Papercrete And Me

I have to admit that I wasn’t quite done with the fireplace when the cold weather set in and I had to quit. I had wanted to shape the opening so the top of it came down lower. When I lit a small fire and checked the draft it was acceptable but I thought if I made the opening smaller and brought it down a bit I could improve things. I also thought it would look a lot better if it were evened up a bit and the rough edges smoothed. Once the temperature dropped and the snow started to fly I had to put the whole thing on hold.

I used a mix of approximately 1 part clay soil, 5 parts sand and 2 parts mulched newspaper.

Mixing mud in wheelbarrow

I mulched the paper in a 5 gallon bucket and mixed it with the electric drill with a special mixing attachment usually used for drywall mud. If I were making a larger quantity I would have used a mortar mixer but I don’t have one and this is a small project. However mixing in a wheelbarrow is hard work and I had a problem getting a stiff enough consistency to build up the front of the hearth. So it took longer and still needs to come out farther but it is OK.

Mud brought up to serve as window sill as well and bench and shelf.

I wanted the banco as a bench to add seating area and to serve as a plant shelf in winter but I also wanted to bring the level of the hearth up to improve draft and have a continuous surface as a window sill. Built-ins are always a good idea in a small area and having surfaces that connect on one level make the room look more spacious.

I worked from the sides toward the middle and right through the fireplace, bringing up the floor of the hearth about 2 inches. It took four days altogether working about 3 to 4 hours a day. Working on something like this is a sort of meditation for me. I got so into it that I found it hard to stop, but my body didn’t  agree  and I had to quit way before I wanted to  and go soak in an epsom salt bath.

I may bring the hearth out more into the room but other than that the banco is finished and waiting for plaster. The mud probably should have been left rough  to give the plaster something to grab onto but I absolutely loved working with it and couldn’t stop myself from smoothing it with the trowel. I always enjoy working with mud but adding the paper to it really makes it delightful material. I must add that the mud that will be in contact with fire has very little paper in it. I am going to have to observe carefully what happens when I light a fire. We did a 5 minute flame test for the DVD (The Making of Papercrete) and it didn’t catch fire but did smolder slightly where the flame came in contact with the papercrete block.

Now that the banco is done I can move on to getting the walls ready for plaster. More on that next time.

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This entry was posted by Judith on Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 at 6:24 am and is filed under What Was I Thinking???. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.