Welcome to the group, Kelly.
Your home has been a topic of conversation on this group for years. Congratulations on doing such an excellent job with it.
Would you be willing to give an update about how the building is holding up? Have you had any maintenance issues? Any cracks in the papercrete?
Thanks for the kind words about the Hiperpapercrete idea.
I'm not certain whether or not the idea is brilliant. It's only brilliant if someone can make it work efficiently and successfully. I do think that there is potential behind the concept. That's why I tossed the idea out there.
As I alluded to, I think the concept would be of greatest benefit in areas where porous volcanic rock is not available inexpensively or locally. The more extreme the climate, the more important insulation becomes.
I think it is also fair to point out that the Hiperpapercrete concept need not be used exclusively. It could easily be partnered with other construction techniques.
For example, strawbale structures are also excellent insulators. As Bob Merrill has demonstrated, papercrete can be an excellent rough plastering system to fill in the gaps and quickly cover the bales, saving many manhours of labor stuffing cracks and hand applying rough coats of plaster or stucco.
Strawbale works best and easiest with rectangular structures. Yes you can make curved walls with bales, but it's rather a pain to fill in all the gaps, and the curved bale walls I have seen tend to appear segmented and blocky. It's difficult to get a nice graceful "sexy" flowing curve without a lumpy appearance or segmented flat spots.
Hiperpapercrete could be an excellent technique to create a curved wall as part of a strawbale structure. One or more curved walls can dramatically alter the architectural look and feel of a space.
Obviously if someone wants to blend papercrete and strawbale, extreme care would be advised to make certain that the water from papercrete operations does not damage the strawbales during construction. Wet bales are a nightmare.
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "k1e2l3l4" <kellyhart@...> wrote:
>
> I think that this is a brilliant idea! I have a lot of experience with both earthbag building and papercrete (see the house I built using both at http://earthbagbuilding.com/projects/hart.htm ). I can easily visualize making very substantial walls using the raschel mesh tubes (or even individual bags) filled with damp papercrete.
>
> Everything about this idea fits well with the physical needs of curing papercrete: the damp papercrete is held in place while it cures; the excess water can easily drain away; the wall can breathe on both sides once it is cured; the finished wall ends up being substantially reinforced and monolithic; and all of that mesh reinforcement acts to stabilize the wall against potential seismic forces.
>
> I'm sure that in reality it would be a messy proposition to be filling and placing that damp papercrete, but then working with papercrete tends to be a messy proposition period.
>
> If anybody tries this out, please let use know at www.earthbagbuilding.com or www.greenhomebuilding.com how it works out for you.
>
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