I have not made pots from papercrete, but I have made a lot of papercrete. Papercrete is great insulation and if thick enough gives strong stable buildings. Papercrete is NOT masonry, or concrete, and does not act like either one very much. It is much more like a wood product. Well, actually it IS a wood product.
IMHO there are better materials for things like aquaculture/hydroponic tanks. Wet + papercrete = bad. For a water tank I would look at ferrocement over papercrete, or many other alternatives.
There are some folks (a couple on this list) who have successfully made planters from papercrete. I'm sure they will give you their experiences and results. Since papercrete and constantly wet conditions are not good together, there are better ways to go.
My experience with putting metal reinforcement into papercrete is that the papercrete shrinks away from the reinforcement leaving a void. There is no bonding between the pc and the metal, so it is less than ideal. Papercrete is relatively strong under compression, and not so strong under tension. You don't need reinforcement when you are in compression. If you have a situation that would put the pc under tension, perhaps you should consider other methods. Bamboo might give better results as reinforcement. The couple of batches where I added bamboo, it went into the mixer along with the paper. Those were poured into slip forms, and disappeared into the structure. It didn't hurt anything but didn't seem to really make much difference.
spaceman All opinions expressed or implied are subject to change without notice upon receipt of new information. http://Starship-Enterprises.Net blog at http://Starship-Enterprises.Net/wordpress/
On 5/14/2011 12:44 AM, peddler7122 wrote:
I am considering using papercrete to build planters that will 16 inches high and vary from 8 to 16 inches in diameter with the average about 10 inches. They will have to be heavy enough not to topple so I am planing on adding a ring at the bottom for stability. Not having any experience with papercrete could anyone guide me as to whether it needs to be reinforced and/or mixed with bitumen as is suggested for ponds? Also I am considering using it to build aquaculture/hydroponic tanks. The tanks will be 6 x 4 x 32" which is 500 gallons of space filled about 80% of the way. Obviously I will need to waterproof these and reinforce them. Any suggestions on the mix and the best way to waterproof would be appreciated. One thing I have played around with is making a clay and sand mixture with crushed bamboo chips a few inches long and using bamboo as reinforcing. The test logs I made were about 10 inches or so long and 3 to 5 inches thick. They were very strong and lasted 3 years out in the rain. The bamboo is hollow so using it as reinforcing kills 2 birds with one stone as it lightens the structure and increases the insulation as apposed to steel which does the exact opposite. http://www.whisperingwindsbamboo.com/article3.html GUIDELINES FOR BUILDING BAMBOO-REINFORCED MASONRY IN EARTHQUAKE-PRONE AREAS OF INDIA http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/mbs/thesis/thesis_2002/shreemathi%20iyer..pdf ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/papercreters/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: papercreters-digest@yahoogroups.com papercreters-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: papercreters-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1321 / Virus Database: 1500/3636 - Release Date: 05/13/11
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