I would like to offer my services to the group to help do methodical testing. I live at COS (City of the Sun) in Columbus NM which as I'm sure most of you know was one of the mini-epic centers when the process of PC was getting started. My house and several of my out-buildings are largely made with PC. I have made mixers and experimented with various formulas using vermiculite, asphalt emulsion, and concrete bonding adhesive, etc. I had largely given up building due to health reasons and even though I was still interested in PC, I felt like it needed a lot more research to become a viable structural product beyond a cheap insulation material. Thankfully, due to quiting smoking and improving my diet, my health seems to be consistently improving. My environment is probably ideal to carry out testing of PC. If you look real close at the center of any of the roads in COS you will no doubt find a thin line of PC tailing's. Sadly, I have to say that many (most) of the buildings that you probably are familiar with that were constructed in the early days are not fairing too well due to a lapse in maintenance and inadequate coverings. It is probably a good thing that they are now in the process of returning to the earth. This is not exclusively characteristic of PC. I have spent all my adult life obsessed with alternative architecture and have found almost all of it fails to a greater or lesser degree in practical terms over long periods of time. The modern suburban house has evolved over many centuries and while it may be ugly as sin to many of us, it generally does work as designed. Mike McCain is still active, constructing several more houses here and and I understand one additional house in Silver City. Externally I can't say that I'm too impressed with the looks of the structures as the problems with cracking seems to be all too prevalent. An impressive recent start-up to set up a local factory to produce PC blocks seems to have dissolved into yet another failed fantasy. My personal opinion is that PC needs to be well drained prior to placement either in forms for blocks or on a matrix in place. Plus there needs to be additional research to improve the bonding of any coverings that come into contact with PC and I am still convinced that one of the best design factors is a goodly amount of overhang on any structure but especially ones made with PC. Here in Southern New Mexico where we often get only 3-4 inches of rain per year and can get away with a lot of building techniques that would be disastrous in any other part of the country. I think any experimentation conducted in this type of environment would have to be carefully tested and duplicated in more humid areas to be assessed as generally viable. If what you are looking for is affirmation for your dreams then you probably need to find someone less jaded by time and someone more willing to overlook those pesky little aberrations that tend to show up with any experimentation. I do think your efforts in this group are evolving into a long overdue methodology and wish you the best of luck.
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