Papercreters: [papercreters] Re: New to the group

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

[papercreters] Re: New to the group

Slurryguy,

Yeah I figured I may get in trouble for making such a claim, let me
see if I can round up some pics, I think I have some from the early
"gungho" stage of the process then some later of the black tarp-
covered monoliths living in my backyard- the block piles- (neighbors
were not so happy) but the stacks did make a nice temporary screen wall!

My whole interest in the process began when an architecture student of
mine proposed papercrete as a building material for one of his
designs. From there, I was hooked, plenty of trips to the local
newspaper recycling bin. Just used a heavy duty drill and mixing
paddle- nights and weekends- bunch of 50 gal drums to mix in, dug a
pit in my backyard lined with plastic to soak large amounts of paper.

When it was all said and done, took 2 trips with a 24' Uhaul truck
to move them out of our yard (rental house- haha!) and into a storage
unit. Currently in a holding pattern looking for suitable land not so
far out of town, but am determined to use these in my house
construction.

I'll start a photo folder with the images as well as some renderings
of the house design that I plan to incorporate these into. All I can
say is that it was a blast, although the wife accused me of being
crazy on several, several occasions, oh well...

take care,

Blake

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "slurryguy" <slurryguy@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Gina and Blake,
>
> Welcome to the group.
>
> Spaceman is clearly our papercrete dome guru, so I'll defer to him on
> that one.
>
> Blake, on the other hand... that just wasn't fair.
>
> You tell us about casting 2000 block in Norman, and don't post any
> pictures? No fair! hehehe
>
> Pictures please!
>
>
> --- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "geetus69" <frodopettus@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Gina,
> >
> > Am in the Tulsa/BA area and successfully cast about 2000 large
> > papercrete blocks over the period of 6 mos while living in Norman,
> it
> > can work although the sudden thunderstorms tend to set you back!
> >
> > I dried them in the backyard and was quite diligent about covering
> > with a plastic tarp if rain was in the forecast. Once dry enough, I
> > stacked them on old wood pallets covering the lot with plastic tarps
> > to prevent rain absorption. I would say on average the blocks
> > required 1.5-3mos to dry thoroughly depending on how wet it was
> > outside. Once dry they were hard as a rock. Currently I have them
> in
> > a storage unit and am looking for land in the area to construct.
> >
> > I do believe from my experience that if I ever were to attempt a
> > slipform or cast in place build, I would construct the roof or a
> > temporary canopy first to shield the wet papercrete b/c on several
> > occasions when my tarps blew off in heavy winds, the top layers of
> > block became saturated and yep, took about another month to dry out-
> > though they are quite usable even after getting wet and drying out
> > several times.
> >
> > Good luck to you on your project, I haven't had any experience with
> > domes, but 80 acres sounds like a dream to have, keep us posted on
> > your progress!
> >
> > Blake
> >
> > --- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, Redhair Witch <redhairwitch1@>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Hello All I'm new to your group and thought I would say Hi !
> > >
> > > I'm starting a project here in Oklahoma.
> > > I have 80 ac and am building domes. I have been intreged by
> covering
> > a dome with papercreat. I have seen domes that where covered with
> > burlap and concreat and thought that papercreat could be used in the
> > same way. I have been talking to a man in NY who builds dome frames
> > from elect. conduit and covers them with shrink wrap that they use
> to
> > cover boats with. It got me thinking that I could use his idea and
> be
> > able to reuse my frame over and over if I could get the mix and
> fiber
> > support right.
> > > I have done some scree work with just concreat. Has anyone used
> > papercreat for this?
> > > Is anyone else in Oklahoma? I do have some concerns about the
> > humidity here wich can be 90%.
> > > Any info would be great
> > > Gina
> > >
> >
>