[papercreters] RE: Papercrete by Judith

Thank you Hans. The children look so happy and proud, as well they should. Did they make the blocks themselves? I appreciate your comment about the bureaucracies and having to figure snow loads in Africa. How funny. I didn't realize that papercrete had been demonstrated in Europe. Can't remember where you said it was. Are you aware of the yahoo papercreter's group? I will cc this to them so you will have the address.

Sincerely, Judith

Check out my new Squidoo Lens at http://www.squidoo.com/papercretebyjudith

EMAILING FOR THE GREATER GOOD Join me

---

Subject: Re: Papercrete by Judith
From: granheitmann@t-online.de
To: williams_judith@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:00:00 +0000

  "JUDITH WILLIAMS" <williams_judith@hotmail.com> schrieb:

Hans Heitmann	Wednesday, 12/9/09, 10:10 AM
	Dear Judith! Your video clips are very instructing and give hope that you shall enjoy your home. I understand they were made in April 2007 so the house should be ready by now. In Germany the weather conditions are quite poor so we ended up building a demo house in our primary school for education purposes. If you like I can produce a power point presentation of the construction process that still goes on since 2006. The pupils do everything by hand, only the electric drill is used for mixing the mortar. Good luck! Hans
	From:	Germany
	Email:	granheitmann@t-online.de

Hello Hans, thank you so much for your message. I am so excited about your school! Weather conditions are bad here so I am spending my time getting a new blog going. I had a group of experienced papercreters here the last weekend of September and we started a new project - a 12 x 16 building. I decided on a new method which involved a combination of blocks and slip forming. I had planned to video the whole thing but my camera happened to be out of commission those days so all I have are still shots. The plan is to go through all of the and recreate the weekend.

Regarding the house in the DVD. I got to the point where I was getting ready to put the roof on and the building inspector came by and shut down the project because I didn't have a permit. So I stopped working on it and did a few other things. The building is still sitting there unfinished. During this time a good thing happened. Someone made me an offer on the property so it is being sold. The buyer is talking about finishing the house. I started my new building on a 2 acre parcel right across the street which I am now buying. Not a good idea to build on land I don't own but the workshop was planned before the land deal was done. The new building is not permitted either but it's OK because it is under 200 square feet.

Yes I would love to see what your students are doing. I am a tech dummy so am not sure how a power point presentation works but would love to have some pictures. I will probably use them on the new blog, with your permission of course.

How did you learn of papercrete? How old are your students? I bet they love working on the house. Don't you think it's the perfect medium for kids? I'm thinking of doing a children's workshop where they can build a dog house of playhouse. What do you think?

The address of the blog is www.papercretebyjudith.com/blog. It is in the construction phase right now but I hope you will visit regularly.

Sincerely, Judith

Check out my new Squidoo Lens at http://www.squidoo.com/papercretebyjudith




Sincerely, Judith

Check out my new Squidoo Lens at http://www.squidoo.com/papercretebyjudith

EMAILING FOR THE GREATER GOOD Join me

 

__._,_.___

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

Re: [papercreters] Re: Drying Time for Papercrete Blocks

You're right, the water runs out rapidly if your form has drainage, and the mix amount does not affect the dry time. If you mix without enough water then you get chopped paper instead of pulp. If you mix with too much water, you get a lot of runoff and have to move all that water weight. Dry time after draining is a function of temperature, humidity, and air flow. In the summer when it is 105 with 15% humidity and the wind is blowing 35mph, 4" panels dry in a couple of days. In the winter it takes much longer. Our winter in the desert southwest is probably similar to your summer  : )

Lately after the mix is ready I sometimes dump it on the ground and let it drain for a few minutes before transferring it into a form. Drained pc is a lot lighter than the stuff right out of the mixer, and if you are making enough for a house it makes a huge difference in labor. In the past I made a table from 1/2" hardware cloth on a 2x4 framework, with half barrels underneath to catch the runoff for reuse. A while back I put half barrels on a stand next to my no-tow mixer and drilled many drain holes in them. I transfer the pulp from the mixer to the drain barrels and let it sit a while. This is a bit stronger than the hardware cloth table, but doesn't drain as fast.

I sometimes pump pc, and that takes a fairly watery mix which drains a lot. It still seems to dry in about the same time as any other pc of the same dimensions.

spaceman

Viglietta, Ben wrote:

Thanks to all for the responses.

Please note that the wood ash is only .5 pounds in the overall 12.5 pounds.  We put it in after reading about pozzolanic ash.  This ash may have only a small proportion which is pozzolanic but we have observed that the fully dried block is harder and I think somewhat more impervious with the small amount of ash.

As far as water goes, we watched the videos and read stuff by Mike McCord and got the idea that the water is not a measured ingredient.  When the papercrete mix is put in place, clear water runs out rapidly and the material settles.  So the water in it was excessive to start.  Is that how others do it?

We put the material into a form and stood two 2-liter bottles in it to make that block.  I am not sure this is an efficient enough process to make enough blocks for a building.  But we were trying to get a good result even if it was a small batch.  The block looks quite good.

Ben V

 
  No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com  Version: 8.5.426 / Virus Database: 270.14.102/2556 - Release Date: 12/10/09 07:36:00    

__._,_.___

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

[papercreters] Re: Drying Time for Papercrete Blocks

Thanks to all for the responses.

Please note that the wood ash is only .5 pounds in the overall 12.5 pounds.  We put it in after reading about pozzolanic ash.  This ash may have only a small proportion which is pozzolanic but we have observed that the fully dried block is harder and I think somewhat more impervious with the small amount of ash.

As far as water goes, we watched the videos and read stuff by Mike McCord and got the idea that the water is not a measured ingredient.  When the papercrete mix is put in place, clear water runs out rapidly and the material settles.  So the water in it was excessive to start.  Is that how others do it?

We put the material into a form and stood two 2-liter bottles in it to make that block.  I am not sure this is an efficient enough process to make enough blocks for a building.  But we were trying to get a good result even if it was a small batch.  The block looks quite good.

Ben V

__._,_.___

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

What is the purpose of the wood ashes?

I think papercrete takes a long time to dry no matter what. Here in NM it's very dry all the time and windy. It still takes a while for the papercrete to dry and get firm enough to handle (in the case of blocks).

I have recently started draining the papercrete and think it may shorten up the dry time. Now it's too cold to do anything so it will all have to wait.

Sincerely, Judith

Check out my new Squidoo Lens at http://www.squidoo.com/papercretebyjudith

EMAILING FOR THE GREATER GOOD Join me

---

To: papercreters@yahoogroups.com
From: criswells.ok@sbcglobal.net
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:01:14 +0000
Subject: [papercreters] Re: Drying Time for Papercrete Blocks

 

What is your water content? If it takes that long to dry I would suggest using less water, if you are starting with 6 parts paper pulp is it watery? Or have you drain it of all visible water before you add the Portland and sand.
I start with 6 parts drained paper pulp, I then add the 3 parts Portland Cement, I blend this well and sometimes let it set for a while before I add the sand, I have never added wood ashes but was contemplating doing so on my next batch, I think I would keep it at about 2 parts and reduce the sand to 2 parts,  and keeping the cement a 3 parts would work well, but 2 parts cement would also work well, that way I would be back to the 3-2-1 mixture, if you double that mixture you get 6-4-2 and you could get a little stronger mixture with 6-4-3.
I like the looks of your block, are you pressing it or just pouring the mixture into a form.
BTB

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "bencv@..." <bviglietta@...> wrote:

 Good morning. I am pleased to join this group.
 
I am a member of a group which has been experimenting with papercrete for the past year. We are finding that in our area, upstate New York, it takes perhaps eight weeks a cement block sized piece to try to its fully contracted form. A variation which has two holes in it is still taking 5+ weeks. I will upload a picture of it right now.
 
Our recipe has been 6, 3, 3, .5 of newspaper, Portland cement, sand, fireplace ash.
 
My question is whether this is the experience of others? Do we have a bad recipe?
 
Thank you.
 
Ben Viglietta

__._,_.___

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

[papercreters] Re: Drying Time for Papercrete Blocks

What is your water content? If it takes that long to dry I would suggest using less water, if you are starting with 6 parts paper pulp is it watery? Or have you drain it of all visible water before you add the Portland and sand.

I start with 6 parts drained paper pulp, I then add the 3 parts Portland Cement, I blend this well and sometimes let it set for a while before I add the sand, I have never added wood ashes but was contemplating doing so on my next batch, I think I would keep it at about 2 parts and reduce the sand to 2 parts,  and keeping the cement a 3 parts would work well, but 2 parts cement would also work well, that way I would be back to the 3-2-1 mixture, if you double that mixture you get 6-4-2 and you could get a little stronger mixture with 6-4-3.

I like the looks of your block, are you pressing it or just pouring the mixture into a form.

BTB

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "bencv@..." <bviglietta@...> wrote:

 Good morning. I am pleased to join this group.
 
I am a member of a group which has been experimenting with papercrete for the past year. We are finding that in our area, upstate New York, it takes perhaps eight weeks a cement block sized piece to try to its fully contracted form. A variation which has two holes in it is still taking 5+ weeks. I will upload a picture of it right now.
 
Our recipe has been 6, 3, 3, .5 of newspaper, Portland cement, sand, fireplace ash.
 
My question is whether this is the experience of others? Do we have a bad recipe?
 
Thank you.
 
Ben Viglietta

__._,_.___

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___

[papercreters] Re: Drying Time for Papercrete Blocks

Temperature and humidity have a large effect on drying time for PC. Variations between 3 and 8 weeks for full setup are not unheard of, although you should be able to de-mold within a day or two generally (worst case).

Some things to ask would be how much area of the block is open to air? Is there sufficient circulation on all sides of the block? This includes the bottom if possible, although it is not required it can certainly speed things up. When I am trying to get something cured quickly I put it on a piece of stucco mesh framed (a left over sifter from another project) with 2x4's to allow complete airflow around the block.

You mix sounds fine to me, although I have never used wood ash. It is around the lower limit of what I would use for portland to aggregate unless you are going to add Borax for mold and insect prevention. Welcome to the group and please share your experiences and pictures so others can learn from your work.

- Ernie

--- In papercreters@yahoogroups.com, "bencv@..." <bviglietta@...> wrote:
>
> Good morning. I am pleased to join this group.
>
> I am a member of a group which has been experimenting with papercrete for the past year. We are finding that in our area, upstate New York, it takes perhaps eight weeks a cement block sized piece to try to its fully contracted form. A variation which has two holes in it is still taking 5+ weeks. I will upload a picture of it right now.
>
> Our recipe has been 6, 3, 3, .5 of newspaper, Portland cement, sand, fireplace ash.
>
> My question is whether this is the experience of others? Do we have a bad recipe?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Ben Viglietta
>

------------------------------------

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/

[papercreters] Drying Time for Papercrete Blocks

Good morning. I am pleased to join this group.

I am a member of a group which has been experimenting with papercrete for the past year. We are finding that in our area, upstate New York, it takes perhaps eight weeks a cement block sized piece to try to its fully contracted form. A variation which has two holes in it is still taking 5+ weeks. I will upload a picture of it right now.

Our recipe has been 6, 3, 3, .5 of newspaper, Portland cement, sand, fireplace ash.

My question is whether this is the experience of others? Do we have a bad recipe?

Thank you.

Ben Viglietta

------------------------------------

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/