AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Weather Tropical Storms & Hurricanes Hurricane Resistant Building System

There is a simple solution in regards to alternative housing for the people of Belize who are rebuilding: Super Adobe houses. We built one in Belize at Maya Beach for very low cost. A Super Adobe home uses whatever natural materials are at hand( local mull , sand/dirt). The idea is to use what is right there in the ground: you fill sand bags, add barbed wire to ensure a good foundation and start layering the bags to form your house. We built our 2 bedroom adobe house at Maya Beach for around $5,000 to $10,000.We did alot of the labor ourselves and hired local Belizeans. This provided jobs for the locals, we used local suppliers and nothing had to be imported . A great solution, far better than importing a product from Germany. A good website for super adobe building is www.calearth.org. Hope this idea takes hold, it has worked for us.

Styrofoam, rebar, and cement in various forms has been used as a building material in Belize for more than a few years.

Some people may try new building techniques, but it appears to apparently be human nature to build in a traditional and personally understood fashion. There will be those who will try innovation, but most will go with available materials and personal knowledge.

Introduce your particular system to the construction supply companies in Belize City and Cayo. If they feel there is a market they will work with you. It has to be a long term process for it to work. In spite of the horrific nature of this incident it is not the first hurricane to hit the country.

We have been "hand building" with ferro cement in Belize for over 25 years and recently with stryo and ferro cement in the last 5 years. All we have been told is our buildings look different and even "strange"...

But they have held up very well through all these storms. We have also used locally available materials and labor throughout.

Good Luck...