Days 224 &225 (6/11 – 12)

Monday – This morning I was picked up by Frank Brugal the President of EHIsotex and taken to their new factory in an industrial park on the outskirts of Santo Domingo. EHIsotex manufactures Styrofoam floor, wall and roof systems and a system of Styrofoam concrete forms. I am familiar with the concrete forms called ICFs (insulated concrete forms) as we used them on 10 houses in Mellier. However, the fact that they are now being manufactured in the Dominican will make a significant difference in the transportation and importation costs. But the real purpose of my visit is to learn more about their panel products.

My first impression of the factory was - it’s huge. It was 12,000 square meters or over 130,000 square feet. Being brand new, it was spotlessly clean and modern. Frank was a perfect host and walked me through the entire manufacturing process.

The raw material, polymeric expandable beads, comes in 2520 kg bags (5,544 lbs.) and looks like sugar crystals. Through a heat curing process that allows the styrene gas to expand in the crystals, blocks of Styrofoam are formed. These blocks are 3’ x 4’ x 8’. They can be made in different densities depending on the type of product to be produced. These blocks are then sliced and diced into various shapes by automated “hot wire” cutters.

The wall panels that I’m interested in have a Styrofoam core from 4” to 10” thick with wire mesh attached to both sides. They are then set in place; tied to rebar; openings and corners reinforced with more mesh and then given a 2 coat plaster finish on both sides. The walls become a monolithic unit and can be stacked four or five stories high without having to use any other structural component like columns or beams. They have automated machines at the factory that fabricate the wire mesh from rolls of wire that are cut and welded. A robotic arm then lays 1 layer of mesh, a Styrofoam panel, then another layer of mesh on a machine that feeds it through another welding process that welds the 2 layers of mesh together.

The roof panels are fabricated on a machine that is about 500 feet long. It glues sandwich panels together. The bottom layer is an epoxy coated steel sheet for interior finish; a 4” to 8” Styrofoam panel and then a prefinished formed steel roof panel. They can span up to 3.3 meters (about 11 feet) without any additional structural support which reduces construction costs. They also add insulation value. I’m very impressed with the factory and the products.

Tuesday – Today Frank’s head engineer, Edwin Cadena, took me on a tour of several large commercial projects that were under construction and using their products. It was very interesting. There were more high rise buildings going up in Santo Domingo than I’ve seen in any U.S. city in the last 10 years. We toured 4 different sites with buildings from 15 to 33 stories. They were all reinforced concrete or structural steel frames but they were using the paneled floor systems, some with cantilevered decks and the exterior and interior wall panels. It was great to be able to see the products being used and by starting at the top of the buildings and working your way down, you could see the whole process – from the erection of the panels to the finished product. Once again I was impressed.

I must say, however, that there was no doubt that these were not projects being built in the U.S. Safety considerations (other than hard hats on 2 sites) were not a factor. OSHA would have had a heart attack at the lack of safety railings, open shafts and countless other considerations were used to seeing. My spookiest experience was walking down an exterior staircase 25 stories in the air with no railings.

I got back to the factory after lunch and met with Frank’s partner, Thomas Pollehne. Thomas is from Venezuela and has factories in Venezuela, Columbia, Panama, Mexico and Puerto Rico as well as this new one in the Dominican. He showed me pictures of projects that have been built all over Central and South America. The most interesting one was his own house that he just recently completed on a steep hillside overlooking the city and bay in Caracas. It is spectacular!

All good things must come to an end, so I said my goodbyes and hitched a ride to the airport. The exit process through Imigration, Customs and security were the most lax of any I have encountered. The ride back was a little bumpy because of thunderstorms gathering over Haiti, but otherwise uneventful. Customs and Imigration on the Haiti side was a little more thorough, but not bad. Spana met me with the D-Max and we arrived at the Guest House just in time for dinner. Timing…..