About Judith
Me taking a break in the early days of papercreting.
I am happy to say that I know a whole lot more about papercrete than I do about writing a blog. I just noticed that I hadn’t paid any attention to this so will do my best to fill you in on how I got involved with papercrete and why I keep growing to love it more every day.
About 6 or 7 years ago I bought a beautiful piece of land in Abiquiu, NM knowing I would build my own house on it. I don’t mean “build my own house” as some people do – hire an architect to draw plans and hire a contractor to transform those plans into a building. I mean I would design my own house an take some sort of material to construct it.
I had always been an Amazon addict and my thirst for information on all the various so-called alternative building methods increased the disease and decreased the bank account. I sent for books on straw bale, cob, adobe, rammed earth, earth bag, earthship construction among others. I had lived in Santa Fe back in 1994 when straw bale was just getting started and knew it was too labor intensive for me. I also felt it was cost prohibitive because of the price of bales and the amount of finish work. I tried cob, loving the organic form resulting in charming hobbit like abodes. After one batch of cob mixed on a tarp, turning, lifting, and stomping I knew I would never live long enough to see even one wall get up. I chucked that idea.
After reading all I could and trying many things I was getting discouraged. I had been renting videos from Charmaine Taylor (http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com) and she suggested I look into papercrete. I had heard of it but dismissed it as unrealistic. Who builds a house out of paper anyway? But having run out of resources I agreed to take a look at some videos about papercrete.
WOW!!! Right away I knew I had found what I had been looking for. I contacted Mike McCain and asked him to build me a mixer. It was his opinion that I could easily do it myself. I am an extreme do it yourself-er but I recognized my limitations. I sent for Barry Fuller’s video on how to build a tow mixer
Mixer, truck and water tank.
(http://www.livinginpaper.com), turned it over to some iron worker friends, scavenged the materials and in a short time had my own tow mixer. I set out developing a formula using newspaper, sand and cement refining it over time to decrease the amount of cement and substitute pumice fines for the sand.
It took me 3 weeks to dig my foundation – a 100 foot trench 24 inches deep in a free form shape that I laid out with a 100 foot garden hose. I used larger pumice in polypropylene bags as an earthbag foundation.
Pumice bag foundation with plumbing roughed in.
I made some forms and started making blocks. Pretty soon the building started to take shape. I hired a videographer to help me make a DVD showing how I did it all.
I knew when I started that there was a good chance I would be shut down for lack of a permit and that’s exactly what happened. I will admit that by this time my enthusiasm for building with papercrete had taken over my life.
I made over a thousand blocks.
I was exhausted and discouraged about the stop work order. I decided to emulate the locals, some of whom I had gotten to know well through the building process. I decided to pursue my own version of Tim Leary’s adage “Tune in, turn on, drop out.” I went fishing, drank a lot of beer and reconnected with my family.
Cut to four years later. I thought about selling the land and emailed a woman who had bought acreage across the street from my almost completed house. She had asked for first refusal if I ever decided to sell. We ended up doing a trade – my 4 1/2 acres for her 2 acres at the point of the mesa. This worked out very well for me because that 2 acres was the land I had originally wanted to buy but it was not available at the time.
So last year I started 2 smaller buildings on my new land. This blog is a record of my progress, my successes and failures. My story of building my own papercrete house as it unfolds.
New little house on the point of the mesa.
Progress so far. Windows in and doors still to be installed.
Hello Judith!
Well you have helped encourage me to start a project and mine is the building of a 20 by 36ft greenhouse. I am a market gradener in the north of Canada so greenhouses are very important, but more important is learning how to stop burn so much fossil fuel in producing our food. Up here 99% of our food now come from down south lot’s of food miles. Hopefully with this papercrete greenhouse we can show a different way can be had! that farming can be affordable and profitable!
Jackie
Hi Judith,
I saw your website info after discovering you on YouTube a few minutes ago. I’m glad you got another truck, ha….Keep up the good work.
Best Wishes,
Bob D from CT
Your kiva looks fabulous! Better than what I had envisioned. And I love the window you put in the house. Really looks nice. Beautifully done. k
Thanks so much! Last week I made a banco from the fireplace extending under the window and on the other side from the fireplace to the door. I will update the blog in the next few days.
Hi Judith, was it hard to get a building permit for your current house on your new land?
I am finishing a garage made using papercrete blocks and have some revelations about how to do it better next time. By that I mean to make the blocks more uniform with cores that align so they can be reinforced and grouted.
In doing so, the building code minimum for Adobe can be satisfied using a combination of the grout strength and the block strength averaged over the gross area. In setting the blocks the challenge is to keep the cores clear for grouting with a cement based material. A pipe or some other device can be used to both align the blocks and to keep the mortar from bleeding into the cores. Once the blocks are up to a decent height, the selected cores can be grouted solid with or without reinforcing.
A graduate student helped me determine the strength and stiffness properties of the material. As a bonus, he was able to determine the R value and moisture absorption characteristics of various mix designs.
Could you set plastic pipe or even better cardboard tubing in your walls before pouring/? Then you could pour the concrete down the void left by the tube. Is this what you are describing here? I like your calculations about the concrete core filling bringing the wall up to code for strength.
I did not get a permit for the building I’m working on now. I am a renegade that way, but in reality I am not building anything that will be inhabited (officially) so do not need a permit.
I know of at least 2 papercrete homes in NM that have been built with permits. They require a post and beam frame with papercrete infill. The large homes that Mason Greenstar is building in TX are going up in unzoned areas so they have no [problems with permits.