Thanks Mikey,
Ed's experiences are a very important incident.
Your summary of the situation as you perceive it can help many people
avoid making some of the same mistakes and having similar problems.
THAT IS WHAT PAPERCRETERS IS ALL ABOUT.
I hope we can get the chance to learn as many details about what
happened directly from Ed sometime in the future. Of course, it's
appropriate to allow him an appropriate rest period.
This group should not back away from any problem or situation with a
structure, no matter how dire. We MUST LEARN from mistakes,
problems, and failures. That is the only way we can avoid repeating
them.
Papercrete structures can only be as good as the information we have
and the people that build them.
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, Mikey Sklar <sklarm-yahoo@...>
wrote:
>
> I can relate to the frustrations that Ed has encountered during
the
> building of his home. Many of the same issues that Ed encountered
> around labor and papercrete have also happened to me. A few
lessons
> that I've learned through Ed and based on my own experience are
below.
>
> 1. You the owner builder need to do everything possible on your
own.
> No pointing fingers. A 7 day work week, no vacations, and laboring
> through injuries, bad weather, and sickness are critical when
trying
> to complete a project.
>
> 2. Working with the city, electricians, plumbers can be dangerous
to
> timelines. There are ways to work with these people and make a
> project legal. If the electrician doesn't show pull the wire
> yourself, if the plumber is on another job get out your PEX tools.
> Seriously, pay these people to pull the permits. If they don't
show
> don't let that ruin your project.
>
> 3. Got $$$? You better have some cash. Going to a bank for step by
> step financing on a material with a large learning curve like
> papercrete is risky. The material itself may be cheap, but
unexpected
> costs while building add up. Especially if there is paid labor
> involved or the US dollar is tanking due to rapid inflation.
>
> 4. Out of time? Timelines while building are difficult to
estimate.
> With a experimental material expect many small failures. If it is
a
> first time project expect it to take roughly forever. The second
one
> will be exponentially faster. By the time you hit the third or
fourth
> identical project you will just say "two weeks" whenever someone
> wants to know how long it will take.
>
> -Mikey
> http://blog.holyscraphotsprings.com
>
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