Thank You Bob!
Excellent!
Welcome to the team!
I see a lot to like about Bob's offer to coordinate our testing
efforts.
1. He's somewhat skeptical. Even though he believes in papercrete
and what can be accomplished with it. He expresses some skepticizm.
He's not ready to automatically assume that every recipe is ideal.
He wants to see proof about what something can do. I LIKE THAT.
2. Experience. He's made plenty of papercrete. He's also made
associated hardware.
3. Wide Vision. He recognizes that materials and methods that work
fine in desert climates may not work in humid climates.
4. Construction methods. He appears to be interested in more than
just the mix recipe. While the recipe is important, how it is
installed in a structure is just as important as what material is
used.
5. Location. Being located in one of the primary current epicenters
of papercrete construction has many benefits. He may be able to
perform some tests on some existing structures and help develop
baseline comparisons about how various materials and constuction
techniques perform over time.
6. It appears he's a lot smarter than me. THANK GOODNESS! If he
only had my intelligence we'd be in big trouble. (I wouldn't wish my
mental ineptness on anyone.)
Finally, I'd like to pass alone my best wishes and congratulations
that your health has improved, Bob. While I've never smoked myself,
I've had friends that have. I've witnessed how difficult it can be
to kick that habit. Well done! Keep the faith when you get those
gittery moments from time to time for years to come. Lean on your
frinds to help you ride them out. (Hint: One of my friends swears by
Habanero salsa as a gitter remedy. I guess he likes the smoke to
come out of his ears instead of his lungs. hehehe. Ever since he
told me that, I keep a jar in my fridge just in case he gets the yips
while visiting my place. We've shared a few chips and salsa more
than once. YEEOZAH!!! Misery loves company.)
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, Bob Cook <lifewithbob101@...>
wrote:
>
> 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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