RE: [papercreters] Stacking PC blocks wet

I have to agree with Spaceman that if you forgo the mortar your wall will go up more quickly and it will look good.

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To: papercreters@yahoogroups.com
From: Spaceman@starship-enterprises.net
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:17:06 -0700
Subject: Re: [papercreters] Stacking PC blocks wet

 

There is a video by Mike McCain showing a wall being built with blocks less than 24 hours old, barely firm enough to move. As the wall went up, fresh batches of block were made. At the end the blocks had bonded together without mortar and made a monolithic structure that looked like block on the surface.

Another idea would be to make a shallow slip form the height of your preferred block and add vertical wood strips inside to make the surface appearance of blocks with the strength of slip formed pc.

spaceman

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are subject to change without notice
upon receipt of new information.

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On 1/18/2011 9:21 AM, Desert Don wrote:

I'd like to run this by some of you more experienced builders, Judith, Spaceman, perhaps. I have a lot of blocks made and I'm going to start building in a couple of months.I need to make a lot more and rather than spending a lot of time moving and turning and handling them I thought perhaps I could stack them with PC mortar in the joints after they had lost the initial moisture and were stable enough to handle. They would still not be completely dry or even close to that state so they might shrink some. The blocks I make are made with cardboard and clay and the way I pack it into the forms they don't shrink much. I would use newspaper for the mortar mix as it breaks down into much smaller pieces than the heavy cardboard. The slip formed mix seems to bond together well and I thought this method would perhaps act in the same manner. Any thoughts on this? I like the looks of the blocks vs. slip formed walls as I'm not going to plaster the exterior. What littl
e rain I get here is absorbed into the blocks but drys out in a day or two so I don't feel that is a problem. 



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