LOW COST CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL PAPERCRETE PROJECT PAPAER
LOW COST CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL PAPERCRETE
ABSTRACT
Papercrete is currently enjoying a boom among builders in the Southwest who
are looking for low-cost building materials that have minimal impact on the environment.
"Paper houses make sense," says Gordon Solberg, author of Building with Papercrete and
Paper Adobe. "Our landfills are clogged with waste paper and cardboard. Millions of
people live in substandard housing or have no housing at all. With papercrete, we can
solve both of these problems at once."
Papercrete is a recently developed construction material which consists of re-
pulped paper fiber with portland cement or clay and/or other soil added.Papercrete gets
its name from the fact that most formulas use a mixture of water and cement with
cellulose fiber. The fiber is usually acquired from recycled newspaper, lottery tickets and
phone books. The mixture has the appearance and texture of oatmeal and is poured into
forms and dried in the sun, much like the process for making adobe. Concrete and wood
are not known for their insulating qualities, however, papercrete also provides good
insulation.Its R-value is reported to be within 2.0 and 3.0 per inch; papercrete walls are
typically 10 to 12 inches thick and usually pinned with rebars. Papercrete has very good
sheer strength as a block. Lateral load involves sideways force - the wind load on the entire area of an outside wall for example. Unlike concrete or adobe, papercrete blocks
are lightweight, less than a third of the weight of a comparably-sized adobe brick.
Papercrete is mold resistant and has utility as a sound-proofing material.
A revival of the alternative building material known as papercrete may offer a sustainable
substitute for traditional materials such as wood and concrete.
INTRODUCTION:
Living in Paper offers an extensive introduction into "papercrete", an
innovative construction material currently going through testing. The construction
material's performance has several advantages over concrete and uses recycled paper
from just about any source as the aggregate.
An enormous amount of paper goes un-recycled each year in the
United States (about 55% or 48 million tons), eventually making it to landfills. Industrial
papers contain toxins such as inks, dyes, bleaches and adhesives which contaminate the
surrounding soil and water. By using a mix of paper (50%-80%) and Portland cement, the
paper fibers and the chemicals are encased and the surrounding environment is prevented
from contamination. Fibrous mixes also leave tiny air pockets in the hardened material as
the wet mix evaporates, making it more lightweight and better insulator.
Papercrete is actually a generic term for various mixes of fibrous
material and cement or clay.
Papercrete is essentially a type of industrial strength paper Mache
made with paper and cardboard, sand and Portland cement.Papercrete offers a way to turn
"trash" paper and cardboard into inexpensive houses that are strong, well-insulated and
easily built. Papercrete can simultaneously reduce overuse of landfills while providing
affordable housing for millions of people. This is an elegant, win-win solution to these
two problems.
GENERAL PROCEDURE:-
Mix the dry ingredients (cement,sand, paper / cardboard) with
water to form a slurry. Cast the slurry into blocks or panels, and let it dry. When it hardens up, papercrete is obtained.Thse papercrete thus obtained is having higher tensile
strength. The paper to be used can come from a variety of sources may be newspaper,
junkmail, magazines, books, etc. Depending on the type of mixer that is used to make
pulp.
The paper may be soaked in water before hand or not. A small
electric motor mounted directly to a shaft with a couple of four inch square blades on it.
This shaft was suspended in a plastic 55 gallon drum where the mixing takes place.
Papercrete is really an industrial form of paper mache.
In this photo inventor Mike McCain dumps a batch of papercrete into a drying form.
PROCEDURE:
Papercrete is made in twenty minutes.The tank is filled with water.Add
about one wheel barrow full of dry paper.One sack of Portland cement, and some sand.
Drain box is back over with a 1/8 inch mesh on the bottom.The slurry is dumped by a
drain hole at The bottom After about a half hour of draining the excess water from the
slurry, the papercrete is soft, workable clay.
Mix proportions:
The basic mix is “12-3-1 “. 12 fiber, 3 clay, 1 lime, water. Water is
added, about 3-5 gallons. Lime water can be used. Soft clay is added about 2-3 gallons
depending on the stickiness of the clay-sand ratio. Mixer is turned on and let agitate for
30 minutes. Then soft lime putty is added, which is dry hydrate of lime that soaked in clean water for 48-72 hours. Approximately 1-6 ratio by volume of lime putty to clay is
used. Up to 30% lime to clay can be used. The mixer is run another 20 minutes to mix the
lime and clay.
STEPS TO MAKE PAPERCRETE:
MIXING:
Papercrete / cement slurry being drained out of our 55 Gal pulp-maker
into the drain box, before mixing in the sand.
There are a number of kinds of mixers, differentiated mainly by
capacity and mobility. The whole idea of mixing is to tear the paper apart in water to
produce slurry, and then mix in additives like Portland cement and sand. This procedure
is followed all the time - when working with small batches in a five-gallon bucket or with
1000 gallon (4500 liter) batches on the back of a 4-wheel drive truck. Get the paper and
water mixed first, and then add the other components.
CASTING:-
View of a corner of one of the casting forms for blocks (1.5 ft x 2.5 ft x7in)
(45 x 76 x 18 cm);some gravel and window screen at the bottom for better.
SITE CASTING:-
The first layer with both, laying blocks and site-casting. (BTW, the
bamboo reinforcement seen here is pulled out later, as the Papercrete shrank away from
it while drying, obviously rendering the reinforcement ineffective.)
As a non-heated storage shed, it was built with blocks on their small
side, creating a thinner wall (R-value only between 14 and 18). The wall stability during
construction would be much better with the blocks laid flat (R-value between 36 and 45).
PAPER ADOBE:
Paper adobe is similar to papercrete, but instead of cement used to
bind the paper fiber into a solid, clay is used as the binder.This can work well if the
material is kept absolutely dry.Otherwise it will become soft and could deform.These are
the types of adobe. Paper Adobe (paper and clay), Cob wood (sawdust-lime-clay), Super adobe,( Rammed Earth, Lime, reed, coir, hemp, jute) for building small projects and
structures. Agstone (cement-sand-fiber) ,
PROPERTIES:
It is called Papercrete, Hybradobe, or Fidobe.
It is dimensionally very stable at wide range of temperatures.
It will hold fasteners to some extent, without cracking.
It is highly insulating (about R-2 1/2 per inch).
It is highly fire proof but, it may smolder at high temperature.
It will support molds if it remains warm and moist for too long.
It will wick moisture from the ground into the wall if it buried in dirt.
It becomes soft and will deteriorate if kept damp
It resists rodent and insect infestation.
It is relatively strong (compressive strength of at least 500 psi)
It is light weight (is about 80% air).
Highly insulative (about R2 per inch of width)
It is non-flammable.
It is easily workable (wood working tools).
It can be made water resistant .
A wall built using papercrete:
Papercrete blocks can be used like adobe bricks to build walls. Papercrete also
serves as the mortar.
PAPERCRETE R-
VALUE
"R-value" is a
measure of a material's resistance to heat flow. The R-value of papercrete is reported to
be between 2.0 and 3.0 per inch - the higher the number, the better use a 1:1 mix of
Portland cement with Fly ash to paper, with about 12 shallow shovelfuls of sand added.
The percentage of Portland cement and fly ash was 65% Portland cement and 35% fly
ash. Let make a blocks 12 inches (30 centimeters) thick. Add an average of about an inch
(2.5 centimeters) of papercrete exterior stucco and about the same amount for interior
finish. That means that total R-value will be at between 30.24 (14 x 2.16) and 31.36 (14 x
2.24). That's quite good compared to an older standard wood frame wall of R- value 19.
The R-value of hollow masonry block is only 1.75.
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH:
The compressive strength of papercrete has been measured a
number of times and is variously reported to be in the 140-160 lb./sq. inch range -- but
compressive strength is probably not the most accurate way to judge
papercrete. Compressive strength is a measure of load at the instant of failure. This works for concrete because when concrete's load is exceeded, it literally explodes. When
that point is reached, the compressive strength is known. But papercrete never fails
catastrophically, it just compresses like squeezing rubber. So a more accurate measure of
papercrete's strength is its stiffness - in other words, how much does it compress under
what load? We have found that this value is less than the compressive strength of
concrete, but many times greater than would be needed to support any kind of roof
combined with just about any roof load. So with papercrete, you don't have the sudden
catastrophic fragmentation, which is characteristic of concrete or earth, just a slower
squish. When the load is removed, papercrete actually rebounds a bit in an attempt to
return to its prior shape. What does this all really mean? It means that papercrete has no
problem with strength. A structure several stories high can be built with it.
TENSILE STRENGTH:
The tensile strength of papercrete also seems sufficient to the task.
Just try to pull a single sheet of paper apart by pulling laterally on the edges. It has great
strength. Ripping a piece of paper is much easier than pulling it apart. So the shear
strength of paper is not as great as its tensile strength. But a papercrete block is the
equivalent of hundred of pages of paper - almost like a catalog. Papercrete has very good
sheer strength as a block. Lateral load involves sideways force - the wind load on the
entire area of an outside wall for example. Because papercrete walls are usually a
minimum of twelve inches thick, and usually pinned with rebar, they are very strong
laterally. No extremely long lengths of flat wall built with any kind of material should
lack reinforcement. The reinforcement might be internal - using mesh or rebar, or
external by curving the wall or connecting the wall to perpendicular walls at reasonable
intervals. Structural testing will tell us the best way to design for papercrete construction.
Again, papercrete is not yet part of the Universal Building Code, but in practice works
very well.
FIRE RESISTANCE:
Our block and roof panel mixes cure into a material which will not
burn with an open flame. If an accelerant like gasoline is applied to it or it's held over an
open fire for a prolonged period ( 30 seconds or more) it will begin to burn slowly like
charcoal rather than rapidly like wood.
It will eventually be reduced to ashes, but a single block
will take several hours to be consumed. Many fire
retardants are expensive and give off toxic fumes, but a
mixture of boric acid and borax is environmentally
friendly and will protect the block from fire. Boric acid
is used in eye washes. This concoction has been used for
years to treat curtains, draperies and other textiles in
theaters, playhouses and dance clubs where people
congregate in great numbers.
Add 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Boric acid in a gallon of water. It's
not too expensive and the great thing is that it seems to work. Another great thing is that
it's not necessary to treat all blocks. The interior plaster and exterior stucco used with
papercrete contains a high percentage of Portland cement. That in itself will not burn. So
the only weak point is inside the block near electrical outlets, switches and other places
where wires goes through walls, into boxes, etc. Properly wired, these places should
never cause a fire, but many home fires are traced back to faulty installation of wiring.
So if you want to be extremely safe, we recommend soaking the outlet holes, switch box
holes and anywhere wire goes through walls with the above solution before installing the
boxes. This is not to say that papercrete will never burn. Any material will burn or melt
if enough heat is applied - even rock. But for all practical purposes, papercrete is
relatively safe (safe as or safer than wood) without being treated. It's even more safe with
the boric acid solution above.
After two minutes in the fire, it blackened
but did not catch fire,
smolder or burn.
Wicking -
Wicking - that is the capillary action of liquids (in this case water) through
construction materials such as concrete. The idea is to prevent water from wicking from
the ground through the footing and up the stem wall (defying gravity) into the papercrete
wall - a potentially serious problem.
We are using sand bags for a foundation - see
Foundations , we wanted to double check that such bags
wouldn't wick. We should first filled a bag with what
looked like sandy soil. We placed the bag into a metal
basin and filled the basin with water half the depth of the
bag. Within two hours, the top of the bag was sopping
wet. The water had defied gravity and climbed to the top
of the bag. This had happened since the soil we used was quite sandy, or so it appeared.
We ran a "shake test" on the sample of a bag..Place the bag to sit in water over night and
there was no wicking at all. It is not a secret that sand will not hold water, but we were
somewhat confused by the fact that soil can appear so sandy and yet, in combination with
clay, wick like a sponge. So, the lesson is if sand bags are used for the stem wall, make
sure the sand is really sand. If the sand is not purchased - that is, obtained from a river
bottom or other source - be sure to run a wick test as described above before using it.
A simple wick test. Since the test is so easy, it might be a good idea to test every load to make sure that other
soil types are not contaminating the sand.
Glue
These two pieces of papercrete were cut and ground for
test purposes. Their finished dimension was 3 1/2 x 3 1/2
inches (about 9 x 9 centimeters). To find out how well
conventional white glue would hold the pieces together
so we put a medium amount of glue (several tablespoons)
on the bottom piece, layed the top one in place and let
them set over night.The result was remarkable. They will
not come apart. This would seem to indicate that
papercrete could be used in applications calling for quick
assembly by cutting the pieces to size in advance and
letting the user simply glue them together.
CONCLUSION:
Papercrete could replace concrete block and wood used in traditional
construction.Papercrete is strong (compressive strength of 260 psi), lightweight, holds its
shape even when wet, and has a high insulation value (estimatedbut unverified R 2.8 per
inch).
It is very inexpensive. Paper adobe is even less expensive, since it is
made of paper pulp and dirt. There is social and community benefit. Using papercrete to
build mother-in-law cottages, or guesthouses, allows all economic strata of people to
have affordable housing. Every community needs housing for all its citizens, and this
building material may prove a viable alternative.
There is a great deal of potential to use recycled, free, non-toxic
materials to make a variety of mixes, each having potential strengths and weaknesses.
ABSTRACT
Papercrete is currently enjoying a boom among builders in the Southwest who
are looking for low-cost building materials that have minimal impact on the environment.
"Paper houses make sense," says Gordon Solberg, author of Building with Papercrete and
Paper Adobe. "Our landfills are clogged with waste paper and cardboard. Millions of
people live in substandard housing or have no housing at all. With papercrete, we can
solve both of these problems at once."
Papercrete is a recently developed construction material which consists of re-
pulped paper fiber with portland cement or clay and/or other soil added.Papercrete gets
its name from the fact that most formulas use a mixture of water and cement with
cellulose fiber. The fiber is usually acquired from recycled newspaper, lottery tickets and
phone books. The mixture has the appearance and texture of oatmeal and is poured into
forms and dried in the sun, much like the process for making adobe. Concrete and wood
are not known for their insulating qualities, however, papercrete also provides good
insulation.Its R-value is reported to be within 2.0 and 3.0 per inch; papercrete walls are
typically 10 to 12 inches thick and usually pinned with rebars. Papercrete has very good
sheer strength as a block. Lateral load involves sideways force - the wind load on the entire area of an outside wall for example. Unlike concrete or adobe, papercrete blocks
are lightweight, less than a third of the weight of a comparably-sized adobe brick.
Papercrete is mold resistant and has utility as a sound-proofing material.
A revival of the alternative building material known as papercrete may offer a sustainable
substitute for traditional materials such as wood and concrete.
INTRODUCTION:
Living in Paper offers an extensive introduction into "papercrete", an
innovative construction material currently going through testing. The construction
material's performance has several advantages over concrete and uses recycled paper
from just about any source as the aggregate.
An enormous amount of paper goes un-recycled each year in the
United States (about 55% or 48 million tons), eventually making it to landfills. Industrial
papers contain toxins such as inks, dyes, bleaches and adhesives which contaminate the
surrounding soil and water. By using a mix of paper (50%-80%) and Portland cement, the
paper fibers and the chemicals are encased and the surrounding environment is prevented
from contamination. Fibrous mixes also leave tiny air pockets in the hardened material as
the wet mix evaporates, making it more lightweight and better insulator.
Papercrete is actually a generic term for various mixes of fibrous
material and cement or clay.
Papercrete is essentially a type of industrial strength paper Mache
made with paper and cardboard, sand and Portland cement.Papercrete offers a way to turn
"trash" paper and cardboard into inexpensive houses that are strong, well-insulated and
easily built. Papercrete can simultaneously reduce overuse of landfills while providing
affordable housing for millions of people. This is an elegant, win-win solution to these
two problems.
GENERAL PROCEDURE:-
Mix the dry ingredients (cement,sand, paper / cardboard) with
water to form a slurry. Cast the slurry into blocks or panels, and let it dry. When it hardens up, papercrete is obtained.Thse papercrete thus obtained is having higher tensile
strength. The paper to be used can come from a variety of sources may be newspaper,
junkmail, magazines, books, etc. Depending on the type of mixer that is used to make
pulp.
The paper may be soaked in water before hand or not. A small
electric motor mounted directly to a shaft with a couple of four inch square blades on it.
This shaft was suspended in a plastic 55 gallon drum where the mixing takes place.
Papercrete is really an industrial form of paper mache.
In this photo inventor Mike McCain dumps a batch of papercrete into a drying form.
PROCEDURE:
Papercrete is made in twenty minutes.The tank is filled with water.Add
about one wheel barrow full of dry paper.One sack of Portland cement, and some sand.
Drain box is back over with a 1/8 inch mesh on the bottom.The slurry is dumped by a
drain hole at The bottom After about a half hour of draining the excess water from the
slurry, the papercrete is soft, workable clay.
Mix proportions:
The basic mix is “12-3-1 “. 12 fiber, 3 clay, 1 lime, water. Water is
added, about 3-5 gallons. Lime water can be used. Soft clay is added about 2-3 gallons
depending on the stickiness of the clay-sand ratio. Mixer is turned on and let agitate for
30 minutes. Then soft lime putty is added, which is dry hydrate of lime that soaked in clean water for 48-72 hours. Approximately 1-6 ratio by volume of lime putty to clay is
used. Up to 30% lime to clay can be used. The mixer is run another 20 minutes to mix the
lime and clay.
MIXING:
Papercrete / cement slurry being drained out of our 55 Gal pulp-maker
into the drain box, before mixing in the sand.
There are a number of kinds of mixers, differentiated mainly by
capacity and mobility. The whole idea of mixing is to tear the paper apart in water to
produce slurry, and then mix in additives like Portland cement and sand. This procedure
is followed all the time - when working with small batches in a five-gallon bucket or with
1000 gallon (4500 liter) batches on the back of a 4-wheel drive truck. Get the paper and
water mixed first, and then add the other components.
SHREDDING:-
Another row of forms are being filled directly from our 200 Gal tow-mixer.
It does both, shredding the paper, and mixing it with the cement and sand.
Another row of forms are being filled directly from our 200 Gal tow-mixer.
It does both, shredding the paper, and mixing it with the cement and sand.
CASTING:-
View of a corner of one of the casting forms for blocks (1.5 ft x 2.5 ft x7in)
(45 x 76 x 18 cm);some gravel and window screen at the bottom for better.
The first layer with both, laying blocks and site-casting. (BTW, the
bamboo reinforcement seen here is pulled out later, as the Papercrete shrank away from
it while drying, obviously rendering the reinforcement ineffective.)
side, creating a thinner wall (R-value only between 14 and 18). The wall stability during
construction would be much better with the blocks laid flat (R-value between 36 and 45).
Paper adobe is similar to papercrete, but instead of cement used to
bind the paper fiber into a solid, clay is used as the binder.This can work well if the
material is kept absolutely dry.Otherwise it will become soft and could deform.These are
the types of adobe. Paper Adobe (paper and clay), Cob wood (sawdust-lime-clay), Super adobe,( Rammed Earth, Lime, reed, coir, hemp, jute) for building small projects and
structures. Agstone (cement-sand-fiber) ,
PROPERTIES:
It is called Papercrete, Hybradobe, or Fidobe.
It is dimensionally very stable at wide range of temperatures.
It will hold fasteners to some extent, without cracking.
It is highly insulating (about R-2 1/2 per inch).
It is highly fire proof but, it may smolder at high temperature.
It will support molds if it remains warm and moist for too long.
It will wick moisture from the ground into the wall if it buried in dirt.
It becomes soft and will deteriorate if kept damp
It resists rodent and insect infestation.
It is relatively strong (compressive strength of at least 500 psi)
It is light weight (is about 80% air).
Highly insulative (about R2 per inch of width)
It is non-flammable.
It is easily workable (wood working tools).
It can be made water resistant .
A wall built using papercrete:
Papercrete blocks can be used like adobe bricks to build walls. Papercrete also
serves as the mortar.
PAPERCRETE R-
VALUE
"R-value" is a
measure of a material's resistance to heat flow. The R-value of papercrete is reported to
be between 2.0 and 3.0 per inch - the higher the number, the better use a 1:1 mix of
Portland cement with Fly ash to paper, with about 12 shallow shovelfuls of sand added.
The percentage of Portland cement and fly ash was 65% Portland cement and 35% fly
ash. Let make a blocks 12 inches (30 centimeters) thick. Add an average of about an inch
(2.5 centimeters) of papercrete exterior stucco and about the same amount for interior
finish. That means that total R-value will be at between 30.24 (14 x 2.16) and 31.36 (14 x
2.24). That's quite good compared to an older standard wood frame wall of R- value 19.
The R-value of hollow masonry block is only 1.75.
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH:
The compressive strength of papercrete has been measured a
number of times and is variously reported to be in the 140-160 lb./sq. inch range -- but
compressive strength is probably not the most accurate way to judge
papercrete. Compressive strength is a measure of load at the instant of failure. This works for concrete because when concrete's load is exceeded, it literally explodes. When
that point is reached, the compressive strength is known. But papercrete never fails
catastrophically, it just compresses like squeezing rubber. So a more accurate measure of
papercrete's strength is its stiffness - in other words, how much does it compress under
what load? We have found that this value is less than the compressive strength of
concrete, but many times greater than would be needed to support any kind of roof
combined with just about any roof load. So with papercrete, you don't have the sudden
catastrophic fragmentation, which is characteristic of concrete or earth, just a slower
squish. When the load is removed, papercrete actually rebounds a bit in an attempt to
return to its prior shape. What does this all really mean? It means that papercrete has no
problem with strength. A structure several stories high can be built with it.
TENSILE STRENGTH:
The tensile strength of papercrete also seems sufficient to the task.
Just try to pull a single sheet of paper apart by pulling laterally on the edges. It has great
strength. Ripping a piece of paper is much easier than pulling it apart. So the shear
strength of paper is not as great as its tensile strength. But a papercrete block is the
equivalent of hundred of pages of paper - almost like a catalog. Papercrete has very good
sheer strength as a block. Lateral load involves sideways force - the wind load on the
entire area of an outside wall for example. Because papercrete walls are usually a
minimum of twelve inches thick, and usually pinned with rebar, they are very strong
laterally. No extremely long lengths of flat wall built with any kind of material should
lack reinforcement. The reinforcement might be internal - using mesh or rebar, or
external by curving the wall or connecting the wall to perpendicular walls at reasonable
intervals. Structural testing will tell us the best way to design for papercrete construction.
Again, papercrete is not yet part of the Universal Building Code, but in practice works
very well.
FIRE RESISTANCE:
Our block and roof panel mixes cure into a material which will not
burn with an open flame. If an accelerant like gasoline is applied to it or it's held over an
open fire for a prolonged period ( 30 seconds or more) it will begin to burn slowly like
charcoal rather than rapidly like wood.
It will eventually be reduced to ashes, but a single block
will take several hours to be consumed. Many fire
retardants are expensive and give off toxic fumes, but a
mixture of boric acid and borax is environmentally
friendly and will protect the block from fire. Boric acid
is used in eye washes. This concoction has been used for
years to treat curtains, draperies and other textiles in
theaters, playhouses and dance clubs where people
congregate in great numbers.
Add 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Boric acid in a gallon of water. It's
not too expensive and the great thing is that it seems to work. Another great thing is that
it's not necessary to treat all blocks. The interior plaster and exterior stucco used with
papercrete contains a high percentage of Portland cement. That in itself will not burn. So
the only weak point is inside the block near electrical outlets, switches and other places
where wires goes through walls, into boxes, etc. Properly wired, these places should
never cause a fire, but many home fires are traced back to faulty installation of wiring.
So if you want to be extremely safe, we recommend soaking the outlet holes, switch box
holes and anywhere wire goes through walls with the above solution before installing the
boxes. This is not to say that papercrete will never burn. Any material will burn or melt
if enough heat is applied - even rock. But for all practical purposes, papercrete is
relatively safe (safe as or safer than wood) without being treated. It's even more safe with
the boric acid solution above.
After two minutes in the fire, it blackened
but did not catch fire,
smolder or burn.
Wicking -
Wicking - that is the capillary action of liquids (in this case water) through
construction materials such as concrete. The idea is to prevent water from wicking from
the ground through the footing and up the stem wall (defying gravity) into the papercrete
wall - a potentially serious problem.
We are using sand bags for a foundation - see
Foundations , we wanted to double check that such bags
wouldn't wick. We should first filled a bag with what
looked like sandy soil. We placed the bag into a metal
basin and filled the basin with water half the depth of the
bag. Within two hours, the top of the bag was sopping
wet. The water had defied gravity and climbed to the top
of the bag. This had happened since the soil we used was quite sandy, or so it appeared.
We ran a "shake test" on the sample of a bag..Place the bag to sit in water over night and
there was no wicking at all. It is not a secret that sand will not hold water, but we were
somewhat confused by the fact that soil can appear so sandy and yet, in combination with
clay, wick like a sponge. So, the lesson is if sand bags are used for the stem wall, make
sure the sand is really sand. If the sand is not purchased - that is, obtained from a river
bottom or other source - be sure to run a wick test as described above before using it.
A simple wick test. Since the test is so easy, it might be a good idea to test every load to make sure that other
soil types are not contaminating the sand.
Glue
These two pieces of papercrete were cut and ground for
test purposes. Their finished dimension was 3 1/2 x 3 1/2
inches (about 9 x 9 centimeters). To find out how well
conventional white glue would hold the pieces together
so we put a medium amount of glue (several tablespoons)
on the bottom piece, layed the top one in place and let
them set over night.The result was remarkable. They will
not come apart. This would seem to indicate that
papercrete could be used in applications calling for quick
assembly by cutting the pieces to size in advance and
letting the user simply glue them together.
CONCLUSION:
Papercrete could replace concrete block and wood used in traditional
construction.Papercrete is strong (compressive strength of 260 psi), lightweight, holds its
shape even when wet, and has a high insulation value (estimatedbut unverified R 2.8 per
inch).
It is very inexpensive. Paper adobe is even less expensive, since it is
made of paper pulp and dirt. There is social and community benefit. Using papercrete to
build mother-in-law cottages, or guesthouses, allows all economic strata of people to
have affordable housing. Every community needs housing for all its citizens, and this
building material may prove a viable alternative.
There is a great deal of potential to use recycled, free, non-toxic
materials to make a variety of mixes, each having potential strengths and weaknesses.
About Author:
I am Thomas Britto here to share my experiences in the civil engineering field to all my readers.Today many students are struggling to buy books at high prices. So I decided to start a blog and share my experience and knowledge with all my readers.
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