I found this article written for the Cement Association of Canada on the web as I was sourcing the base ingredients for papercrete here in Ontario.
http://www.cement.ca/cement.nsf/ep/10BE46299E1FBEB985256E700076EAEA?opendocument
As a hobby potter, I've worked with porcelain clay bodies mixed with paper that impart greater workability to the material and have since been interested in paper and other fibres as structural elements.
Since learning about clay I have always been suspect of the role played by each ingredient and its actual chemical makeup.
Papercrete appears to be a wonderful and environmentally conscious material, but the seriousness of its use in home construction even as it can only be used as an infill product really demands standardization and testing.
Load bearing capabilities would make papercrete an exceptional product where it is merely stupendous.
I have one final concern; mold. In Canada the R2000 standards dictate mechanical heat exchange from within a sealed envelope utilizing plastic vapor barrier to shield from the outside environment. The standard has served well for the past 25 years, but problems along the way included moisture at window junctions and behind the vapor barrier. There have been homes ripped apart to get at the molds growing on paper and wood substrates and even a few deaths from respiratory ailments attributed to this mold.
How will papercrete fare in this regard?
-- tim
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