| I fail to understand all the concerns about papercretes combustibility. Any type of structure short of a concrete bunker is going to be combustible. The fact that papercrete smolders and smolders slowly is a plus as it gives you time to locate the problem and put the smolder out. If papercrete were to catch on fire on the outside or inside it is easy to locate. I can't envision the walls starting to combust internally. If electrical boxes are installed correctly and the wiring in general is done properly there should be little or no chance of sparks or enough heat to start a fire. There is always that random chance but there is also a random chance that you could get run over by a runaway truck as well. If your papercrete wall should, for whatever reason, start to smolder, wouldn't any reasonably competent person see and or smell the smoke and take action to rectify the situation? The fact that it smolders slowly is in your favor as it gives you time to fix the problem as opposed to a conventional structure which, once starting to burn, is going to be a raging inferno in short order. As you point out Jay, the codes say that a sheetrocked wall will hold out an hour before bursting into flame. Once that wall starts to burn it's going to burn very rapidly whereas the papercrete wall after an hour will still be smoldering. As far as a building collapsing, are you trying to tell me that the structure is going to burn completely around the perimiter and up the walls, which would have to happen to cause a total collapse of the structure? Once again, a person would be able to detect the smoke and find the smoldering part long before it reached this state. I haven't seen or read any reports of "improperly built" houses collapsing short of a complete burn of a house which of course results in the roof finally collapsing into the totally burnt remains of the structure. By this time anyone still in the building will be a goner. Another plus of the papercrete wall is that if and when you have a fire, or, I should say, smolder, you can replace the burnt part much easier than with a conventionally built building. And, I think I mentioned in my original post on this subject that I plan to use a boric acid spray to help at least make the blocks fire retardent. I also make a stucco mix of the fine clay soil I am blessed with on my building site, and enough unusable cooking oil, (too thick and gummy to burn in my truck), to make a paste with, for coating my exterior walls. This makes a noncombustible waterproof coating, and yes it stands up to the propane torch test. I have used this on my storage building which is built with conventional 2X4's on 16" centers sheeted externally with OSB board. It dries very hard and rubbery after a short time in the desert sun. As far as a lot of testing goes, I recall a test of a propane torch placed against a conventionally built papercrtete block for an extended period of time with the only result being charring of the block. Now, if you tried the same experiment with a piece of plywood, OSB board or a piece of 2X4 what do you think the result would be? They would all burst into flame in short order and burn completely whereas even a cardboard block such as I am making, no cement of aggregate, would take much longer to burn completely. What this tells me is that I feel confident building with papercrete and am not going to nick pick and worry the whole procedure to death. (No pun intended) :) The point I'm trying to make is that we are completely comfortable living in conventionally built houses which burn readily, and worry excessiviely, in MHO, about papercrete. I also like the idea of having the better insulative properties of the blocks as I make them. I live in the Sonoran desert of extreme SW Arizona and in the sunmer I need all the help I can get as the summer daytime temperatures reach well beyong 100 degrees, often well above 110. Once again, I find what I'm doing works for me and I'm not advocating my methods and procedures as the only way, just sharing information. I have learned so much from this forum by other people who have shared their procedures and by trying different methods I have arrived at a solution that works with the materials and needs I have. --- On Sun, 10/28/12, JayH <slurryguy@yahoo.com> wrote:
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