When many people think about glue, it is typically in an elementary school classroom or in the arts and crafts box located under the bed. But glue is much more useful than that, and its uses aren’t as limited as one might think.
As CityLab reports, glues have been used to build aircrafts for decades, and many performance-based cars have begun using glue to make their cars lighter while also increasing rigidity. So why can’t glue be used to construct buildings?
A major problem comes from the strict U.S. building code, a code that is not the most responsive to changes or replacing a tried and true method; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Because of this, there have been no tests to determine if an industrial adhesive really would work to build buildings with and eventually replace bolts and screws.
The problem is that if something breaks or needs to be inspected on an aircraft or an automobile, it can be broken down to its individual components and put back together, the same cannot be said of a building. Glue can deteriorate over time without any way of knowing its state of deterioration or replacing it. Before anyone can even begin to think about using glue to construct buildings with, years of testing and research need to be put into it.
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