Papercreters: [papercreters] Re: pumice-aggregate leave out?

Sunday, September 6, 2009

[papercreters] Re: pumice-aggregate leave out?

I believe that Eric Patterson made his PC with just cement and pulp and it seemed to work well. Also in Solbergs Building with Paper Crete and Paper Adobe book he described Shorty Ingerhalls PC logs as being made only with pulp and cement. What I have found in my mixtures using the cardboard pulp and the very fine clay soil that I have on my property is that when I add aggregate which is road base screenings with small gravel and very little sand and some clay dirt is that the aggregate tends to settle to the bottom of the mixer and the resultant blocks from the bottom of the batch have more agg. in them and are heavier and the ones made from the top of the mixer load have less aggregate and are therefore quite a bit lighter than the ones from the bottom of the batch. The lighter blocks seem to be just as strong and are lighter and much easier to handle so when I get my mixer tweaked a little more I'm going to make a batch with only clay and pulp and no cement to see how that works. These aforementioned blocks were made with no cement. The blocks that I made with cement in the batch were softer as the cement and the fine clay that I use don't seem to do well together and I really feel that I don't need cement with them. Greener and cheaper blocks but very durable and strong.

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, JUDITH WILLIAMS <williams_judith@...> wrote:
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> I was just wondering what would happen if I mixed the papercrete the usual way except to leave out the aggregate. I have a whole bunch of perlite now so I have plenty to put in. It was just a curiosity question really.
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> Sincerely, Judith
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> Check out my new Squidoo Lens at http://www.squidoo.com/papercretebyjudith
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> EMAILING FOR THE GREATER GOOD
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> To: papercreters@yahoogroups.com
> From: dirtcheapbuilderbooks@...
> Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2009 23:10:32 -0700
> Subject: [papercreters] pumice-aggregate leave out?
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> are you talking about adding just portland cement to the pumice, with
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> no fiber or sands?
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> Don J. in OR is building using pumice as underfloor insulation for
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> his SB home. and was planning to bag it up for the foudation perimeter
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> to support the bales.
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> I tried mixing limeputty- just a thin mix of limewater and putty with
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> teh pumice, after two weeks it had not joined well enoough to stick
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> together in cvlumps or in a form. so it was a waste to add lime in
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> that case. if you mean pouring into bags or as a form made with
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> cement, yes you can use no sand, and get one kind of fragile- no
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> tensile strrenth block. with fibers- straw or nylon will add greatly
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> to it staying together, and not crack as easily.
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> Inventor Tapasananda builds in a community group in MI with his
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> ParaCrete** uses EPS dust ( styrofoam dust smaller than pumice bits,
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> ) also larger EPS beads, + OPC, fibers, chopped twine etc, and since
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> pumice floats in water easily you can add a surfactant like latex
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> paint, dish soap and commercial "wetting" agents to keep the pumice
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> from clumping & not dispersing
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> **-- read more on his mix here: http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com/pabubooncd.html
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> Ms. Charmaine Taylor/ Taylor Publishing
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> Toll Free Order: 1-888-441-1632
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> www.dirtcheapbuilder.com www. papercrete.com
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> PO Box 375, Cutten CA 95534
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