I made my first batch of papercrete with cardboard the other day. Looks like it will be a good substitute for the newspaper (now that the SF New Mexican has locked me out of their bins). I put a bunch of cardboard in a 55 gal drum and left it to soak for a few days. Mixed up my usual formula except that I hadn't put enough cardboard so I was a little short on that. But I doubled the amount of pumice and halved the amount of cement. The mix came out very wet so I siphoned off some water before I poured it into the form.
So I guess I did actually alter my original formula. The result was that the blocks came out good, strong (so far) and light. My "bucket of papercrete" project was sort of a failure but that's OK. There's still time to tweak the mix and method.
Just thought I would offer this info because I think the addition of the extra pumice adds to the fire retardance while preserving the integrity of the final product. This is just anecdotal, no tests have been performed. I'm trying to adjust my mix to adapt to what I have available. So far so good.
Sincerely, Judith
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