PAPERCRETE continues to be of strong interest to curious builders.
Papercrete is an amazing, still experimental, material that can range
from straight paper and cement to many other formulations, used with
success. Adding lime, sawdust, chopped fibers and other materials
can produce a workable mix used for blocks, slipforming, plasters and
infill.
Here are a couple websites to visit where the builders are trying new and
varied applications.
Tim Pye's Papercrete house in AZ
You can experiment with plastering inexpensively by applying low cost wall board compound, typically used for patching, and covering nail holes, in place of pure lime plasters. The gypsum material is premixed, soft, workable, dries fast, doesn't crack, and lets you literally sculpt and decorate walls. Once you have experience with technique you can move on to mixing and applying lime plasters.
Hydrated lime needs to be soaked in clean water to make a soft putty- the longer the better- then mixed with sand, or even chopped paper, to make a wall plaster. Currently I am experimenting with a Chinese method of soaking lime and chopped paper together then applying it on the wall.
The book this information came from, (as well as adobe and rammed earth methods) is: Making Earthen and Adobes Brick the Chinese Way... View Earth &Adobe books here
Don't let using "lime" confuse you..it has been used for more than 5,000 years as a building material..and is finding new favor today for natura l building. Recently in Italy an entire underfloor storage of soft lime putty was uncovered in the Villa dei Quintili in Rome. Sealed for almost 2,000 years by the collapse of a floor, the lime occupied an entire room. This palace was obtained by force by Commodus in 182 AD [Seen as the bad guy emperor (played by Joquim Phoenix) in the movie "Gladiator"] Read more on this ancient lime putty here.
National Lime Association Has many free ONLIN E articles, and low cost booklets on technical aspects of lime.
Lime Based Renders by Bob Bennett
Three Coat Lime Plaster on Riven Lathe by Bob Bennett
Lime Parget- great site on lime pargeting( sculpting &stamping of lime putty) at the Anna Kettle, UK artist site
Lime Online Italy: Has many good article s in English, sign in required to read. Articles by Harry Francis, NLA techinal manager, retired. are posted here. I h av e included several lime related articles written by Mr. Francis, in my book "All About Lime", see mo re titles on lime use by clicking on the link.
UK BUILDING CONSERVATION : A collection of everything you'd want to know about restoring/conserving old and not-so-old buildings- gre at lime articles, and more.
Chemistry of lime explained -at basic level
Info on mixing an d using lime:
Lime Plaster over Straw Bale- renders Article
A rticle s on Pozzolans -binders for lime:
Pozzolans for Lime Mortars by Pat Gibbons
Articles on Pozzolans (clay binders for lime).. The best site is the National Parks Service online, an excellent list of preservation and restoration articles, many are good for natural building.
Also see this article at the NPS site on pozzolan use.
Rice Husk (or Hull) Ash- an organic pozzola n for building.
Mount Vernon Conservation -lime con servation wall plaster site
Decorative Lime Materials:
Tom Battersby Ornamental Lime Plasters-restora tion site., Amazing decorative wall pargetting and much more..a visual feast for the eyes.
Mike Wye &Associates- UK Suppliers of Natural Building and Decorating Products
Real Milk Paint website This site offers premade, dry packaged pig ments for mixing with water to a real lime based "milk paint". There are other vendors online too: Old Fashioned Milk Paint, and others.
The simple recipe of cement, peat moss and sand can produce some amazing low cost, and very creative works of art, and functional objects too. Papercrete and Tufastone are very similar and I have been making a variety of bowls and test objects from different formulas. I don't think you can have more fun, for very little money, than using these materials. Here are some useful sites.
http://www.backyardgardener.com/tufa.html
http://pages.prodigy.net/airs/rocks/making.htm
A beautiful book with inspiring projects you can make in a few hours or a weekend is "Making Concrete Garden Ornaments" this book was reissued, and the price lowered for the softcover version. And my alternative recipes for Tufastone are found in "Tufastone Creations on CD" See these books at:
Charmaine Taylor
Taylor Publishing
PO Box 375
Cutten CA 95503
Tel: 707-441-1632
Fax: 775-845-9772
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