My feeble brain is having trouble remembering how long ago it was?
30 years ago? uhhhhh...
Suffice it to say, "a long time ago," I helped my grandfather repair
a sinking foundation that had a big crack in it. In that instance,
we jacked up the house, drilled a bunch of 1/2" holes vertically to a
depth of about 6" at about 6" intervals and then grouted in a bunch
of foot long rebar pegs. It made it into a porcupine. Then we tied
a series of long rebars creating a grid that attached all the pegs
together. There was a series of two layers of rebar. One layer sat
at the surface of the existing foundation and the top layer was tied
at the top of the short vertical pegs. Then we poured a big mass of
concrete over the whole thing turning it all into one big mass. We
didn't bother to try to move the displaced foundation we left it
sitting right where it was.
As Grandpa stated, "It took that 30 years to move that far, I don't
want to give it a bunch of new ground to settle into. If we can just
lock it up where it is, it should last another 100."
When the new concrete was poured, the surface leveled, so when the
house was lowered, everything was perfect. Even the doors opened and
closed without sticking anymore. The finished project had the house
sitting about 6" higher than when we started.
I have no clue if what we did would pass close engineering
inspection, or pass code inspections today, but I do know that house
is still sitting nice and level. My cousins are still living there
and love the house.
In that particular case, the root cause of the foundation settling
was a leaky septic pipe that was very slowly creating a sink hole
under the house. We fixed all that before we fixed the foundation.
UUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH WHAT A CRAPPY JOB THAT WAS! (pun intended)
I loved my Grandpa, but I was sure cussing under my breath when he
had me doing all the very very gross work digging down in that nasty
pit. I remember puking my guts out twice. To this very day, every
time I smell sewer smells, I have flashbacks to working on that
project with Grandpa. I can still picture the old codger standing
upwind hollering, "It's goooooood for ya. Use yer muscles. Show me
how strong ya are!" To top it all off, Grandma fussed at me at the
end of the day for getting my clothes so dirty and smelly! What's up
with that?
Going back to discussing papercrete.......
There are nearly as many different forumlas for papercrete as there
are papercrete enthusiasts. LOL.
Judith's mix (that she posted) is as good as any as a starting
recipe. She was making mix for building walls, so it needed more
strength. I imagine you might be able to substitute your demolition
waste for pumice in her mix, cut back on the cement a little, and add
some borax.
Since there's no way to know what your waste will do to the mix, I'd
suggest experimenting with several different mixes until you find the
best mix for your situation. Just be sure to wait till the
papercrete is absolutely completely dry before you put a torch on it
to be certain that it won't burn or smolder.
If you start your small experiments now, you'll probably have dry
samples before your project is ready for you to be mixing papercrete
for real.
For your small experiments, I'd suggest just using a "bucket
technique." (search the archives) It involves using a sharpened
blade on the end of a shaft chucked into a drill. BE EXTREMELY
CAREFUL!!! Wear heavy boots, and dull the outer corners of the blade
where it will tend to scrape against the bucket. An X blade will
tend to say centered in the bucket better than a simple flat blade.
You won't want to use the bucket technqiue to make large quantities
of papercrete, but that will get you started with your experiments
quickly. It will also give you a little experience with making it.
You'll want to build a much larger mixer to make larger quantities
with much less effort.
Many mixer designs have been discussed, previously. Most people tend
to try to take advantage of scrap materials that they already have
laying around. Read up about what others have done to build a mixer,
then feel free to toss out ideas with this group concerning how you
might best use whatever junk or materials you have or can obtain easy
and cheap.
--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, Hal Schmidt <halschmi@...> wrote:
>
> Slurryguy,
>
> Thanks for the ideas, I finished gutting the room today and my
plan is
> to drill holes in cement berm that goes around the edge of the
house and
> try to pull it in with a pair of 2000lb comealongs attached to
peaces of
> rebar in holes drilled in the slab to pull it in. I do not know
if
> will work. This is like R&D for me. You are right about the
gutters and
> French drain. there are no gutters and the house has been that way
for
> a about 100 years.
>
> I know nothing about mixing papercrete, where do I find a formula?
Can
> I use a cement mixer? Do I need a shredder? Tell me where I can
read
> about it.
>
> Thanks
>
> Hal
>
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