Welcome to the group, James.
I think the reason most pc projects are in the SW US is because that's where papercrete started, People like Mike McCain and Eric Patterson live here. There are papercrete buildings other places, like Florida which is about as wet as you can get, and outside Austin which gets lots of rain and humidity, just to mention a couple.
Your pc slab with hydronic heating sounds very feasible to me since my latest project has a similar floor. I put down 10" of pc, put the tube on top, and capped it with 2" of concrete rather than the clay you propose.
I (and others) have sprayed papercrete with great success. Pc sticks well to most surfaces. I have also applied tons of it by hand, troweling it, tossing it at the wall, splatting handfuls on the wall. Many techniques work. You'll find that pc is indeed strong enough to support itself.
The group is working on a database of recipes and techniques that should prove an invaluable resource to all papercreters. The last I heard it was about ready to be launched, but ElfNori can give you a better idea of that since she's head bit cruncher on that project.
Last but not least, the archive of messages is full of helpful factoids, the photo section has many interesting photos, and there are quite a few links to other resources. You came to the right place!
Spaceman
operationschief77 wrote:
__._,_.___Good Day! I have no real experience with papercrete but I do have experience with stucco and construction in general. Having perused the web I have come to the conclusion that either most papercrete creations are in dry climates or the people posting info are. As well it seems that most papercrete building is 'new home' construction rather than applying these techniques to existing homes. With that said I am hoping that I am not alone in my desire to find some good advice here on how to move forward with incorporating papercrete into an existing home. My family and I live in southern Alberta, Canada which is still many miles north of where much of the papercrete work seems to be focused. With that said this is my intention as of right now. We live in a thousand sqft home with a basement of approximately similar dimensions. There is an exisitng concrete basement that is eight feet deep. This basement does not have any insulation nor does it have a concrete floor. What I intend to do is 'pour' a papercrete slab to approximately 4" depth, run an in floor heating line above that and then top it off with clay flooring. As for the walls I have a couple of possibilities in mind. Due to the insulative nature of papercrete I could spray progressive layers of high paper, papercrete directly onto the exisitng concrete walls. Another technique I am thinking about using is 'harling' the mixture on the wall until I have the desired thickness. These 2 techniques have the advantage of trapping air in the mixture as it is being applied therefore adding to the insulting effect. The other method would be to simply trowel the mixture on in a couple of brown coats until the right thickness is achieved. My questions are simple ones, firstly anyone try this before? Two, how does papercrete bond to existing concrete? I know with stucco spalling can occur so for that reason I usually add some Elmer's glue and extra lime, very sticky and haven't lost a parging yet. Mikey Sklar has suggested a couple of cups of old latex paint. The most pressing question is to what thickness can one go when attaching papercrete to existing concrete? My concern here is the papercrete not having the necesary structral integrity to support its own weight and will then come off in chunks. A few ideas have been to attach chicken wire to the concrete much as you would in applying stucco to a wall. Or perhaps run nails into the wall and then weave willow branches through them to form a kind of rebar structure. We are motivated by trying to use all locally available resources. Ultimately I think I am going to try them all and see which works. If can prove an effective method for binding papercrete to concrete I can then add this to my available options for my customers who are looking for more'green' building techniques. Next time I will describe how I intend to turn an old hot tub into a papercrete mixer. Thanks for any input you may have. James Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:papercreters-digest@yahoogroups.com mailto:papercreters-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: papercreters-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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