Hi Andy,
There have been several members of this group that have posted
various ideas about insulating a basement with papercrete, but I
don't recall anyone that posted they had actually done it.
I managed to search our archives and found a couple of messages where
people had previously discussed papercreting a basement.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/message/2831
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/message/2170
At the bottom of each of those messages you will see a list of all
the messages that are responses to the initial posting. I encourage
you to look through those responses as well.
Most papercrete is water permeable. Not only will water pass through
it, but papercrete will tend to wick water. Papercrete is NOT
concrete. Papercrete is a WOOD product. Just like wood, papercrete
will perfrom best if it is kept dry.
Yes, papercrete can be sealed, but rarely is any sealer 100%
perfect. Be careful that you do not create a closed environment that
ends up trapping moisture inside the papercrete.
My biggest concern about your post is that seem to want to use
papercrete to dress up a basement that is leaking water. A leaky
basement is A BIG WARNING SIGN. Water destroys structuers. It plays
particular havoc on foundations. If you have water in your basement,
I encourage you to not try to cover up the problem. GET RID OF THE
WATER AT THE SOURCE. If you try to cover up damp or leaking basement
walls with anything, papercrete or any other material, I assure you
that you will probably be very very disappointed.
The best solution to this situation is to prevent water from getting
to the outside of your basement walls to begin with. The solution
isn't complicated, but it can require a great deal of effort to do
properly. I encourage you to google, "foundation french drain".
I also encourage you to investigate your roof. Do you have gutters?
Are they working properly? Do they leak? The more water you can
prevent from getting to the ground surrounding your foundation the
better.
Does the ground around your structure slope toward the walls or away
from the walls? It needs to slope away from every wall for at least
4 to 6 feet. This will help direct water away from your foundation
underground.
The best place to seal anything related to a foundation or a basement
wall is on the exterior side of a basement wall to prevent the water
from entering the foundaton to begin with. I cannot stress enough
how destructive water inside a foundation can be over time. Properly
done, a basement foundation wall will have a waterproof membrane
applied to the outside before the soil is backfilled. The base of
the wall should include a drainage system that will channel any water
that gets close to the foundation away. The backfill material should
be something like gravel that will drain water away easily and not
hold water next to the foundation.
Papercrete is amazing stuff, but it is not the best material to use
for every situation. There are things that can be done that will
help papercrete endure a wet environment, like adding borax to the
papercrete mix and making sure that there is enough fine mineral
content in the mix, but these measures only go so far. There is no
substitute for keeping papercrete dry to begin with.
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "wvengineer" <andyholcomb@...>
wrote:
>
> I really like the idea of papercrete, but was wondering if anyone
has
> used it for a cellar or basememt? I guess what I am asking is if
the
> stuff is water permiable? If so does it hold up well even though
it is
> permiable? And lastly, can it be sealed? I am in need of a root
> cellar, a wine cellar, and a garage. I would really love to use
this
> method of construction rather than cutting down more trees....
>
> Regards,
> Andy
> Mountains of West Virginia
>
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