Papercreters: [papercreters] Re: making a garden wall with papercrete

Monday, February 6, 2012

[papercreters] Re: making a garden wall with papercrete

Another method I find easier and faster, is to fill heavy poly bags like dog food or rice etc. comes in with rock or padobe {paper and clay mixture} . These bags are approximately 36" x 16" . Lay a course {s} at a right angle to the wall and one {or more} on top and backfill .
Seeing as insulation is not the goal keep laying the course with the wall until you get within a few inches of the desired height.
if you want it even stronger you can add stabilised sand or clay to the bags .

Once the bags are stacked you need to add poly or wire mesh or a framework of saplings , bamboo etc. to hold and reinforce the stucco.
It's a good idea to lay saplings or bamboo at a right angle to the wall under ever course of bags that the mesh needs to attach to. Go all the way through and it will tie the outer walls together.
Then I would use papercrete although padobe would be okay as long as you have a decent cover to shed the direct rainfall. Roofing tiles work well for that and look really good as do bricks or even floor tile. . You can make your own with Muslin . Cut the Muslin to the desired size {long enough to cover the hip } and dip it in a bucket containing this mixture:

3 parts sand
2 parts Portland Cement
1 part Latex paint
1/2 part Elmer's Outdoor Wood Glue {any outdoor wood glue}

Add water until it flows well enough and then dip the Muslin in the bucket . You will need a frame to form the tiles . Use any round stock you have lying around, old broom handles work well.

Basically you are building a triangle with a pole centred at the top and 2 equidistant at the bottom . This will form a tile that will cover the ridge and create a tile to cover both sides at once. Let them dry 3 full days and use damp newspaper to keep them from drying quickly.

If you like there are S.A. hard-woods like Ipe {false iron wood} that are beautiful and will last a century buriied.

And even easier method would be to use haybales . Most of the ones where I am are the right size for your project and a great deal lighter than rock obviously. If you can borrow a strapping tool like the ones used to strap boxes to pallets with a very strong poly strapping it's pretty easy. Cement some eye-bolts made for attaching things to the ground , lay the bales, strap the bales down, everything else is the same. If the strapping uses metal clips dip some string {whatever is lying around} in outdoor wood glue and wrap the clips well . This will water proof them and they will never come loose.

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, JUDITH WILLIAMS <williams_judith@...> wrote:
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> Just a couple of suggestions for your garden wall. First, I would say use a rubble trench foundation to keep the papercrete up out of the water. And I would probably do the modified slip form method. Set up forms with 2x4s and plywood and fill them with slurry with blocks embedded. If you made the forms from one piece of plywood (cut to 6 feet) and set it up in 4 foot sections you would end up with a smooth surface. Aso if you do one straight continuous wall you will have to prop it up with buttresses but I am assuming you will be doing a rectangle. A few years ago I took some leftover blocks and stacked them to make a small wall around my tomato plants. It has held up just fine.
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> Follow progress on the new project at http://www.papercretebyjudith.com/blog
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> More papercrete info at http://squidoo.com/papercretebyjudith
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> To: papercreters@yahoogroups.com
> From: ghite734@...
> Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2012 22:45:13 +0000
> Subject: [papercreters] making a garden wall with papercrete
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> I was wonder any of you have made a garden wall with papercrete? Will be approximately 18 inch wide and six feet tall. I have made papercrete bricks to learn the process. If I made it with bricks will have to go back and put on a stucco coat because I want that smooth appearance. I was wondering about using a cob approach with papercrete? I will be capping it with clay tiles so should protect the wall if we ever get out of the present drought in Texas! 50 years ago I made adobe bricks from scratch and don't want to going that route. Just too heavy to deal with even as a teenager.
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> Look forward to hearing your comments.
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> Gerron at the Chicken Farm Art Center in San Angelo.
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