Papercreters: [papercreters] Re: Who's making wet slurry this weekend?

Sunday, June 7, 2009

[papercreters] Re: Who's making wet slurry this weekend?

Judith I have been following your papercrete adventures and watched the Utube videos. I have accumulated a very large stack of all kinds of cardboard from my local store [he's glad to get rid of it] and a fairly large stash of newspapers as well. I recently finished my tow mixer which is the standard Mike Mcain version like yours. I have found that while newsprint pulps up into a cottage cheese like texture, the cardboard breaks into all sized pieces from the cottage cheese size to pieces an inch or two square and some that go around on the blade that are bigger. I was throwing the bigger pieces out of the mix when I poured it into forms but have found by placing them in the forms and tamping the whole mix well with a shovel, they mush in will with the rest and I believe help to bond the mixture together better as it dries. I also believe there is a considreable amount of adhesive in the cardboard which helps to bond it better as it dries.
I made a couple of batches of blocks with cardboard alone. Also some panels which can be placed between ceiling joists as insulation. The stuff is totally different from pulp made from newspapers. The blocks of course are very light as are the panels [panels are the width of 2x4 deep] and very sturdy and hard, as much so as the paper adobe ones I have been experimenting with. I recently purchase 50 lbs of boric acid online at a reasonable price and I'm going to experiment with spraying the pulp only blocks with it to check on the fire retardant characteristics of it. I'll keep everyone posted on this.
I forgot to mention that I have been making blocks with the cardboard pulp and clay only, no cement. The soil I have here in Western Arizona [some call the area the Arizona Outback] is a very fine clay and the top three feet of soil is 100 % clay so it works very well as a binding agent. I made some adding gravel and cement into the mix but the only difference is that the addition of cement makes the mix dry much faster. Once the paper adobe blocks finally dry, they are just as hard and solid as the gravel-cement ones and much lighter. I guess that I shouldn't be saying gravel as the stuff is mostly sand with some small stones in which I run through a 1/4 in. screen to get the big stuff out. I also might add that I soak the cardboard for a couple of days as it will pulp without soaking but it takes a lot longer. Also, the cardboard, even when soaked, takes longer to pulp than newspaper. One other plus with the cardboard is in rural sparsely populated areas like I'm in it's easier to acquire than newspaper. Hope this will help answer some questions about cardboard as most people use newspaper and there is not much info on the cardboard usage.

-- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "slurryguy" <slurryguy@...> wrote:
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> I am positive this has been tried, but my feeble brain can't remember enough details.
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> My very vague recollection was that somebody was dipping cardboard sheets into a thin/runny water-cement slurry (no sand), letting them drain for a few minutes, then was rolling them up to make long "logs". After curing/drying the logs were then assembled as stick lumber to form a kind of stud wall.
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> Then more sheets of dipped cardboard were attached to the cardboard log stud frame as sheathing.
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> It was an interesting concept, but they didn't have fantastic success with it. It was extremely difficult to get things to stay straight and true. The insulation value was not as high as they had hoped it would be.
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> Keep in mind that CELLULOSE insulation (paper is cellulose) has a better R-Value when it is tightly packed than when it is loosly packed. Fiberglass insulation is the opposite. It must be kept fluffy or it loses R-Value. This confuses many people who are used to dealing with Fiberglass insulation.
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> In almost every test I've performed or encountered, compressing papercrete, or any cellulose insulation, will IMPROVE the insulating abilites of the material.
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> I wish I could remember where I saw the cardboard wall described. It was many years ago when I encountered it. Before this group was formed. Dang my crappy memory. It seems to me it was some kind of college research project, but I could be way off on that part.
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> In any case, just my personal opinion, I'd rather pulp the cordboard up and make papercrete out of it. It suspect it will be stronger, better insulating, and a lot less fiddly to work with. It also can use any size small scraps of cardboard, even crushed cardboard. Just stay away from Wax Coated cardboard or any other cardboard with a waterproof coating.
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> Hope this helps.
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> --- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "empiremtn" <empiremtn@> wrote:
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> > Hi all!
> > I'm a newbie here, but have been interested in alternative building methods forever. Question, has anyone tried soaking corregated cardboard with a sand cement mixture so when it dries the corregations provide air spaces for insulation?
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