Hi Pam in east TN, welcome to the group. You did fine using the group. To make your message stand out from others, especially if you are changing the topic, just edit the subject line like I did above, and clip off all the stuff at the bottom.
You get a lot more rain in TN than I get in west TX. Here in the arid high Chihuahuan desert I have not sealed any of my papercrete except for two test panels about ten years ago. I have had zero rain this year, but they count the little bit of snow I got in Feb as .01" : ) . Hey, it's only May and the monsoon season is due in a few months so I might actually get wet soon.
The year I tested seals we got above average rains, almost ten inches that year. The unsealed papercrete absorbed water and turned darker, then dried out pretty quickly in my low humidity. It's still doing that ten years later.
For one test panel I mixed asphalt emulsion into wet papercrete and then dumped it into a mold like normal. After it dried it shed water like a duck's back. I floated it in a tub of water for eight hours without any water absorbed. There was a little bit of oily sheen on the water in the tub. That panel would qualify for rain forest use IMHO since the AE was mixed throughout. After a few months in the weather the black color faded to a light gray, no doubt due to our high UV. At some point a helper probably threw it into the mixer during a cleanup frenzy and it disappeared, so I can't testify about it's longevity except to say it survived a couple of years of desert temperature extremes. Nothing survives my mixer.
The other test panel received a recipe that I saw on the internet, dissolve a tube of silicone caulk (the one that smells like vinegar from the acetic acid) in a gallon of turpentine. This basically looked like thompson's to me as I painted a couple of coats onto a dry panel. It soaked right in and the turps evaporated quickly. After it dried it also shed water well. It would take a lot of this to cover a building, but maybe it would cover more with a sprayer. Price wise it was cheaper than the name brand sealer. I did not do a side-by-side comparison for performance. This panel also shed water but I did not do a float test since it was only sealed on one side. The theory put forth on the website where I found the recipe was that even though silicone deteriorates in the sun's UV, it is absorbed far enough into the papercrete that only the outer thin layer gets any UV so only a very thin layer deteriorates. YMMV on that. Unfortunately this test panel disappeared about the same time as the other one so once again I can't say how long it would last.
Though I haven't tried it, elastomeric paint has been recommended by others, and often comes with a 20 year guarantee.
I have friends who live in Sevier County, near Cosby. The last time I visited was six or seven years ago.
spaceman All opinions expressed or implied are subject to change without notice upon receipt of new information. http://Starship-Enterprises.Net
On 5/4/2011 2:35 PM, Pam Cole wrote:
Hello everyone,I'm new here I hope you don't mind if I change the subject,I don't really know how to use the group, I need to know wht to use to cure my papercrete with, maybe linseed oil? Thomson water seal? I don't know plz help...
Pam in east TN
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