A Foam Foundation : New Material for Building Holds Promise for Quake and Fire Victims

When the Green Meadow wildfire razed the Newbury Park mansion of Harman Rasnow, the millionaire vowed to build a new house that would never burn.

When the Northridge earthquake leveled the tiny Fillmore home of Joe and Dolores Rivera, the couple asked Habitat for Humanity to construct them a house that would withstand the strongest quake.

And although Rasnow can build with any material he chooses and the Riveras will take any material they can get, the two families have settled upon the same building system, one that will surround them with recycled coffee cups, packing peanuts and cement. Designed in the 1970s in Austria as a do-it-yourself building material, RASTRA is made of 86% recycled plastic foam and cement, and is just hitting the American building industry. Rasnow and Habitat for Humanity are constructing the first two RASTRA homes in Ventura County.

“If we’d had a RASTRA house at the time of the fire, we’d still be living in it,” said Rasnow, who watched his house burn to the ground in October, 1993.

After searching the world for a sturdy, fireproof material, he chose RASTRA and expects a shipment any day from the Phoenix-based firm that manufactures the giant Lego-like system. Meanwhile, Habitat for Humanity volunteers who had never built a house constructed a RASTRA one in Fillmore in three days.

RASTRA, an acronym based on the material’s German name, is made from crushed recycled plastic foam that is mixed with cement and a patented ingredient that adheres the materials. The material is then shaped into large blocks resembling giant hollow building blocks, which are shipped to the builder. The builder stacks them on top of each other to form a frame, glues them together with foaming glue, threads them with steel rebar, and pours cement through the holes to reinforce the frame.

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The result is a concrete reinforced building that needs only to be covered with stucco or paneling.

Ventura builder and Habitat for Humanity volunteer Rob Tucker is such a big believer in the material that he has stopped taking bids for wood-framed houses.

Tucker said a RASTRA house costs about the same to build as a wood frame house, but has the benefits of being fire- and termite-proof.

Rasnow cites an Underwriters Laboratories study in which a 1,920-degree flame was aimed at one side of a 10-inch block for two hours without raising the temperature of the other side as a demonstration of its fire resistance.

“When I lost my house, I was determined not to lose another one,” said Rasnow, “so I was looking for a way to build a house that would be fireproof.” Because it is made of 86% plastic foam, RASTRA is an excellent insulator, said Tucker. “The same principals that insulate your hand from hot coffee in a Styrofoam cup will insulate the inside of your home from the elements,” he said.

And it’s quake-proof--so far.

“We just made it through a magnitude-4.9 quake without any damage,” Tucker said. Studies are still being performed to determine what size quake RASTRA can stand.

Tucker acknowledges that the new material will take a while to catch on in the United States, where builders are used to wood-frame houses. Fewer than 200 RASTRA houses exist in California, which is one of the largest markets for the product. A few of the Habitat volunteers said they were a bit skeptical upon their first use of RASTRA as they stood in the shade of the frame, waiting for cement to be poured into the walls.

“It’s not too bad, but it’s messier than working with wood,” said volunteer Gerald Fehr of Saskatchewan as he kicked at the plastic foam remnants littering the ground after the construction. “The glue fumes and Styrofoam get in your lungs a lot worse than the sawdust.”

Fehr also pointed out that residents must glue baseboards and pictures onto the walls because nails don’t penetrate RASTRA the way they penetrate wood.

Roger Redger of Greeley, Neb., said he preferred the wood projects he’s built for Habitat. “You’d have to be born with a love of Styrofoam to work with this all the time,” he said. “And I don’t have it. I am a carpenter and this isn’t going to take the place of wood.”

But volunteer Ray Toews of Alberta was proud of the RASTRA house. “If we worked with this material all the time, it would be much easier,” he said. “I don’t really know what I’m doing, and even someone like me can come in here and build a house.”

Low-income advocates have been some of the earliest supporters of RASTRA because the material is volunteer-friendly and costs nearly the same as a wood-frame house.

The Farmers Home Administration has built housing in Desert Hot Springs. Recently, a representative from the state Department of Housing and Community Development shadowed Tucker as he worked on the RASTRA house in Fillmore.

“We’re always searching for new and innovative materials,” said Mike Cardenas, state program manager. “It could definitely be used for self-help or dormitory-style low-income housing.”

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Ventura County building officials said they are still in the process of learning about RASTRA and are keeping a close eye on the houses as they go up.

“Everything new is looked at with skepticism in this industry,” said Tom Melugin, district supervisor of building and safety.

Waste management officials said RASTRA could significantly reduce the waste stream if it gains popularity as a legitimate building material.

Waste Management Analyst Lorraine Timmons said there are many recycled building materials coming on the market, but RASTRA is rare because of the high content of recycled ingredients. Timmons also liked RASTRA because it provides a market for recycled material. She said people are already concentrating on sorting and recycling products.

“Right now, we’re focusing on developing markets, that’s the weakest link in our chain. It’s quite exciting that building officials are accepting this.” Timmons said she hopes that someday RASTRA will use recycled material from Ventura County.

Two companies currently supply the material to houses in the United States. Energrid Inc., based in Buckeye, Ariz., manufactures the material at a plant based in Riverside. RASTRA Technologies, which brought the material from Europe, has a plant in Mexicali, Mexico, that distributes RASTRA to builders in the United States, including Habitat for Humanity and Harman Rasnow.

Though both companies plan to expand, they also are competing for territories and markets. They are currently in court, fighting for the rights to the RASTRA-making process.

Tucker said those rights will be extremely valuable as builders look to non-traditional building materials in the future. “I have nothing against wood,” Tucker said. “My father was a carpenter and his father was before him. But as our virgin resources become more scarce, materials like RASTRA are going to become more popular.”