Charmaine,
You said " I have done this on a small scales and it works. cow
manure to clay also makes a great floor.
Could you expand on the last sentence? I have cows on my place and
never figured them as a source of material for papercrete. Can you
tell us where or who we could talk to about these great floors?
Ron
++++++++++++++++++++++
HI Ron and all.. you guys need to expand your horizons to the organic
list and cob list- clay is used primarily for all building, clay
plus sand and straw makes the thick cob walls, adobe block clay bricks
are the first layer for floors, and clay and sand fiber make great
floors too.
adding manure from cows and poo from horses is organic, has straw, and
the manure makes a sticky waterproofing additive to bind the clay
and sand well.
when to add the poo? after the slurry is all mixed with cement, and
has drained of the water I imagine? I would guess-- don't want to mix
with gallons of water and drain it all out of the hose, so as a last
minute additive, or if using paper adobe, paperclay when you make the
mix and are ready to use it. I assume paperadobe does not get the
gallons of water mixed in but the paper is shredded, then the wet
paper mix has clay and sand or other materials added? I only make
small batches so I dont use a big tow mixer.
Now, I add lime to all of this, but an earth floor has no paper, or
COULD have paper pulp, but the standard is to get dried horse and cow
poo, and shred it wearing gloves, over a bin, using a diamond lathe
screen as the shredded-- this crumbled dry, non smelly mix is added to
the clay. do a web search for earth floor, or manure in plasters and
a lot will pop up. people even use clay and manure to make counter
tops.. on gal did it just to shock people. the dry top is hard as
stone, and once sealed with food grade sealer ( can be bought in
tile stores) you have a strong safe counter for no money.
At job site I worked on one girl was the "poo pusher" and sat at her
screened bin making dry crumble for us. if it gets wet when added to
the clay there may be a short term small odor, but not bad at all.
I was serious about the bear poo.. once I solar cooked it to dry it
out it was like black fireplace ash, with seeds in it... no bells
here. <grin>
and for you squeamish- the best way to use poo or other organics you
may worry over is to place between sheets of black plastic-- solar
cook for 3 days, and know it is sterilized of weed seeds, poor germs,
etc. this advice from Carla Emery-- world known homesteader-- rip.
www.middlepath.com.au search for earth floors a great full article
using a floor tamper to place the floor. also www.emeraldearth.org
has pages on earth floors, as do my Resource Guide CDs
there is a great article on building a floor on my website free pages:
http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com/frestufwitor.html
http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com/maeaflbyspja.html <<< floor
--
Ms. Charmaine Taylor/ Taylor Publishing
Toll Free Order: 1-888-441-1632
www.dirtcheapbuilder.com
www. papercrete.com
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