Hello, "slurryguy", pleased to meet you, I gather you started the group.
I was hoping someone might acknowledge my post or welcome me or
something. I usually do that on my own groups so that people feel
relaxed enough to share.
Anyway, the reason I am getting interested in papercrete and
other sustainable building stuff is because I have a larger project at
the back of my mind that at some point will need to be started.
I have for some years worked with the homeless here in the UK. It
is clear to me that there is no point shoving homeless people into a
flat and expecting them to "do normal": hold down a job, pay the bills,
feed themselves, get along with neighbours etc.....when they have lived
"off grid" for so long. It just doesn't work and is a waste of money and
resources that could be better spent elsewhere.
Now my idea is to persuade the government to give me some land
and a minimum allowance, so that I could get a few of my homeless
friends to build their own small dwellings and live there, as a stepping
stone back into normal productive life. Obviously not all of them could
cope with even that, but from what I know of the street, there are
enough people who would recognize this as a sensible solution their own
problem that they would be willing and skilled enough to give it a go.
The sculpture in my garden will teach me a few things about
building in a way that doesn't impact the surroundings except
aesthetically: if we put up horrible little hovels and live like tramps,
obviously we are asking for trouble. But if what we build is pleasing to
the eye and contributes to the look of the environment, while at the
same time providing the basis for the caring community that my friends
out there so badly need, we are on a winner. We would grow our own food too.
On the subject of papercrete, I have a lot of paper and access to
more which I am shredding and using in my experiments. I have a lovely
area under a tree and surrounded by shrubs, which has a natural dome
overhead. The reason I wanted flexible papercrete is to sculpt a roof
shape without having to break even a twig, so that the roof undulates
naturally, and can be camouflaged or decorated suitably. I thought I
would try lightly mixing paper with enough cement and fine aggregate to
give some strength, but also with some waste paint to give flexibility
and waterproofing. I want to set it in sheets and cut it to size. Once
it is up, I will plaster the inside with a more suitable product,
haven't even thought of that yet, some kind of earth plaster.
I was mixing some shredded paper with barbecue ash and it
makes a lovely "mud" that I might use in the walls. It needs some
additives obviously or it will fall apart as soon as the rain starts. I
am resisting the idea of permanence because these dwellings will not be
that: when they have achieved their objective they can be dismantled
leaving no permanent scar. But they do need to be warm, waterproof and
safe enough to be lived in through such extremes as we experience in our
British climate.
If anyone has any thoughts that might help me, please pass em on!
Blessings
Mary Lloyd
slurryguy wrote:
>
> My grandfather taught me a great lesson when I was a teenager.
>
> He pulled a dollar out of his wallet and asked me to pull a dollar
> out of mine. Then he'd ask me to trade dollars with him.
>
> He asked, "Who's richer?"
> The obvious answer is nobody!
> Then he asked if I had any ideas to trade.
>
> If two people have ideas and they trade ideas, now both people have
> two ideas. It doesn't matter if the ideas are good or bad ideas,
> both people can learn from good or bad ideas, so both people are
> richer for the exchange. Pretty cool hunh? Try it sometime. Trade
> dollars with a friend, then ask them if they have any ideas to
> trade. I bet they'll enjoy the gesture.
>
> What does this have to do with papercrete? Plenty! It's all about
> learning.
>
> Do you want to learn more about papercrete? The best way to learn
> more is to share an idea. Give the ideas away and you'll reap many
> rewards in the exchange with others. Your idea may trigger ideas
> from many others.
>
> The more ideas you share, the more everyone else will share and the
> more you'll learn.
>
> Of course, there's always the direct approach. Feel free to ask
> questions!
>
> Don't wait for me to post my traditional early morning message, jump
> right in and post a message. Hard as it might be to believe,
> sometimes I might spend a week away from the computer and not post
> anything. This need not limit your learning. You can help fill the
> gap and likely will have better posts than me anyway.
>
> Put papercreters@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:papercreters%40yahoogroups.com> into your email address book. If
> you send a message to that address it gets posted to this group.
>
>
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