Cemesto

A house built with cemesto panels in the Oak Ridge, Tennessee Defense Community, 1949.

Cemesto is a sturdy, lightweight, waterproof and fire-resistant composite building material made from a core of sugarcane fiber insulating board, called Celotex, surfaced on both sides with asbestos cement. It was originally developed by the Celotex Corporation and first introduced to the market in 1931.[1]

Prefabricated homes incorporating cemesto panels under construction in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during World War II. White cemesto panels can be seen on several of the homes.

Cemesto was a pivotal material in the development of World War II-era defense housing, which provided homes for workers mobilized to meet wartime production needs.[2]

  1. ^ "Official gazette of the United States Patent Office v.413 1931:Dec." HathiTrust. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  2. ^ Marks, Elyse Marguerite (2012). The World War II Defense Housing Community of Aero Acres: Case Study for the Future Preservation of Historic Planned Suburban Communities (Thesis). Columbia University. doi:10.7916/d82j6k0g.