Papercrete And Me

Posted By Judith on July 19, 2010

Actually several milestones were reached this weekend. I had been without a truck for over a year until I found a really good one in March. The only problem with it was that it had no tailgate and no trailer hitch. Up until now I have had to make arrangements to borrow a truck with a hitch whenever I wanted to make papercrete. So this weekend I finally got those installed and now I am all set to hook up to the tow mixer and make papercrete to my heart’s delight. Can’t tow a mixer without a hitch!

The second and most important thing was the the new little building has the walls all the way up and all the forms removed.

New building with forms removed.

It looks so neat and clean and I love the color now that I am using cardboard in place of the newspapers. Notice the lighter colored courses at the bottom of the walls. This is where I added some latex paint to waterproof the papercrete. This should be done to about 8 inches above grade.

There are a couple of things I learned that I will pass on. Getting the forms right to begin with is number one. We spent a lot of time on the forms and it paid off. Even with the attention they got we still had a few problems, such as when we started filling a form only to discover that someone had neglected to screw it in completely. This caused a few minor blow outs but nothing serious.

Secondly, and I can’t emphasize this enough, work goes so much faster and the frustration factor is considerable lower when you have and use all the same sized screws. This may seem like a small thing but it really is not. When you are going around moving forms up you invariably have to also move some of the bracing. And sometimes you may need to add a small piece of lumber or plywood.  I just go crazy when I’m moving right along and all of a sudden the screw is the wrong size and I have to stop what I’m doing to find the right bit and change it out.

The third milestone is that I started filling in around the vigas on the first little building. First I had a friend get up on the roof with a chainsaw and trim the vigas.

Back view of building with forms removed.

Trimming of vigas so they are flush with the walls.

A lot of people have asked me why I don’t leave the ends of the vigas sticking out so it will have the “Santa Fe Style”. Well I don’t particularly like that style and also I am modeling my buildings on a very cute little old building I pass every day on my way to the post office. It is just a simple rectangular box with old fashioned windows and doors. I’ll get a pic to post when I think of it.

Me filling in with papercrete around the vigas.

I mixed up a load of papercrete using the same formula As for the infill with the addition of 2 buckets of pumice. (Yes I have found another source of pumice. Hooray!) Pumice adds volume to the mix and helps diminish shrinking.

I drained it on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood to remove some of the water make it more malleable and packed it in around the vigas. There was a lot of area to fill in because of

First layer of papercrete over and around vigas.

some last minute changes we made when we put the vigas up.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover how easily it went on. I had been wondering how it would bond to the cut ends of the logs. It stuck like glue.

One mixer load almost finished the front of the building. It was so hot that we had to stop working after just the one load. I’ve also learned that when you have volunteer labor you have to be considerate and not work them to death.

I will continue this filling in during the rest of the week, building up layers of papercrete and then we can finish the roof next weekend. More on that next time.

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Posted By Judith on July 10, 2010

Have you ever noticed that when you are right at the end of an important phase of your project you come to a standstill?

This is what has happened to me. I am right at the top of my walls and have just one or two more courses to pour and things have just stopped moving forward. I think it’s been about 3 weeks since any progress has been made with one thing after another interfering with the work. Things like showing up without the tools needed, batteries being dead,  weather too hot, running out of cardboard or cement.

Anyway, today a big milestone is taking place. I am getting a bumper and trailer hitch put on my truck and this should make a big difference in how the work progresses. Up until now I have had to borrow a truck with a hitch to pull the tow mixer around. That means trading trucks with someone. I have to anticipate all the tools I will need and take them out of my truck tool box before they drive away. Not being a great planner I invarialbly forget something important and am dead in the water until I track down the tool I need or improvise somehow. Today all that will change. I will now have everything I need when I need it.

OK as for the update. The walls are up to 8 feet. I put in a header over the door using rough sawn 2 X 6s. In retrospect I should

Rough sawn 2 X 6s set over door opening and extending about 2 feet one each side.

have done it a bit differently but I will explain what I did. I set a piece of plywood over the door opening supported by a couple of blocks of wood and screwed the 2 X 6s from underneath. Papercrete was poured over and around them as the wall went up. What I would have done differently is to have brought the papercrete right up to where the header would go then settle the boards down into the still mushy papercrete. What happened with the way I did it was the the papercrete shrank down and left a void under the header. We had to go back in and gouge out some papercrete and fill it in with new stuff. I could have also used concrete here or a beam of wood or metal. I just want to make sure the vigas will have enough support over the 6 foot span.

2 x 6S supported by blocks of wood. Plywood underneath keeps slurry from escaping.

Anyway, it all came out OK in the end. It just cost us some time.

We continued up with the walls to the point where I want to create a slight incline to the roof. We found when we put a level to the walls that they are right on! So we measured up 3 inches higher on the front than on the back and will pour the final courses that way.  This bond beam will have about twice the amount of cement as I have been using, again taking into consideration the weight of the vigas.

Here’s where the delay started. First of all it was very hot when we got to this point. then we found all the batteries were dead so we got out the generator and the electric drill but guess what. All the bits were in the truck tool box which as who knows where. So we called it a day. Then we had a weekend when we had some thing else scheduled and then it was the holiday and I had a pet sitting gig.

So here we are today with work again put on hold so the bumper and hitch receiver can be installed.

In spite of the delays it is so gratifying to see the building taking shape. As soon as the final courses are added to the top of these walls I can start concentrating on finishing the tops of the walls and the the roof of the first little building. I am so psyched! And with the new hitch I won’t have to make arrangements to borrow a truck. I will be able to go up there and work any time the spirit moves me.

Trhee generations of papercreters. Mom, Eliza and me in front of the building with walls up 8 feet.

After the walls have set up a little I will remove all of the forms and let it cure for about 6 weeks. No lumber will remain as part of the final product. With the monolithic pour method there should be minimal shrinkage and no cracks. The door is formed at 4 feet wide but will be cut out to 6 feet to accommodate some beautiful french doors that I got a the Habitat resale store.

So that’s it for today. I am off to get the bumper put on. Hooray!

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Posted By Judith on June 21, 2010

Many have asked how papercrete would hold up in a tropical climate. I must admit I have not had any real answers for them because I am in a desert environment and have not heard from anyone who has used papercrete in a humid area.

This morning as I was doing some web surfing on papercrete (no one to my knowledge has used it for a surf board either) I came across this YouTube video about a couple in Taiwan who built a papercrete school house.

What really caught my attention was the comment that they coated their walls with a silicon sealer to protect then from rain.

Since I am planning a papercrete roof I am interested in ways to seal it if I need to some day. I plan to just leave it unsealed and see what happens. I know from experience that papercrete blocks left out in the weather for 3 years showed no sign of deterioration. In fact they seem keep getting stronger.

The problem comes in when the blocks are left to sit in water or when water is allowed to puddle and remain on the surface. Papercrete is highly hydrophilic which means it loves to suck up water. So the trick to making the roof withstand the effects of rain and snow will be to make sure there is an adequate roof pitch and that there are no low areas where water will sit long enough to be absorbed.

So here is a short video about a couple in Taiwan who built a schoolhouse in a tropical environment. Not only has it withstood rain and humidity, it withstood the effects of a typhoon with no ill effects!

Also take note of his comments about his foundation and the savings he will realize by not having to buy fiberglass insulation.

Papercrete School Stands up to Typhoon

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Posted By Judith on June 2, 2010

Different sized blocks make a messy looking wall.

This line of blocks will extend down the road as more batches are mixed, poured and cut.

Making blocks has always been my favorite part of working with papercrete. I think it’s because it’s something that can be done without the help of other people. I loved getting an early start, having all my stuff organized so I could move right along assembly line style. On a good day I could make about 10 mixer loads of blocks, one batch after the other in a long line down the road. I just got into a good zone. It’s like meditation.

I must admit that constructing a wall with the blocks was not enjoyable at all. It seemed like a lot of work and didn’t come out very well. I learned the hard way the importance of making uniform blocks. Mine were all different sizes so when they went into the wall the result had a definite “rustic” effect.

It was when I had the walls up to about 8 feet that I realized the job was too big for me so I decided to cut the main room in half. I would finish that room leaving the rest of the house as an an outdoor kitchen and patio. I set up forms to slip form this dividing wall and was amazed at how beautifully it turned out. Right then I knew I would not be stacking any more blocks into walls. I would slip form my next building entirely.

But what would I do with all those lest over blocks I had so enjoyed making? I had stacks of them all over the place.

Hundreds of blocks were stacked all over the site.

Cutting blocks to the width of the form. Slip form/ block wall behind me.

What I decided to do was use a hybrid method combining the blocks with slip forming. I took some blocks and cut them on the table saw to the exact width of the inside of the form. That way I could pour slurry into the form, drop a block down on top of it and add more slurry over it. This resulted in a nice uniform wall with texture provided by the courses of blocks embedded in the papercrete. 

The first little building using this hybrid method came out great but I knew I could do better. For one thing the cutting of the blocks was time consuming and made a terrible mess.

This time I am leaving the blocks their original haphazard sizes. I am placing them in the wall on their sides so they are completely embedded in the slurry and are not visible in the finished wall.

The finished wall is really straight and uniform. More pictures next time.

One very definite of using the blocks this way (other than the time and mess involved in cutting all the blocks) is that it saves making fresh slurry. The blocks take up about half the volume of the wall. So this uses up a lot of blocks and I don’t have to mix up all the slurry it would take to slip form the walls.

The blocks are set upright in the form and will be completely embedded in papercrete.

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Posted By Judith on May 27, 2010

I know I’ve been away from this blog for a while. I just can’t seem to coordinate my making papercrete with the filming and writing about it.

But it’s been a busy and productive 2 months in spite of the strong winds and cold weather.

The trench is about a foot deep and filled with 3/4 + gravel. This is a rubble trench foundation developed and popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright

I had a few glitches at the start such as my neighbor throwing a fit that I was starting a new building within sight of his house. After a few heated words I agreed to move it to a place more acceptable to him. I had already dug the footers ( a 3 day job) so he agreed to hire a guy and between the 3 of us we got the new trench dug and filled with gravel in a days’ time.

One idea that is working out very well is the design for the forms.

Vertical forms are in place and plumb. First horizontal form is set at bottom of wall.

I decided to set up forms so I could slip form the whole building in one continuous course at a time. What I mean is that all the slurry is poured all the way around the building with no partitions. This way there will be no weak spots where the finished papercrete will pull apart.

All the vertical forms are made of two 2 x 4s separated by a short piece of lumber going through the wall at the top, middle and bottom. End forms are made of 2 x 4s with a solid piece of plywood  from top to bottom. This way the slurry will flow all around the walls and corners with no breaks. After all the pouring is done and the papercrete has set up all of the forms will be removed leaving just the strong papercrete walls.

Everything is in place. As soon as the ball pops out of the exit pipe the slurry will flow out quickly. I use a wet mix for this reason.

We were able to pull the mixer right up to the forms for the first pour. Notice that the gravel is in place and has been brought up to meet the bottom of the forms. This keeps the slurry from escaping under the forms. The ball is ready to pop out and once it does the slurry will flow easily.

The first two courses flow all around the building with no breaks. I added latex paint to the mix to help it resist water.

My newest helper, my daughter Eliza on the scaffold pouring slurry.

This shows how we set up our scaffolding with saw horses and planks. The steps from an old mobile home make it all work smoothly.

The first two courses have been poured. This picture shows the 4 foot opening for the door. These courses flow uninterrupted around the entire perimeter of the building ensuring a strong foundation for the rest of the walls. The solid forms at the sides of the doors will be removed after the papercrete has set up and the opening will be cut to the exact size needed for the 6 foot French doors. When we get above the door opening the walls will again be uninterrupted around the whole building.

After we got above the first forms we had to use buckets to get the slurry into the forms. We were able to set up a great scaffold system with saw horses and planks.  It goes all the way around the building so one person ( or more) can be on it while others fill buckets and set them on the planks.

I’ve found I don’t work as much alone with the slip forming method. It just seems unproductive to labor alone all day and get only one mixer load done when I can wait until the weekend and have help. With just one or two extra people the job whizzes right along and we can get up to 4 courses done in a few hours.

As of now the walls are half way up. The plan is to finish these walls to the 8 foot height and let them cure for at least a month. In the meantime I will close in the roof on the first little building, put a floor in it and peel the vigas for this building.

Next time I will explain how I am using blocks I already have to fill in the slip form walls.

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Posted By Judith on March 15, 2010

The weather was perfect on Saturday so I started my new project. The building I started in September will serve as a bedroom and the new building will be a kitchen with a claw foot tub in it. It will also have a small area partitioned off for the sawdust toilet.The south wall will be 2 sets of French doors for solar gain so I will probably put a nice table in here and use it as an office. It’s like a great room that is its own building.

At first I had this new building laid out right next to the other one but realized that it would block the afternoon sun and a good portion of the view. So I started looking around for another location.  I am rather limited because I am building right on the edge of a cliff.  I settled on a site about 20 feet from the first building and started the layout. The only potential problem I see is that I am again on the edge of the cliff but this time I am actually going down it a little bit. The first thing to consider is the foundation. Building on a slope complicates things a bit but after many hours of thought I’m pretty sure how I will handle it. More on that later.

To get the best solar orientation I take a board and lay it on the ground. I then pound a stake into the ground and lay a speed square on the board so that the shadow from the stake falls across the board right where the speed square is.

Using a speed square to determine the best solar orientation.

It’s important to do this on a sunny day at about noon time. When the shadow falls across the board in line with the edge of the speed square you will have a true southern orientation. I want my house a little east of south because I want more of the morning sun than the late afternoon sun. I set my first 2 stakes so the string follows the board, then I am ready to lay out the rest of the walls.

Being a mostly visual person, I like to lay out the walls with lumber so I can better see how the building will look.

The nice weather was short lived. Sunday morning found snow falling at a pretty good clip. By the end f the day there were 6 inches on the ground.

Knowing how things are here in New Mexico it won’t last long.

Site chosen, solar orientation determined, corners squared, walls laid out with 2 x 4s.

Next thing to do is dig the trenches for the rubble foundation and get started on that.

And I also have to replenish all my materials. I have about 2 bales of cardboard, no pumice (the plant is closed indefinitely so I will have to find another source), no cement/fly ash (will have to arrange a trip to Farmington) so there is no shortage of things to do.

I will do my best to keep this blog updated with posts of the construction process.

New Mexico weather imposes a break from construction, a good chance to rest the back

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Posted By Judith on March 10, 2010

I am posting this article about students at the University of Arizona learning about papercrete. It includes a lot of useful information about cement and other interesting stuff about papercrete and how it is being used.

When I first got started with papercrete 5 years ago I saw its potential as a way for women to build their own homes. I had in mind to create a curriculum to be presented at the local college which now offers the only accredited adobe building course in the country. It looks like my dream has a chance of becoming reality.

I met Diane Austin,  and Vince Pawlowski, mentioned in the article, in 2008 when I attended a symposium on papercrete that was held at the U of A in Tuscon. They had just completed a papercrete house in Nogales Mexico as a class project. it’s interesting to note that they couldn’t build a papercrete house for low income people in this country because of all the red tape. Oh well some nice family in Mexico is now living in a new energy efficient house thanks to the students from the U of A. And with more articles like this one we may see papercrete as a mainstream material in this country soon.

Turning Junk Mail Into Concrete Maryruth Belsey Priebe February 23, 2010 Students Kim, Shana and Emily set papercrete blocks as part of a workshop at Coconino Community College. (Joe Costion) Students of the University of Arizona (UA) are putting newspaper to work in outhouses–and it’s not, ahem, for wiping up. They’re using newsprint–along with some water and a small quantity of sand, lime, clay, fly ash, or Portland cement–in a concoction called papercrete to construct outhouses, as well as things like concrete benches and residential dwellings. Papercrete, known by alternative names such as fibrous concrete, padobe, and fidobe, is a low-carbon construction material, and though it’s not yet extensively used on university and college campuses, students are exploring its uses for a variety of purposes. Diane Austin, associate professor and associate research anthropologist in the UA’s Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, has been pushing her students to use greener building materials. Working with her students and a network of local partners in border communities of southern Arizona and northern Sonora, she has been testing the feasibility of papercrete for a variety of applications. “Our project is designed to find an alternative form of construction for low income households that are building their own homes,” she explains. “It must be cost-effective, rely on locally available materials and local skills, be insect and fire resistant, and be durable.” We already know that traditional concrete is energy-intensive, accounting for 2.4 percent of total global industrial- and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, and papercrete goes a long way to solving this problem. “There are many formulations. The simplest is water, paper, and Portland cement whipped up in a food processor.  Try it yourself, it’s easy.” explains Vincent Pawlowski, a Prescott College alumnus and former student of Austin’s. A typical papercrete formula uses four to five percent Portland cement as a binding agent that helps set the shape of the papercrete. However, according to Pawlowski, “Most people will find alternatives, like lime and clay or podzalan volcanic ash materials instead of Portland cement. Others are using coal fly ash, or natural alternatives like pumus or semi-natural alternatives like pearlite (another kind of volcanic ash that’s heated like popcorn and pops to become very light and a great insulator).” “Papercrete has great potential as a low-carbon building material,” says Pawlowski. “Even when adding Portland cement to the mix the carbon footprint isn’t as bad as some people think it would be because the CO2 that is produced when creating Portland cement (when it’s baked) goes back into it when you add water.” Yet the climate benefits of papercrete go well beyond eschewing Portland cement.. Papercrete, which has been used for decades in a variety of building applications, has many climate benefits. The sequestration of carbon is perhaps the most significant since papercrete is composed of 50-80 percent waste paper (low-grade newsprint as well as higher-end magazines, cardboard, and junk mail). Papercrete is also a good insulator, which helps reduce the energy needed to heat or cool a building. In Action Working with local experts and novices, UA students use their newfound knowledge of papercrete in collaborations with low-income communities seeking ways to build sturdy structures at minimum cost and with little environmental damage and lower operating costs. Some student groups have gone into local science classrooms to teach K-12 students  about the material, and there are also two houses constructed of papercrete in Nogales, Sonora, several benches constructed by students for their schoolyard habitats in Nogales, Arizona, and two CalEarth domes at Avalon Farms in Tumacacori that are covered with papercrete. The carbon footprint of a building is also impacted by its lifespan. “The longer the lifespan, the lower the carbon footprint,” explains Shane Keller, who has previously instructed students at the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology through Humboldt State University on the use of papercrete.  ”This bodes well for papercrete since its lifespan is very long (just how long remains to be determined by time). It doesn’t rot, insects do not consume it and it doesn’t catch flame. Buildings made of it should last for many hundreds of years. As with any building, the structural design, roof system and maintenance over time will play a significant role in its lifespan.” The mixing process used to make papercrete is purportedly less energy-intensive than traditional concrete as well. And since in many cases locally-sourced sand, clay, and lime can be used, transportation fuel for moving materials is also minimized, further shrinking its carbon footprint. These are issues being explored by Coconino Community College in Flagstaff, AZ, as part of associate degrees in alternative energy and sustainable green building.  The one-credit papercrete workshop taught during the innovative and alternative building techniques course gives students hands-on experience working with the material as well as theoretical knowledge about how it can be applied. As Joe Costion, Coconino Construction Technology Management department chair puts it, “Papercrete teaches students to look at the possibility of building with materials from the waste streams of society to create a viable structure.” As students begin to understand that there is no more “away” for waste, they come to appreciate refuse as a resource. “Waste paper is a tremendously underutilized resource, the aim of teaching papercrete then is to change our perspective about the daily materials we use and discard.” Papercrete can be used to construct homes and office buildings and though it can’t be utilized in wet climates (it takes too long to dry and doesn’t hold up well in the presence of constant moisture), papercrete structures are low maintenance and last for many, many years. According to Pawlowski, “The folks at Mason GreenStar think that it could be used in North America, at least in the Southwest where insulation is critical and the dampness isn’t a problem.” To date, only about 100 North American homes are using this material and other than the odd outhouse, it has yet to be used on college campuses. It is still very much a material for amateurs. But that isn’t slowing down students’ interest in the material. “Papercrete has repeatedly brought out the creative energy of students,” says Costion. “Better yet, the tinkerers and shade-tree mechanics are absolutely intrigued by this material. It’s cheap and lightweight, so it inspires and provokes people as owners and builders.” See More: Permeable Concrete Reduces Emissions: ClimateEdu

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