PAPERCRETE FOUNDATION OPTIONS
I live about 25 miles from the nearest “big” town and on the way to a fro I pass an adobe house that is condemned. It isn’t hard to figure out what the problem is. The adobe house is cracked down the middle, a huge gap that starts out narrow at the bottom and widens to about 8 inches at the top. One side of the building is listing and looks like it is about to break away and fall over.
What is the problem with this house? It was built on a foundation that was either unstable or non existent. It’s sad to see the waste of money and energy that went into the failed project, not to mention the safety issues involved for anyone who may have been living there.
When I set out to write this post I thought it would be a rather straightforward exercise. I have read a lot about foundations and construction, both conventional and alternative. I’ve been intimately involved with the construction of two stick frame houses and have worked on two papercrete structures. However when I started researching foundations to use under papercrete walls I discovered that it’s not as simple as imagined.
I realize that many who are reading this are unfamiliar with construction in any form and may know next to nothing about papercrete. Since a strong and stable foundation is imperative, any information I present here will have to be accurate.
So over the next few days I am going to research and report on several different foundation systems. I will do my best to include both conventional, well accepted foundations and some new ideas to keep the costs down and simplify the building process.
Stay tuned and check back regularly to see what I’ve come up with.
About The Author
Hi Judith,
I enjoyed what I’ve read on your site so far.
I have, perhaps, a slightly unusual problem.
I live in a 37 year old mobile home. A well built, fairly well insulated one. I would like to papercrete over the outside, (and enlarge while I’m at it), sell this house and buy land and build from scratch.
Do you know if I can “surround” the mobile home? Should I use chicken wire? Can I do it in stages? ie. first just to the top of the underpinning, then up to the windows? then to the roof? and finally add a roof????
If I can do this, then I can sell my lake place for enough to buy enough land to raise goats, and I’m a worm farmer, and need a building LARGE enough for major expansion.
Since I’m far from wealthy, it seems to me the incremental path is the only one to take.
If you have any suggestions, I would appreciate hearing from you and would be happy to send you a sample of worm casting tea bags that will make your garden stand up and beg for more.
Janie
I also live in a circa 1980 mobile home and have often thought about what it would take to insulate it with papercrete.
Just off the top of my head (I will have to think and research more) it seems there are 2 ways to go. One would be to make papercrete panels much like the styrofoam ones available everywhere. They could then be glued to the outside walls with some of the expanding foam. I think Liquid nails makes a good one.
I think a simpler way would be to do a slip form. You would make forms similar to the ones I am using and go around the perimeter of the building starting at the bottom and going up. You would you have to fit the forms around windows and doors which would take some time.
I’m not sure if the time and effort required would be worth it in the end. That’s something you will have to decide. I have a tendency to understimate what is involved in projects and end up wondering how I got myself into these things.
There is a papercreters group on Yahoo. I believe this has been discussed in the past. If you want to check the archives you can go to Yahoo groups, find the papercreters one, register and look up an endless variety of subjects.
If I have any more ideas I will share them. Perhaps the subject of insulating old buildings with papercrete is something that should be looked into more seriously.
About the worm farm: what a great thing to do. I thought about it when the kids were little but never really got started. Your tea bag sounds interesting. My mother and I are trying to garden here in the desert southwest and find it tremendously different from what we had in the east. The plants come up (usually) but never get to any great size. Everthing is in miniature and not producing much fruit. We are doing raised beds with excellent soil that we brought in but suspect that there’s a lot of salt in the water.