Building in regions that experience regular seasonal flooding creates extremely demanding requirements for wall materials, most of which cannot survive prolonged direct contact with standing water. Traditional clay brick, concrete block and drywall will all absorb large amounts of flood water, requiring full replacement after even a single moderate flood event. EPS Cement Sandwich Panel is one of the very few wall materials that can survive full submersion for multiple days and still retain almost all of its original structural and performance properties.
In standardized laboratory water submersion testing, EPS Cement Sandwich Panel was fully submerged in clean water for 30 consecutive days. After being removed and allowed to air dry completely, the panel retained 92 percent of its original compressive strength, and there was zero delamination between the cement facings and the EPS core. The softening coefficient of the material, which measures strength retention when saturated with water, is tested at over 0.85, a value far higher than the 0.6 standard that defines a water resistant construction material.
This performance makes EPS Cement Sandwich Panel an ideal choice for residential homes, commercial buildings and public infrastructure located in documented flood plains. After a flood recedes, property owners simply need to open windows to ventilate the building and allow the walls to air dry naturally. There is no need to demolish and replace entire wall sections, no need to remove and discard waterlogged insulation, and almost no risk of hidden mold developing inside the wall structure. This drastically reduces post-flood repair costs and allows building occupants to move back into their properties days after the water recedes, instead of the weeks or months of reconstruction time required for buildings built with traditional wall materials.
