Welcome to Florida’s LEGO home: Unskilled laborers build sprawling 96-unit apartment complex using a mallet, glue gun and color-coded instructions in less than TWO MONTHS
- Lakewood Apartments in Palm Springs is the first building in the U.S. to use Renco building blocks - The project took only 11 unskilled workers who stacked and hammered the bricks into place - Renco, a a portmanteau of ‘renewable’ and ‘composite,’ is made from recycled materials and is able to withstand hurricanes
Armed with little more than a glue gun, a mallet and a color-coded instruction pamphlet, a team of unskilled laborers constructed a Florida apartment complex in under two months.
Their secret was none other than Renco, a fully recyclable construction material with interlocking blocks that pop together like Legos.
The name is a portmanteau of ‘renewable’ and ‘composite’ and the bricks are a mix of repurposed glass, plastic, calcite dust and resin. . . .
My grandfather, father and two uncles were master brick block and stone masons. I started learning the trade at 13. I get the concept and it looks like anyone with the intellectual ability to put IKEA together could theoretically build a building with these recycled materials. No leveling, mortar joint spacing or course string lines, no building corners plumb and square. But Florida??
Anyone ever consider how resilient or strength capable in say maybe a Cat 4 hurricane? Article claims they’ll withstand a Cat 5 storm.
I know Palm Springs I think I want to check this out.
Because of the shortage of skilled tradesmen, I think this will be a necessity in the future. People will once again be ordering houses to assemble for themselves. As long as they hold up…
If in less than 2 months, 11 unskilled workers can build a 96 unit complex with nothing more than a glu gun, a mallet, and a color-coded instruction pamphlet, my wife and I could build a house in less than 1.
But, let’s talk cost. This would obviously be coming out of pocket.
Probably won’t change things too much in this area of North Carolina. Cinder block is only used for stem walls in most residential construction. Concrete block construction above the stem walls is very rare.
Most of the workers at a construction site are unskilled laborers now. How many people would these bricks replace? It looks to me like they’re replacing the amount of unskilled laborers.
