizen, hopes to fill the gap in low-cost housing by reducing the cost of materials to construct homes.

"Stumbelbloc was invented to give anyone with limited skills and limited means the opportunity to build their own home in a cost effective way," said Esterhuizen.

What sets the product apart from other low-cost housing products is that the blocks are made with plastic moulds that are filled with a mortar mix and left to dry. No skilled labour is required and only a bare minimum of training is necessary.

The only tools needed for making a block are a shovel for mixing and a builder’s trowel for finishing, said Esterhuizen.

With the blocks having already been used to build properties in and around the country, Esterhuizen is now prepared to take his product around the world.

The low-cost housing market has spiked in recent years with many companies pitching innovations to alleviate the national housing shortage.

In 2006, then minister of housing Lindiwe Sisulu visited Soshanguve Block XX near Pretoria to see a display of houses built using building technologies other than brick and mortar.

"What we have seen here today is a typical example of integrated income dwellings that government is always talking about," she said.

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