Penny,
I used the garden supply burlap because its loosely woven and allows more saturation of
cementious material into it. More tightly woven burlap doesn't allow passage of the slurry
through the pores as easily, which may not be a factor unless you're using rapid set
products and don't have time to massage or soak the burlap in your slurry for very long.
However, I have seen folks on a ferrocement sight suggest that tightly woven burlap didn't
work well for bonding with cement, sand and water. I soak my burlap overnight at least,
sometimes for several days as it expands the fibers. When the stuff is dry, the slurry
doesn't seem to absorb well into the burlap, so I use it wet and shake or wring it out
immediately prior to use. I'm soaking a lot in a 55 gallon drum of water right now. I'm sure
it would be fine to soak it in bonding agent mixed with water as you're doing, it most
likely increases the bonding strength. To be honest, since I live in the middle of nowhere I
haven't seen a fabric store in years, so I'm not familiar with the type of burlap they carry.
It's a hundred mile round trip just to a town big enough to have a building materials and
garden supply store. I did try tightly woven canvas, of the sort used for making tents: way
too tightly woven to absorb any slurry of the sort I was using. Hope this helps.
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "pennymca13" <penpaloriginals2@...> wrote:
>
>
> John,
>
> I noticed you were using the burlap for gardens (from the big box
> stores) as opposed to burlap from a fabric store. Is this due to
> price? The "sizing" that is in the burlap from the fabric stores? (I
> bought the stuff from the fabric store,
>
> I was experimenting with a recipe for burlap-crete covered chicken
> wire for medium sized rocks for a garden yesterday. After I had made
> two of them I wondered about the stiffness of the store bought stuff
> and if I should have washed it first. (The recipe was 3:1 sand,
> cement with water and bonding agent to make a "smoothy" consistency.
> Soaked the burlap in another mix of bonding agent/water (1:1) before
> soaking it in the crete mix.--This is from Dena's picture site where
> she made her cool rocks.)
> http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/260543120tpuenr?start=0
>
> This morning I came back and re-read your original burlap crete post
> and realized that a) you had had no success with any variation of the
> above recipe and b) you seemed to have soaked your burlap overnight
> in plain water before using the mix you use.
>
> Since I'm making more decorative/non-structural items, would you
> still recommend the same mixture you use for this purpose?
>
> I was also interested to read that you had used smaller pieces for
> easier handling. (Again, after the fact) I quickly noticed the folly
> of my ways as I tried to cover a 1' x 2" long roll of chicken wire
> with one piece of cloth.
>
> To summarize:
>
> 1. Garden or fabric store variety of burlap and why?
> 2. Wash fabric store variety of burlap to remove sizing before using?
> 3. Soak smaller pieces of burlap in plain water overnight before
> using in your "recipe"?
>
> Many thanks, sorry so wordy....
>
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