CHEMISTRY

Paper is principally wood cellulose, which is considered a fibrous material. Cellulose is the second most
abundant material on earth after rock. It is the main component of plant cell walls, and the basic
building block for many textiles and for paper. Cellulose is a natural polymer, a long chain of linked
sugar molecules made by the linking of smaller molecules.

Cellulose hydrogen bonds.

The links in the cellulose chain are a type of sugar: -D-glucose. The cellulose chain bristles with polar
-OH groups. These groups form many hydrogen bonds with OH groups on adjacent chains, bundling the
chains together. The chains also pack regularly in places to form hard, stable crystalline regions that
give the bundled chains even more stability and strength. This hydrogen bonding forms the basis of
papercrete's strength.
Viewed under a microscope,
it's possible to see a network
of cellulose fibers and smaller
offshoots from the fibers
called fibrils.

When these
networks or
matrices of
fibers and
fibrils dry,
they
intertwine
and cling
together
with the
power of
the
hydrogen
bond.

Fibrils are offshoots of fibers.

Fibers and fibrils network to form a matrix,

which becomes coated with Portland
cement.

Coating these fibers with Portland cement creates a cement matrix, which encases the fibers for extra
strength. Of course paper has more in it than cellulose. Raw cellulose has a comparatively rough
texture. Kaolinite or China clay is used to add smoothness and semi-gloss to paper. Varnish is added
for the glossy look. Then there are various inks and other chemicals added. Many types of paper are
treated with dyes and bleach that can contaminate soil and plant-life. They are extremely persistent in
soil and cannot be broken down by bacteria. It makes sense to encase them in Portland cement, keep
them out of the landfill, and do something useful with them.
Portland cement is an integral component of papercrete. It is
usually not used in fidobe or padobe. A simple paper and water
mix takes a great deal of time to dry and it shrinks about 15-25
percent. Adding Portland cement in an amount equal in weight
to the paper cuts drying time by about half and reduces
shrinkage to about 3-5 percent. If nothing were added to paper
and water, it would be less strong, highly flammable, and less
resistant to bugs and mold.
No matter what mix you settle on, the great thing about generic
papercrete is how it traps air. When the water drains out and
evaporates, it leaves thousands of tiny air pockets. This is what
Samples made in a coffee can makes the material light and a good insulator. Adding solid
showing shrinkage. From left to material to the mix (sand, etc.) affects weight and insulating
right: No Portland cement, 50-50 quality. The best mix is the one which best fits the application.

cement to paper, 60-40 cement to

paper.

Because there is so much waste paper in the United States, it is probably the best fibrous
material to use here. But there are many other natural fibrous materials, such as f lax, hemp and
jute, which could be used to make papercrete in other parts of the world . Less obvious
candidates include: straw, wood fiber, kenaf, wheat, barley and cane. Natural fibers have the
advantage of being renewable. Also, many natural fibers, including pineapple leaf fiber and water
hyacinth, are waste products and are available at minimal or no cost. Research is now being done
to incorporate composites of these materials in ways previously unimagined. Ford Motors, for
example, is committed to using wood and natural fiber-reinforced composites for structural
purposes. Doing this would take these materials well beyond their present cosmetic uses in trim.
Ford has even predicted that car bodies themselves will be constructed from natural fiber
composites in the medium term.
This brings us back to some of the derivatives of papercrete - fibrous concrete, padobe and
fidobe. Fibrous concrete (a.k.a. fibrous cement) is fibrous material (usually paper), Portland
cement and water. Padobe (paper adobe) has no Portland cement. It is a mix of paper, water, and
earth with clay. Fidobe (fibrous adobe) is like padobe, but may contain other fibrous materials.
Actually, classic adobe was made with clay earth and straw - so is adobe actually fidobe? I would
guess so. There are no hard and fast rules, but recommendations are on the horizon.

PROPERTIES
Papercrete is mixed with Portland cement to obtain a very good R-value (2-3 per inch), an
excellent sound absorption quality, to be flame/fungus retardant, and bug/rodent resistant. Since it
is relatively light and more flexible than earth, rock or concrete, it is potentially an ideal material
for earthquake-prone areas. It can be used in many ways -- as blocks, panels, poured in place,
augured, pumped, sprayed, hurled, troweled on, used like igloo blocks to make a self-standing
dome or applied over a framework to make a roof or dome. Papercrete is a very forgiving
material, but like any other mixture, varying the mix, admixtures and curing procedures results in
tradeoffs in its properties. For example, adding more sand or glass to the mix results in a denser,

stronger, more flame retardant material, but adds weight and reduces R-value. Heavy mixes with
added sand, glass, etc. increase mass and strength to a point, but reduce workability. In other
words, a "light" mix with just Portland cement is easier to cut with a chain saw and drive rebar
through than a mix with larger amounts of sand, clay, etc. Adding more than the minimum amount
of Portland cement to the mix increases strength and resistance to abrasion, but also reduces
flexibility somewhat, adds weight and may reduce R-value. So the trick is finding the best mix for
the application. Making walls calls for a lighter mix than stucco. Roof panels will probably be a
different mix than sub-floors.

FORMULAS - Papercrete
The most common mixer in use is Mike McCain's tow
mixer. See Mixers. It has a capacity of about 200 gallons
(900 liters). The following is a starting formula for a 200gallon batch of blocks. A 200-gallon batch will make 25-30
blocks in forms one foot (30 centimeters) wide x two feet
(61 centimeters) long x five inches (13 centimeters) thick..
See Forms.
A starting formula is just that, a place to begin

A tow mixer being pulled behind a experimenting. Some people prefer "lighter" formulas
without sand. If you plan to cut out windows, doors or other
pickup truck.

openings in the walls after they are erected, you will want to
avoid using sand. It will dull your chainsaw blades very
quickly.

But a typical starting formula for a 200-gallon batch is 160 gallons (727 liters) of water, 60 pounds
(27 kilograms) of paper, 1 bag or 94 pounds (43 kilograms) of Portland cement and 15 shovelfuls
or 65 pounds (29 kilograms) of sand. The sand adds thermal mass, reduces flammability and
shrinkage, and packs down the slurry for a denser, stronger block. See above for caveats
regarding sand.
Half a bag of Portland cement will work too, but the slurry will dry more slowly and will shrink
more. The blocks won't be as hard or flame retardant when dry. Some people use two bags of
Portland cement in areas where strength is most important - for blocks at the bottom of walls, roof
panels, and for floors.
Clyde T. Curry's recent formula for one yard (about 200 gallons) of papercrete incorporates 25%
reground Styrofoam. His formula calls for three sacks of Portland cement added to 75 pounds of
hammer-milled cellulose insulation and 25% reground Styrofoam. This cuts the amount of
Portland cement he normally uses by one full sack and significantly reduces shrinkage. He makes
his interior plasters using six sacks of Portland cement per yard, which makes the plaster fire
resistant and forms a flame/vapor barrier equivalent to half-inch drywall.

FORMULAS - Fidobe and Padobe

If you are opposed to using Portland cement, you should try some experiments with paper and
clay and with other binders (see Other Binders below). There are some interesting websites on
the internet, which give some fascinating insights into "paperclay." What you need for fidobe (any
fibrous material and earth with clay) or padobe (paper and earth with clay) is a fibrous material or
paper, and earth with high clay content. The clay content of the earth should be at least 30
percent. With regular adobe, if the clay content is too high the adobe may crack when drying, but
adding paper fiber to the adobe mix strengthens the drying block and gives it some flexibility,
which helps prevent cracking. The earth (with clay) to paper ratio can be varied for different
applications. Since earth is different in every location, do some baseline experiments with 4-to-1
ratio - earth to paper, by weight. This is a good place to start in order to find a mix for a strong,
lightweight block.
If Portland cement in small amounts is acceptable to you, you might try ratios like 6:3:1 or 7:2:1
paper, earth, cement. Basically, the more clay in the earth, the more paper you can use, but the
binder should not fall under ten percent.
In the above ratios, keep in mind that the paper should be pulped with water before the other
ingredients are added.
Before mixing the above ingredients, screen the rocks and small stones out of the earth. Again,
the earth should have 30 percent clay or better. If you are wondering how you determine the
amount of clay in earth, there are two easy ways. First of all, make sure you are testing earth with
no organic materials in it. Usually that is found below the roots of plants and grass a foot or two
underground. If you want to test a large volume of earth for clay content, make sure you a get a
few handfuls from different points in the sample area and mix them together before screening. If
there is any clay present, and it is the slightest bit moist, (spray some water on it if necessary) it
will stick and cake up on your shovel making the shovel quite heavy. Take a handful of this damp
earth and squeeze it. If it stays intact in a lump, it has some clay in it. If it can be rolled out into a
"worm" without breaking up, it has more clay in it. If the worm can be draped over the edge of
your hand about three inches and stay intact, it has quite a bit of clay in it.

If the earth stays in a lump after If a worm can be made, it has If the worm will hang, it has a lot
squeezing, it has clay.
more clay.
of clay.
To determine a fairly exact percentage of clay, do a simple "shake test". Using a vertical-sided
transparent jar or glass which will take about a quart of liquid, fill it about two thirds full of water and
almost the rest of the way with earth. (Leave a little space for shaking.) Then shake vigorously for at
least two minutes. Set it down and start watching the separation. Earth should have some percentage
of sand, silt and clay in it. Each material is basically a little more coarse and heavier than the other.
Sand and heavier particles with fall to the bottom almost immediately - within a few seconds to a
minute. Silt will settle on top of the sand in a few minutes to several hours. Clay will settle on top of the
silt within several hours to 24 hours. Best to wait 24 hours for an accurate reading. There will be a faint
but discernable delineation between each layer of material present. Of course, if any of the three
materials - sand, silt, or clay is not present, there will be no layer. The percentage of clay can be
determined by measuring the layers, and figuring the percentages, based on 100% of the total height

measured. If the clay is about thirty percent of the height of the earth, you can make blocks. If it's within
a few percent, you may want to use a little Portland cement to make up the difference.
I have seen something which makes me believe that going totally without Portland cement could be a
problem - termites on the surface of a papercrete block. I was visiting a building site in New Mexico.
Several hundred double fist-sized pieces of papercrete had been tossed in a pile and over a period of
weeks had settled into the damp worksite soil. I began turning over pieces looking for any kind of
damage. For some time I found nothing at all. Pieces embedded in damp mud for a long time were
perfectly clean and intact. Then I found one, which had a small piece of unmixed paper embedded in it,
which had been in contact with the damp soil for some time. The paper was not coated with Portland
cement. There were a number of termites around the unprotected paper. The paper and mud scraped
off very easily and I carefully examined the rest of the surface of the piece. It was completely clean. I
then tried to break the piece into smaller pieces to look inside. It wouldn't break up and the small pieces
that did come off left completely clean surfaces - no dirt tunnels or other evidence of termites. I believe
that the uncoated piece of paper was the only thing drawing the termites. I have heard that some
people put a shovelful of Borax in their mixes to discourage bugs. I have examined other buildings, five
to nine years old, which I'm sure were built without Borax and they showed no obvious signs of bug
attack.
Please consider a safety note on formulas. Unless you add a significant percentage of non-flammable
material to any mix, both papercrete and fidobe (or padobe ) will burn. Papercrete made with a 4-to-1
ratio of cement to paper, by weight, won't burn at all, but that may be too much cement. Papercrete
made with a 1-to-1 ratio of cement to paper, by weight, will smolder like charcoal, but does not burn
with an open flame. Smoldering with no flame could result in unlikely but dangerous scenarios.
One practitioner is particularly sensitive to the possibility of a roof collapse should wide areas of a
papercrete wall smolder for hours without detection. Another practitioner tested this possibility and
thinks that such an occurrence is highly unlikely. He bored a three-inch hole in a papercrete wall and
emptied an entire can of lighter fluid inside. He managed to get the papercrete to begin to smolder, but
it would not continue to smolder for long because of lack of oxygen. It was suggested that fireproof
mortar (high percentage of Portland cement or other fireproof binder) be used between the blocks, and
fireproof stucco be used on the outside of the home to "encase" the blocks in fireproof "containers".
This would limit a smoldering fire to the destruction of only one block, if it should ever occur at all.
Fidobe or padobe made with 3 parts soil to one part paper, by weight, supposedly won't burn either.
Again, that may be too much soil. The intention is to be safe, but not sacrifice the qualities (R-value,
light weight, strength, etc.), which make papercrete and its variations attractive to use in the first place.
More testing needs to be done on papercrete and fire.

OTHER BINDERS
There are alternatives to Portland cement, which can be used as binders, either alone or in combination
with Portland cement. They include fly ash, bottom ash, rice hull ash, Plaster of Paris and lime. There
may be others. Fly ash is ash left over from burning coal, which in the past was allowed to fly out of the
smokestacks of power plants into the atmosphere. It is now caught in giant air filters, bagged and sold. I
examined several structures built with papercrete block using fly ash and Portland cement in a 35
percent to 65 percent ratio as a binder. They were five years old and in excellent condition. Using fly
ash as 35 percent of the binder cuts the Portland cement cost nearly in half and helps recycle fly ash.
Bottom ash is heavier than fly ash so it sinks to the bottom of the furnace. I have heard of bottom ash
being used, but have not seen papercrete made with it. Rice hull ash is burned in power plants in areas
of the country where rice is grown. We currently have 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of rice hull ash on
standby for tests. Test results with rice hull ash will be posted in Tests soon. Plaster of Paris is a variety
of calcined gypsum. You probably have seen it in the form of drywall sheets. In powder form, it is really
quite expensive, but in situations where it is necessary to join papercrete and wood, it is very effective.
A small sample made with it was placed on a 2 x 6 piece of wood and was very difficult to pry off with a

trowel. The papercrete seemed literally glued to the wood.

Hundreds, if not thousands of years before Portland cement was discovered, lime was used as a
binder, mortar and plaster. The Romans used it in their stone construction. It can be purchased in most
home improvement stores.
More tests need to be done on all of these binders. We will be working on testing them later this year.

EXPERIMENTATION
It took me some time to get over my skepticism about papercrete. I mixed up small batches and tried
different formulas. Since I have no allergies, and was used to thinking in terms of bricks and mortar, I
just felt more confident using Portland cement. I found some recycled plastic five-gallon buckets to work
in and bought an "X" shaped stucco-mixing blade for my heavy-duty drill to do the mixing.

X-shaped stucco mixing blade.

The drill won't win any RPM contests, but has great low-end
power. I would advise staying away from the normal kitchen
blender for doing experimentation. I burned out a blender and a
circular saw (I had custom adapted it for mixing.) before I
realized that those tools are really meant for high speed and
relatively low torque. Recently, I was told that a heavy-duty food
processor works well to mix papercrete samples. What you need
to mix papercrete is power. You need to tear the paper apart and
mix it, which requires a good deal of force. This is the reason that
Mike McCain's tow mixers work well - they provide the power of
an automobile engine to tear apart everything from
office paper to phone directories.

After carefully weighing the components with a

three-bar scale and mixing small batches, I poured samples in open-ended coffee cans
and placed them on shade cloth to drain. I usually waited about an hour to remove the
coffee can. The samples dried in about four days in the hot and dry weather of
the Phoenix area . I recommend that anyone considering papercrete do a little
experimentation to build confidence in the material. My confidence soared when I let down
a front tire of my truck - over 1200 pounds (545 kilograms) on a bread-loaf size piece of
papercrete made with just paper and water. It didn't leave a mark on the papercrete.
Supposedly, computerized algorithms could tell me what would happen if I left the truck
there for 200 years.

1250 pounds on block made of

paper and water only.

Mixers
There are a number of kinds of mixers, differentiated mainly by capacity and mobility. The whole idea of mixing
is to tear the paper apart in water to produce slurry, and then mix in additives like Portland cement and sand.
This procedure is followed all the time - when working with small batches in a five-gallon bucket or with 1000
gallon (4500 liter) batches on the back of a 4-wheel drive truck. Get the paper and water mixed first, and then
add the other components.
A number of practitioners prefer to purchase paper, which has already been ripped apart by running it through
a hammer mill. After milling, it looks like cellulose insulation; the type blown into the roof crawl space of many
homes for roof insulation. In fact, it is the same material without moisture resistant and fire retardant chemicals.
The advantage of working with hammer milled paper is that most additives can be mixed in using conventional
concrete mixers. Other special processes require specialized equipment.

5 GALLON (20 LITER)

From a size perspective, the smallest practical mixer is a five-gallon (20 liter) bucket and an "X" shaped
stucco-mixing blade for a heavy-duty electric drill.

Heavy duty drill and X shaped

stucco blade. (See closeup of
blade.)

X-shaped stucco mixing blade.

Using a five-gallon bucket doesn't necessarily mean mixing a full five

gallons of slurry. I regularly use it to mix a few coffee cans full of
experimental mix. Despite what is written elsewhere, I would advise
staying away from the light duty kitchen blender for doing
experimentation. First of all, it's hard to get the paper to break up in it
and it's unsafe. I found myself wanting to stick things into the
blender to help it along as it was running. Not a good idea. Blenders
are just not designed for mixing papercrete. They're really not large
enough to produce a workable volume of mix, and most of them aren't
powerful enough. I burned out a blender and a circular saw (I had
adapted it for mixing) before realizing that the motors on those tools
produce high speed but relatively low torque. What you need to mix
papercrete is power. You need a good deal of force to tear wet paper
apart. Since my epiphany, I have been using a Ryobi 3.5 amp double
insulated, double isolated hand drill with a top speed of 600 RPM. I
can almost twiddle my thumbs faster than this drill spins, but it has
great low-end power, and can be used for long periods without
overheating. The drill and the "X" shaped stucco-mixing blade, which
cost eleven dollars, came from Home Depot.
To make 2.5 gallons of mix in a 5 gallon can, try this:
Water- 2.5 gallons
Paper - 1 lb. 7oz.
Portland Cement - 1 lb. 17 oz. or (if you have fly ash):
Portland Cement - 1 lb.
9 oz. and fly ash - 8 oz.

50 GALLON (212 LITER)

The next larger capacity mixer is the 50-gallon (212 liters) size. These are stationary mixers made from
50-gallon drums. A small 5-10 horse motor is positioned next to
and below the drum so that an "L" angle drive shaft can be used
to protrude through a hole in the bottom of the drum. A lawn
mower blade is attached horizontally on the drive shaft. The
blade has to face downward or it will propel the mix out of the
drum. A "baffle" (a 2x4 the height of the drum) is bolted
vertically at any point on the inside perimeter of the drum to keep
the mix from rotating too quickly to tear up the paper and blend
well.
50-gallon mixers work well but sometimes need help ripping
A stationary 50-gallon drum mixer
apart the paper - not enough power. Some people power 50connected to the rear axle of a
gallon drum mixers (or much larger mixers made with livestock
pickup truck.
watering tanks) with old vehicles to provide the power necessary
to tear up the paper. For more on 50-gallon drum mixers with electric motors, see the section
on Electric Motor Mixers below.

THE TOW MIXER - 200 GALLON (900LITER)

The best-known papercrete mixer has to be Mike McCain's tow

mixer. Mike came up with the idea of taking the rear axle of a reardrive car or truck and simply reversing its designed use. In reardrive vehicles, the engine turns a drive shaft, which is connected
to a gearbox called a differential, built into the rear axle of the car.
The differential conducts power from the drive shaft to the rear
wheels. Mike's vision was this process in reverse.
His design transfers power from the wheels to the drive shaft. He
separates the rear axle from the rest of an old rear-drive car or
A tow mixer is pulled behind a truck. He then mounts a 200-gallon (900 liter) tank over the
vehicle to blend the mix.
differential. Turning the differential toward the sky, he pokes a
short section of drive shaft from the differential through the bottom of the tank. He then attaches a
lawn mower blade to the shortened drive shaft. When the tank is towed behind another vehicle, the
wheels on the mixer turn the drive shaft, and the mower blade spins. Since the mower blade is being
driven by the power of the vehicle towing the mixer, it turns with relatively low speed, but tremendous
force. This force tears apart newspapers and magazines with ease.

We can build a tow mixer for you. The

basic model as shown, but without the
cover, costs $2500.00. Contact us for
details and shipping costs.

Tow Mixer & Cover Parts (Approximate Prices) - 2005

Mixer
1 - Used rear axle w/ tires and wheels
1 - Trailer coupler (match ball size)
1 - 20 foot (or 2 - 10 foot lengths) - 2" x 2" steel square tubing
1 - 8-10 foot - 2" x 1/4" metal strapping
1 - Livestock tank (Type A)
1 - Gallon can of Bondo
1 - 6"-8" piece of 10" or 12" diameter PVC
1 - Four foot - 4" x 4"
3 - 3/8 inch diameter x 3" lag screws and washers
3 - 1/2 diameter x 3" long anchor bolts, nuts and washers
1 - Sheet 3/4" exterior plywood
1 - "Handtite" pipe plug - 10" or 12"
1 - Gallon fresh or used heavy motor oil or like amount of grease
1 - Big bottle - Fuller's glue
1 - Riding mower blade or "U" shaped sign post - 27 inches long
Cover
2 - Sheets - 3/4" plywood
1 - 8 foot - 2" x 4"
1 - 5 foot length of safety belt material (fabric store)
1 - 10-12 foot length of 1" wide rubber - for gasket (fabric store)

$125.00
$ 15.00
$ 30.00
$ 15.00
$200.00
$ 20.00
$ 10.00
$ 6.00
$ 3.00
$ 9.00
$ 30.00
$ 86.00
$ 5.00
$ 7.00
$ 50.00
$ 60.00
$ 4.00
$ 5.00

1 - package - 3/4" staples (for stapling gasket)

1 - package of 5/8" washer screws (for fastening safety belt "hinge")
1 - Package 1 1/2" screws (connecting 2 layers of plywood cover)
1 - Gallon fresh or leftover paint (4 coats) to finish cover

$ 3.00
$ 3.00
$ 3.00
$ 2.00
$ 20.00

I have seen a few tow mixers in action. They work well if they are designed correctly. When they are
working well, driving at five miles (8 kilometers) per hour for less than mile (less than 1.5 kilometers),
will mix the paper and water or the entire mix if Portland cement and other admixtures have been
added. (The water and paper will be pulped alone when making stucco and plaster. Applying stucco
and plaster takes time so the pulp is mixed with Portland in smaller batches in a small mortar mixer as
needed.)
One of the tow mixers I saw had an unusual custom-made blade, which was incorrectly designed.
When this tow mixer was barely moved, it flung mix outward and skyward creating a papercrete
mushroom cloud. It also required quite a bit of arm-deep repositioning of the wet paper to get the mix
well blended, which took a considerable amount of time.
Ironically, the only complaint I've heard about properly designed tow mixers is that they have to be
towed. If building in extremely rough terrain, there might be very little room for towing. That is a valid
concern but I have seen one used on a small building site being towed in tight circles right around the
home being built. Remember, this mixer is towed at walking speed, so it really doesn't take much room
to tow it around.
One valid complaint about tow mixers (up to now at least) is that they are difficult to seal especially
before the paper has been broken down somewhat. Some people were using toy balls to seal short
lengths of PVC pipe installed (with Bondo) in the rear wall of the mixer. The problem with the ball
approach is that it always leaks and when you remove the ball, there is no way to control how fast the
mix comes out. Ive been using a Hand-Tite Pipe Plug, which seals very well but doesn't easily control
the outflow. The best approach came from Cris Ackerson, one of my workshop attendees. She came up
with a device called a Slide Ditch Gate used in irrigation systems. It comes in many sizes, which seal
extremely well and fit inside PVC of various diameters or can be installed without the PVC. It can be
easily slid up, down, or closed completely to control how much mix comes out. The one in the picture
was welded in place to give it additional stability.

Cris Ackerson adjusts the Slide Ditch The Slide Ditch Gate seals the tow mixer completely and
Gate on her tow mixer.
controls the outflow of the mix extremely well.

BIG MIXERS - 1000 GALLON (4240 LITERS)

To date, there are two approaches for mixing large batches of

papercrete. Mike McCains approach is to weld a second gear
case over the rear differential on a four-wheel drive vehicle such as the Ford F-150. This top gear case has a vertical shaft,
which protrudes through the trucks bed and the bottom of a
1000-gallon plastic drum. A large horizontal blade, made of
signpost steel, is connected to this shaft inside the drum. The
advantage of this setup is that the mixing is done while standing
still.
To mix papercrete, the rear drive shaft is connected to a
Mike McCain levels fresh mix just
second differential welded on its side above the manufacturer's poured into his metal forms. Blocks
differential - which normally drives the rear wheels. One of the
poured about a half-hour earlier are
axles from the top differential is removed so that it can be turned
set, and standing on their own to
on its side.

the left.

The key to Mike Mccain's big mixer is a second differential

welded on its side above the manufacturer's differential.
Note that the drive shaft is disconnected from
the manufacturer's differential and connected to the one
which drives the mixer blade.

The other axle protrudes through the bottom of the tank and drives the blade inside the tank. By
engaging two-wheel drive, the mixer blade is set in motion with the truck standing still. The blade
speed is controlled by means of the accelerator pedal. If four-wheel drive is engaged, the front wheels
are powered so that the truck can be moved around. That means the 1000 gallons of mix can be moved
to where it is needed.
Zach Rabon does his mixing in a conventional cement truck. He uses paper which has already been
hammer-milled. It is like cellulose attic insulation without the chemicals to retard fire and moisture.
After blending his additives in the rolling cement truck mixer, the mix is sent down the chute into
forms.

ELECTRIC MOTOR MIXERS

After abruptly burning out a few small electric motors trying to mix papercrete, I'm not an avid
proponent of electric motors. In fairness, I know of a beautiful home built entirely with a large
stationary electric mixer, however, he had access to utility power while he built his home. Producing
electricity on a remote construction site usually means buying a generator. For papercrete, the mixer
will require at least a five horsepower electric motor, and that's underpowered from my point of view. If
you install a motor heavier than five horsepower, a larger generator will probably be necessary. In
many cases, a generator is going to be needed to run electric tools on the construction site anyway,

but maybe not as large a generator as one to run a heavier electric motor. Every time it's turned on, the
larger generator is going to consume more fuel than would have been needed for a smaller generator.
So the larger electric motor penalty has to be paid whether using the mixer or not. With the tow mixer,
you only burn gas when mixing. An electric mixer may be a better idea if you have ready access to
utility power, but there are two other interrelated issues with electric motors - convenience and safety.
Electricity doesn't mix well with water. The areas around stationary papercrete mixers get wet and stay
wet. A situation like that can lead to equipment damage or bodily injury. The electric mixers I've seen
have motors that are mounted above and to the side of the mixing tank. They have to be mounted
higher than the surface of the tank to keep them out of the wet area and align them with the blade's
drive shaft. The pulley on the motor is connected to a pulley mounted over the center of the tank. This
center pulley is connected to a shaft, which holds the blade a few inches above the bottom of the tank
to do the mixing. So whenever the motor is turned on, hands are often within a very short distance of a
moving belt and a spinning shaft. When something has to be added to the mix, and this is a frequent
operation, one has to remember to turn off the motor or risk catching a hand, piece of clothing, a tool
or a cement bag in the spinning belt pulley or around the spinning shaft. I am told that the more one
works around an electric papercrete mixer, the more tempting it is to leave the mixer on when
adjusting the mix. Cautious people install safety cowling over the moving parts to prevent injury, but I
have seen several without.
With a tow mixer, one has to stop the vehicle and get out to observe or adjust the mix. When the
vehicle is stopped, the blade stops, hence no safety issue.
There are, however, many people who prefer electric motor mixers and have used them successfully.
Kelly Hart has used a 1/2hp electric motor on a 50 gal. drum mixer for seven years with great success.
He even ran it on solar energy.

Eric Patterson, one of the fathers of papercrete, has a unique 50 gal.

drum mixer with an electric motor. He built his mixer on a slightly
elevated platform so that the mix can be released onto a screen.
Beneath the screen is a curved sheet of corrugated metal mounted on
an incline to a small livestock tank. The corrugated metal sheet
catches the water draining from the mix and carries it into the tank.
The tank has an underwater pump, which propels the water through
the PVC pipe (vertical-just to the right of the mixer) from the bottom of
the tank back up into the mixer.
Eric Patterson's unique mixer with
water capture and reuse feature.

As papercrete technology evolves, there will undoubtedly be changes

in the way it is mixed and used.

Recently, a different type of electric motor mixer is being developed for an alternative mix of
papercrete. It is intended for the small contractor rather than the individual builder. It has extensive
safety features such as ground fault interrupters as well as two motors and twin lawn mower blades.
Using this mixer, with an additive like ground Styrofoam, reportedly eliminates almost all shrinkage
and warping of the papercrete block. Initial tests with this new material and its preparation are
promising.
More on this as information becomes available.

THE SITE
The first thing you have to look at in any kind of construction is the site. Orienting the home to take
maximum advantage of passive solar design is of prime importance. It may also be possible to use the
contours of the site to help design the home. For example, if there is a high spot on the site, it may be
possible to build part of the structure into it to take advantage of earth sheltering, or to construct a lower
level or basement. There may be other things on the site, which can help you - and some you may want
to avoid. For example, the earth and rocks on the site may be material you can use for building, but
there may be low areas on the site, which should be avoided due to flooding. Some of these decisions
are value judgments, which require time and contemplation to evaluate. If a spot feels good and meets
practical requirements, it's more than likely the best place. Many additional ideas on "Siting A Natural
Building" can be found in a book titled "The Art Of Natural Building".

BUILDING CODES
Building Codes are intended to protect the health and safety of people occupying a structure or those
possibly affected by it or living near it. There is nothing wrong with Building Codes per se, but they are
sometimes used to unnecessarily prohibit perfectly safe procedures or to limit alternatives. In some
cases this is intentional, for example to limit construction procedures and materials to those
championed by special interest groups. But sometimes there is just not enough good information
available to allow Building Safety personnel to deviate from the book. This is where diplomacy and
knowledge come in handy. Usually showing respect, knowing precisely what you want to do, and
having good plans to accomplish it go a long way toward establishing rapport with Building Safety
personnel. Usually your plans or procedure gain a lot of credibility if you can find a structural engineer
or architect who is willing to approve (stamp) them. This approval stamp often costs quite a bit of
money, but some practitioners have found progressive architects who are interested in working with
innovative materials and charge very little.
Building Safety personnel have reason to be cautious. They don't want to be held responsible for
approving a product or procedure which turns out to be unreliable or even dangerous. In many cases, it
is possible to work with them. I have had very good experiences with those who have time and are
willing to listen. I'm not sure that any of the following construction methods are approved in the
Universal Building Code, but they have been used in structures which have been standing for years.

THE FOUNDATION
The function of a foundation is to support the load of the walls and roof of a structure, prevent settling,
and provide a solid anchor point to hold the structure together. The foundation has to extend to a depth
just below the frost line in your area. Basing the foundation below the frost line concentrates the load of
your structure where it is much less subject to heaving. Heaving is movement caused by the expansion
and contraction of moisture changed to ice during the freeze - thaw cycle. The foundation is usually
comprised of a footing and stem wall. The stem wall is placed on the footing or is poured as part of the
footing. The function of the stem wall is to elevate wall construction materials - in this case papercrete above the ground. This serves to isolate them from moisture and provide a barrier against bugs and
pests.
There are a number of ways to build footings and stem walls. One of the most common ways is to pour
a concrete footing and stem wall in a single monolithic unit. This involves excavating a footing, placing
steel rebar horizontally and vertically, and building forms to support the stem wall. There are variations
on this approach, but they all cost quite a bit of money, and use a significant amount of concrete - in
fact, the footing and stem can cost more than the rest of the papercrete structure combined. Concrete
is strong and quite reliable, but has the propensity to "wick" moisture. If there is water in the
surrounding soil, concrete will absorb the water through capillary action and pool it on its surfaces,
including where the papercrete walls meet the stem wall. Since papercrete is very hydrophilic- absorbs
water quite readily - this situation has to be stringently avoided. Ideally, the concrete footing and stem
wall are isolated from the surrounding soil with drainpipes and/or a layer of gravel to drain water away.

Additionally, some kind of barrier has to be placed between the concrete and the papercrete - either a
good liquid sealer or a physical barrier like a polyethylene sill sealer.
There are other ways to build footings and stem walls with tires
or with rubble and sand bags. These methods are not formally
recognized, but people are using them. The foundation with
tires involves digging a tire-width trench, filling tires with gravel
or earth, laying them horizontally in the trench, filling the tire
openings with gravel or earth, tamping them and then
constructing a stem wall on top of them.
This general approach is used in earth ship (rubber tire)
construction for the foundation as well as the walls. Digging
Tires are stacked offset like bricks. wide trenches and filling tires with earth is very labor intensive,
Drawing courtesy of Building With Earth by
but it works quite well.
Paulina Wojciechowska.

The easiest and least expensive way that I've heard of is to build a solid foundation for papercrete walls
is with rubble and sand bags. It is not code, but variations of it have been used successfully to support
many structures. A trench several inches wider than the wall is dug to just below the frost line.
Thoroughly tamp the bottom of the trench. Starting at the
bottom, layers of progressively smaller stones are placed on
top of one another. The bottom layer should be the coarsest,
perhaps 4 inch (10 centimeter) stone, followed by a layer of 2
inch (5 centimeter) stone, followed by one-inch (25mm) stone
and ending with pea gravel several inches above grade.
Screening your own gravel is a lot of work, and it is not often
possible to get uniform selected sizes commercially. Usually
the sand and gravel yards sell ranges of sizes like 1/2" - 3/4",
3/4" - 1 1/2", 1 1/2" - 3", 3" - 8", 6"+, etc. (1.3 - 1.4, 1.4- 4.0, 4.0
- 8.0, 8.0 - 20.0, 15.0+ centimeters)

Rubble footing with sand bag stem.

Drawing courtesy of Building With Earth by

If you can pick up what you need yourself, the prices average
Paulina Wojciechowska.
about $6.00 a ton. If delivered, figure $15.00 a ton plus a truck
rental charge. The thickness of each layer and number of layers depends on the depth of the trench. As
each layer is added, it is tamped and leveled with a tamper or a 2 x 4 until the last layer is a few inches
above grade. Then two layers of sand bags are laid on top of the rubble foundation. The sand bags
become the stem wall. Make sure that sand or small gauge gravel is used to fill the bags. If earth is
used, and there is a significant amount of silt or clay in it, there is a good chance the bags will wick
water more readily than concrete. Also be sure that the same amount of sand is placed in all bags. If
the amount of sand varies significantly, the size and thickness of the bag will vary making it difficult to
keep the stem wall level and uniform in thickness.
This is a problem especially when more than one person is
filling bags. I found a way to keep the amount of sand constant
and hold the bag open as well. I bought an 8-inch (20
centimeter) diameter piece of stovepipe and placed it in the
bag. When filled, this stovepipe piece held a little too much
sand so I cut off a section until it held just enough sand for the
type of bag I was using. Incidentally, there is a tendency to
overfill bags. If overfilled, the bag will belly out and become
overly round - even after tamping. This makes layers of bags
unstable. It's best to look at the creases of the bag and tamp a
An 8-inch piece of stovepipe holds few bags to determine how thick the bag should be filled. The
the bag open and measures the idea is to get the most flat solid area after tamping. After finding
out how much sand it takes to do that, pour the sand from that
amount of sand.
bag into the stovepipe, mark it and cut if off so that only that
amount can be added. The stovepipes are cheap - five or six dollars. It's easy and inexpensive to make
these "measuring cups" so that everyone filling bags has one.

Layers of bags are laid with offset joints like brick. Two strands of barbed wire are placed in parallel
along the length of - and between the layers of - the sand bags to keep them from sliding across one
another. To keep the papercrete wall from shifting on the sand bags, 3/8 inch (1.8 centimeters) rebar is
pounded through the sand bags, at two to four feet intervals, as deep into the rubble footing as they will
go. Pounding rebar through the rubble footing may be difficult, but I'm told that the rebar sometimes
finds its way between the stones. Most people start rebar with a post driver.
They cost about $20.00 at Home Depot. Its a lot easier on the hands than using a mall. The post driver
leaves a few inches protruding, so a hand mall has to be used
to pound the remaining length of the rebar all the way in. But
at that point, the rebar is stable enough to save hitting your
knuckles with the mall. If the rebar will not penetrate the
footing at a given point, try pounding it in at a different angle. If
the rebar won't go into the foundation at all, just leave it
impaled in the bags. The idea is to stabilize the first few
courses of papercrete on the sand bags, not nail the bags to
the footing. The weight of the bags and the papercrete will
keep the walls from moving on the footing.
Actually, at least one home I visited had no footing at all. The
A post driver is used to start the
site where the home was to be built was very sandy and had rebar. A mall is used after the rebar
no problem with drainage. The seasonal temperature changes
is far enough in to be stable.
were not extreme enough to cause heaving in loose, sandy
soil. So the builder simply leveled an area for the home, and then spread out about six inches of scoria,
a porous volcanic rock, for sub-floor drainage and insulation. Next he laid a few courses of sand bags
right on top of the scoria. He finished the entire building, walls and roof, with bags of scoria covered
with papercrete. So, absent problems with drainage and frost heave, if walls are thick (i.e. building
loads are spread over a wide base), footings may not be necessary. Many ancient buildings, standing
for hundreds of years, are built on the ground without footings.
In fact, un-reinforced rubble and shaped stone have been used
for foundations and walls for centuries before Portland cement
and rebar were discovered. Some of the early Native American
stone structures of the Southwest, like those at Chaco Canyon
and Pueblo Bonito, are centuries old, several stories tall and
still intact. Some have mud mortar and others have no mortar
at all. Larger stones were chinked so skillfully with smaller
stones that nothing else was needed.

Some of the walls at Chaco

Canyon are three stories high, built
on the ground, have little or no
mortar and have been standing for
hundreds of years.

Tamping together layers of progressively smaller stones

promotes drainage and strength. Wedging smaller stones
between larger stones would seem to stabilize the layers and
distribute the load in a horizontal as well as vertical plane.
Unlike a concrete footing and stem wall, a rubble footing with
sand bag stem wall will theoretically not wick water at all.

Building With Earth ,by Paulina Wojciechowska, has a detailed section on foundations. We plan
further experimentation with these foundations early next year.

BUILDING THE WALLS

Ironically, the first decision about walls starts with the roof. Will the papercrete walls support the roof or
will the roof be supported some other way? Currently, it is difficult to get a permit to build a home with
papercrete if it is load bearing," that is if the roof is supported by the walls. Not enough testing has
been done. It is easier to get approval to build roof-supporting garages, sheds or other structures, since
they are not intended to house people. Many localities will permit papercrete walls as in-fill for homes
- that is as non-load bearing walls built between roof-supporting posts. The posts are connected to the
foundation at the bottom and tied in to beams on top. The roof system is built on top of the beams. This
approach is commonly called post and beam."

The posts and beams may be made of wood or steel or a

combination of both depending on local building codes. I
know of one home built with steel post and beam materials,
which the owner was able to obtain nearly for free, because he
was an expert welder. If you want to build inexpensively, you
will become familiar with your local demolition and junk yards.
Its often possible to obtain excellent deals on building
materials in these places, while at the same time be recycling
valuable resources. If the building authorities in your area go
entirely by the book, be careful to check with them regarding
what recycled materials are permissible.

A post and beam home with

papercrete walls used as in-fill.

No matter which method you choose to support your roof, the walls are built the same way. The rebar,
as described above, has ideally been pounded into the rubble foundation, and has been allowed to
protrude a few feet above the sand bags.
The first three or four courses of papercrete will have to be
drilled or impaled on the protruding rebar, or poured in place
around the rebar. The rebar is meant to prevent horizontal
movement. Pounding it into the rubble foundation won't prevent
the walls from lifting vertically, but if something
cataclysmic happens to lift the weight of 12-14 inch (18-35
centimeter) thick papercrete walls, chances are that nothing
would have kept the structure from lifting.
When just a few inches of rebar are visible above the courses

Rebar protruding above a concrete of papercrete, it's time to lay a piece of rebar horizontally and
wire it to the protruding vertical pieces. Then pound the vertical
footing.

pieces down almost level with the surface of the papercrete,

cover it with a layer of papercrete mortar and start laying the next courses of blocks. It's a good idea to
keep the thickness of the mortar joints to a minimum whenever possible - ideally about 1/2" (1.25
centimeters). Otherwise, the thick mortar joints will shrink and your finished walls will lose a bit of height
when the mortar is fully cured. This is a good reason to wait a few weeks after the walls are up (longer
in damp climates) before installing windows and doors. If the mortar joints are thick enough to allow
excessive settling, windows may be broken and doors may not open very well. Usually, excessively
thick mortar joints occur because not enough attention was paid to keeping the blocks level, square and
true as the walls were built - the lazy way to make height and alignment adjustments. Some of this
is unavoidable and not very important, but building the entire height of a wall with 2"-3" (5-7 centimeter)
mortar joints will result in some settling. Using a mortar mix rich in Portland cement will minimize
shrinkage and encase each block in a fireproof "container."
But let's get back to installing the rebar. After laying up another
two feet (61 centimeters) of blocks, pound more four-foot (122
centimeters) rebar through the block layers on top into the
block layers below. Repeat the process above, laying a piece
of rebar horizontally and wiring it to the protruding vertical
pieces. If you're using slip forms instead of blocks, you can
wire the horizontal and vertical pieces of rebar together,
starting at the stem wall, and pour papercrete around and
through them all the way to the top of the wall. This pins the
entire wall together and provides a great deal of lateral
strength.

Horizontal rebar is tied to vertical

rebar for additional strength.

There are two ways to plan for openings in the wall - either frame as you go or leave the rebar out and
cut openings to size with a chain saw at a later time. If you have all of your windows and doors, or know
the size of the openings, you can build frames for them as you put up the wall.

If your walls are load bearing, the frames should be substantial

in case the finished walls settle slightly at the mortar joints. Do
not install flimsy pre-hung doors or unframed glass as you go
in load bearing walls. The settling that occurs is usually slight,
but could be enough to break unframed glass or knock door
jams out of alignment. If you don't know exactly what your
opening sizes will be, leave the rebar out of the places where
openings in the wall are planned. You can cut them to size later
with a chainsaw. There is one caveat here. If you are using
Openings can be framed out for sand or other solids in your mix, or if you are using more
doors and windows as walls are cement to paper than a 50-50 ratio by weight, you may have
built or they can be cut out with a great difficulty trying to cut openings in the walls after they are
dried. Conventional chain saw blades do not cut through sand
chainsaw later.
or hardened cement very well at all.

INSTALLING THE ROOF

When you have reached roof height, you have a decision to make. You can attach a wooden plate to
the top of the wall and build a conventional roof framework from there, or you can use vigas. Vigas are
smaller-diameter logs used as roof beams. Some builders drill a hole in the vigas and anchor them to
the wall by pounding a long piece of rebar into the papercrete and bending it over the viga. If you want
to distribute the weight carried by the viga over a greater area, you can notch it with a chainsaw and
position the flat area on the wooden plate attached to the top of the wall.
The wooden plate can be attached to the wall in several ways - either by 3/8 or rebar, or by spot
welding short pieces of threaded rods on one end of short
pieces of rebar. If the rebar is used by itself, without the
threaded rod, drill a hole in the plate and pound rebar into the
papercrete as far as possible, hopefully a minimum of two feet.
It's much easier to use a post driver than a mall or
sledgehammer to do this. Allow 4"- 6" (10-15 centimeters) of
the rebar to protrude from the hole and bend it over flat with a
hand mall. This should be done every three-four feet
depending on what is beneath the spot where the rebar is
being placed. Sometimes obstructions below where the rebar
is being driven, like window openings, can be avoided by
driving the rebar in at an angle. Bending with a hand mall
A post driver is used to start the
tends to enlarge the hole made by the rebar and move the
rebar, a mall is used to drive it in
block out of position, so the preferred method is using the
the last few inches.
threaded rod.
Weld a four inch piece of threaded rod on one end of as many pieces of rebar as you need to hold the
roof down. In essence, you make very long bolts. Drill a hole in the wooden plate, and drive the rebar
into the papercrete until an inch or so of the threaded rod protrudes above the wooden plate. Place a
flat washer over the threaded rod and tighten down a nut. Do this every 3' - 4' feet along the wall. The
wooden plate chosen to distribute the roof weight on the wall should be narrower than the wall perhaps a 2x10 - so that papercrete can cover it outside and
inside.
In my experience, adding a little Plaster of Paris to papercrete
mix causes papercrete to adhere solidly to wood. The rebar
method of attaching the roof framework to the wall has been
used in structures in Colorado and New Mexico, which have
successfully withstood weathering and storms for a number of
years.
After the roof framework has been installed, you have to decide

The wooden plate for the roof is whether you want to build a conventional roof, a papercrete
fastened to the wall with threaded roof or a hybrid papercrete-conventional roof. A conventional
rod welded to rebar. The rebar
protruding vertically is driven
through holes in the plate next to
the holes with the threaded rebar.
The vertical rebar will hold block in
place, which is laid above the roof
line.

roof is quite expensive; it averages about forty percent of the cost of the entire structure. A conventional
roof has to be well insulated, or the insulating value of building the walls with papercrete will be wasted.
Conventional roof systems are much more expensive than papercrete. According to one practitioner, a
six-inch thick papercrete roof can be constructed for about 75 cents per square foot, including a paint
sealer. A Spanish tile roof would cost $11.00 per square foot.

MAKING ROOF PANELS

If you choose a papercrete roof, you have to decide whether you want to make papercrete roof panels
or pour the roof. Pouring the roof is not practical if there is no water on the building site and it can't be
trucked in. In that case, roof panels can be made elsewhere and brought in with a pickup or utility
trailer. When making roof panels, it's best to carefully level the ground where the panels will be made
so the thickness of the panels is consistent. Papercrete panels are made with 2' x 4' (61 x 122
centimeter) forms. The 2' x 4' forms should be built of 2 inch by 4inch (5 x 10 centimeter) lumber. If you
make larger, thicker panels, they will take longer to dry and you may need help to get them up on the
roof. To keep the papercrete clean and help drain out the water, put a sheet of shade cloth on the
ground under the form. Some people use more cement in the mix for roof panels. Adding too much
cement will negatively affect R-value. Strong panels are made by filling the form up to within a half-inch
from the top and then spreading a piece of chicken wire over the mix. Pour the remaining half inch of
mix, smooth out the surface with a trowel, and let it set. In the desert Southwest, you can pull off the
form in about half an hour. You should be able to handle the panel in about four days. It will probably
take the panel two weeks or so to completely dry. When the panel is placed on the rafters or vigas, the
side of the panel with the wire closest to the surface should be placed against the rafter or viga. Panels
made like this should require no additonal reinforcement when fastened to rafters of vigas spaced 16
inches (40 centimeters) apart. Panels layed over vigas or rafters spaced 24 inches (60 centimeters)
apart may require additional support such as a layer of chicken
wire stretched over the vigas or rafters before installing the
roof panels.
For the greatest strength, roof panels are installed over offset
chicken wire and two thin layers of papercrete. First a sheet of
one-inch chicken wire is tightly stretched over the ceiling joists
or vigas of the structure and fastened in place with heavy-duty
metal staples. A second layer of one-inch chicken wire is offset
1/2 inch from the first and installed the same way. Then a thin
layer of papercrete is spread on the chicken wire and allowed
Offset chicken wire and thin layers
to dry to form a strong base for the roof panel.
Just before installing the roof panels, another thin layer of
papercrete is spread over the base layer to mortar the panels
in place. Then they are screwed to the roof joists or vigas.
Since papercrete is relatively soft, the screws don't have to be
as long as the papercrete is thick. They easily countersink into
the papercrete as they bore into the underlying joist or viga.
Once the first layer of panels are in place, you can mortar and
screw on additional layers of panels or pour a layer of
papercrete. If the roof is relatively flat, pouring is no problem. If
greater than a 4/12 pitch, it would probably be better to mortar
on a second layer of panels.

WATERPROOFING

of papercrete are installed before

the roof panel.

Apply a second thin coat of

papercrete to stick the roof panels
in place and then screw them to
the ceiling joists or vigas.

After the second layer of panels are added, a thin layer of papercrete should be added over the outside
surface to fill the cracks and smooth out the entire roof surface. At this point, you can choose to leave
the papercrete untreated, waterproof it, or adopt a hybrid approach - cover it with insulating foam or

steel sheeting.
Kelly Hart has lived in a sand bag home covered with untreated
papercrete for several years with no leaks. His home is located
in an area where there is snow, and accompanying freeze-thaw
cycles. The roof structure on his home has a fairly steep pitch,
like a cone, but he says rainwater does not drain off; it sinks in
before it can reach the ground - and then evaporates.

This seven year old home is

covered with papercrete with no
waterproofing. It hasnt leaked.

I have also visited a location in New Mexico and walked on the

nearly flat untreated papercrete roof of a shed several years
old. The papercrete had cracked and separated on the surface
a bit, but there was no evidence of leakage.

Some people write that it is possible to waterproof papercrete

with elastomeric paint like Kool Seal or Henry's products.
Elastomerics are quite expensive. I've examined these
products and they produce a thin, flexible rubber-like
membrane when dry. When I peeled a small sheet of it off a
container and tugged on the edges, it didn't stretch very much
before holes started to form in it. I think it would seal the roof if
it stayed absolutely intact, but no one knows for sure how long
this membrane will remain flexible and undamaged under the
ultra violet beating of the sun - or in cyclic freeze-thaw
situations. Even roofing tar hardens and ultimately cracks in the
sun. A papercrete roof is slightly springy; it has a little "give" in
A papercrete roof with surface it. I would worry about walking on it and stretching the
cracks and separations, but no elastomeric membrane. If it cracked or perforated at all, and
leaks.
water were trapped under it, mold, mildew, fungus or
degradation in the papercrete could follow. One practitioner is extremely concerned about mold. He
feels that using a solid papercrete roof is risky "except when another kind of material (such as a metal
roof) is assembled over it, and the papercrete can breath to allow any possible leaks to air out. This
appoach is also much more healthy for the inhabitants of the structure, since breathability has been
established as desirable for a "healthy" house.
Two other practitioners I spoke with said that elastomeric paint has a good record when used per
instructions. Applying elastomeric paint is a two-step process. If the primer and finishing coat are used
as recommended, it gets high marks they felt. Both also
recommended crystalline waterproofing.
Long available for industrial applications, crystalline
waterproofing is now used in residential applications. It
consists of a dry powder compound of Portland cement, very
fine treated silica sand, and proprietary chemicals. Combining
the product with water and applying it to the surface of
concrete results in a catalytic reaction that forms several
inches of non-soluble crystalline fibers within the pores and
capillary tracts of concrete. This seals the concrete against the A pond made of papercrete sealed
penetration of water or liquids from all directions. UGL DryLok
with crystalline waterproofing.
is one of these products. Supposedly this will work in either
cured papercrete or in the wet mix itself. It's pricey, but said to be so effective that its possible to make
ponds with papercrete. If it will hold water without leaking, it should prevent water penetration.
Coating the outside of a papercrete roof with about an inch of Sprayed Polyurethane Foam (SPF) is
another approach. It is expensive, and not environmentally sensitive, but it may be a good compromise.
I walked on this kind of roof in Prescott, Arizona, where the sun is very strong, and there were no
problems with it. It's tough, flexible and absolutely waterproof. With reasonable caution, it can be
walked on without worrying about puncturing it, though it is vulnerable to heavy pointed objects. It also
adds an additional R 6.88 per inch of insulation to the roof. That is the equivalent of another three
inches of papercrete. Add that R-value to two four-inch thick papercrete roof panels with mortar, and the

total R value is about the same as the walls. That is a great envelope for a home, especially
considering that the roof would weigh about eleven pounds per square foot. At that weight, if a wall
were supporting a 25 foot (7.6 meter) span of roof by itself (unlikely), the total load at the base of the
wall would be about 550 pounds per square foot. That is a little less than four pounds per square inch.
Since papercrete is variously rated at well above 100 pounds per square inch, there is a very wide
margin for wet snow or any other additional roof load.
Another approach to roofing in New Mexico was poured
papercrete with a metal roof installed over it. This hasn't leaked
since the building was built five years ago.

This five year old papercrete

workshop has a poured roof
covered with steel roofing.

POURING THE ROOF

Some people prefer to place wet papercrete directly on the roof rather than go through the process of
making, cutting and fitting roof panels. This works fine for structures with nearly flat roofs. Of course, a
nearby source of water is required.
A layer of one-inch chicken wire is tightly stretched over the
ceiling joists or vigas of the structure and fastened in place
with heavy-duty metal staples. A second layer of one-inch
chicken wire is offset 1/2 inch from the first and installed the
same way. Ideally, the papercrete is drained on the ground and
then pumped, augured or handed up to the roof in buckets.
Mike McCain has used a four-inch grain augur to lift
papercrete to roof heights. A number of people have written
that pumps are not reliable, but others have found ways to
make them work.

Inside a shed with a poured roof.

A few inches of papercrete are spread over the chicken wire,

Two layers of offset chicken wire
which sags somewhat under the weight. After it is allowed to
hold the slurry while it dries.
dry, a second layer of papercrete - and possibly additional
layers - are placed the same way. The unintended advantage to this method is that the papercrete sags
down between the ceiling joists or vigas thereby providing greater thickness and more insulation value.
The down side is that wet material is heavy to work with. Of course, cutting papercrete panels is dusty,
so it all depends on which method you like best.
After the roof is poured and smoothed out, the same waterproofing
methods can be used as those for roof panels described above.
Another way to go is to build a vaulted roof or domed roof out of blocks
right on top of the walls. See Domes. This method has been done
successfully, with beautiful results, in Texas by Clyde T. Curry. Besides
saving the cost of the roofing framework, the domed or vaulted ceilings
of papercrete provide good insulation.

A bedroom with vaulted

ceiling of papercrete.

WINDOWS, DOORS AND CABINETS

If windows and door are pre-hung in their own frames, they can simply be screwed into the papercrete
opening. The gaps can be trimmed conventionally and/or filled with papercrete. I have had success
adding a small amount of Plaster of Paris to papercrete where it comes into contact with wood. Mixed
this way, the papercrete adheres very firmly to the wood.
Before drywall, which is Plaster of Paris between sheets of
paper backing, wood lath was nailed to studs and covered with
plaster to finish walls. That might explain why the
papercrete/plaster mix works so well with wood.
If wood or metal frames have to be installed, they can be
screwed directly into the papercrete. The opposite is also true.
At a construction site in New Mexico, I saw narrow sections of
unsupported papercrete block walls, between floor-to-ceiling
windows, angle-screwed to the window frames. The frames
themselves were independently anchored to the floor and to
the roof plate. This stabilized the short walls extremely well.
Any gaps are filled with papercrete and the inside surface of
the wall opening (not covered by the frame) can be surfaced
with papercrete.

Short wall sections between

windows were screwed to window
frames for added stability.

Papercrete has another quality, which makes it ideal for

installing frameless glass. The glass can simply be embedded
in the papercrete. Papercrete doesn't expand or contract
perceptibly, even when wet or frozen, so sheets of glass or
glass block can be embedded in and trimmed with papercrete
without fearing that they will be damaged by expansion or
contraction of the papercrete.

Frameless glass can be embedded

Windows and doors should ideally be insulated or the R-value

in papercrete without fear of
benefit of papercrete walls and roof is compromised. Windows
cracking.
Outside bottom is not
should be at least double paned, but that costs more. It is
covered to allow drainage.
easier to find cheaper, older single-pane windows and
unframed glass than newer multi-paned windows. The older windows have character and look more
substantial. Since glass can be embedded in papercrete, so can several separate sheets of glass or
two complete windows. The one on the inside should be open-able for cleaning. The air between the
panes is the best possible insulator, so if using two single-pane windows, space them as far apart as is
convenient. In extreme climates, insulated doors or two-door entryways should be built to minimize
heating and cooling loss.

China cabinets, pre-built shelves, medicine cabinets and

anything else, which has to be anchored to the wall can be
firmly anchored with screws. Papercrete does not hold nails
any better than drywall, but screws work very well and will hold
a considerable weight. The great thing about screwing into a
papercrete wall is that you dont have to look for a stud. You
can anchor any object exactly where you want it.

Screws are the anchor of choice for

papercrete.

PLUMBING AND ELECTRICAL

Installing plumbing lines requires cutting holes and channels in papercrete. This is fairly easy if original
papercrete mix didn't have a surplus of solids (sand, powdered glass) or cement in it. Cutting
papercrete results in a lot of dust. Consider wearing a mask or respirator. Holes and channels can be
made with conventional drills and a chainsaw. Once the pipes are soldered and pressed into slots in the
papercrete, they are covered with more papercrete. The benefit is that the entire plumbing system is
insulated. Cold stays cold and hot stays hot longer - less wasted energy.
Narrow channels for electrical runs can be cut with a circular saw or chain saw. To make holes for
outlets, cut horizontal and vertical slits with a circular saw. Then pry out the unwanted piece with a
screwdriver. One of our practitioners mentioned that he puts a glob of non-flammable mortar behind his
outlet boxes for safety, since most home fires start where the wiring enters the outlet boxes. Outlet
boxes can be angle-screwed directly into the papercrete. Once the electrical wiring and outlets are
installed and tested, the channels for the electrical runs are filled with papercrete.

FINISH - EXTERIOR & INTERIOR

Exterior finish can be papercrete, stucco or a 60-40 mix of
papercrete/stucco. Some practitioners use two sacks of
Portland cement and make their stucco the same way as their
blocks. Doubling the amount of Portland cement in the
papercrete gives it more strength and resistance to abrasion.
One practitioner we spoke with uses six sacks of Portland
cement and paper- no sand or other components - to make
wall plasters. He feels this is essentially what is being
purchased when buying exterior stucco. Papercrete stucco can
be painted with exterior latex paint. I examined a small home
painted this way. The paint had been in place for over three
Papercrete stucco sticks to
years and looked like it had been recently painted. Papercrete
concrete block very well. The
stucco takes paint very well. Without a primer, one coat covers
lighter sample on the left was
quite well. For peace of mind, two or three coats are advised.
mixed 50-50 by weight with Plaster Rather than pay the high cost of a primer or multiple coats of
of Paris - the one on the right with the same color paint, just purchase latex paint that
60-40 Portland cement.
has been color-matched incorrectly or abandoned
at the paint counter. Most stores will sell it for about
four dollars a gallon. It is perfectly good paint, just
not the right color. All the different "mistakes" can be
mixed together and used for the first coat or two.
Then apply the color you want as the final coat.
Stucco adheres to papercrete walls very well with or
without the use of stucco mesh. Andy Hopkins'
house in Colorado has a textured stucco coating,
which feels like hard plastic. Andy has sold the
One coat of inexpensive latex paint house so the type of stucco couldn't be determined.
It was some kind of new foam and acrylic-based
without a primer covered this
stucco. This type of stucco stuck to the papercrete
papercrete sample very well.
very firmly, looked great and was weathering fine.

Foam and acrylic-based stucco

over papercrete.

Classic El Rey stucco was used on a shed visited in northern New Mexico. This type of

Five year old El Rey stucco over

papercrete.

stucco is made with Portland cement, and is colored all the way through - so a scratch or nick won't be
easily seen. The shed was five years old and the stucco was in nearly perfect condition.
Classic stuccoes and a number of new acrylic formulations are available in many colors and textures.
Some are quite expensive and some require an environmental premium. Keep in mind that papercrete
stucco looks great and can wait until a better solution becomes available. Lime might be considered as
well.
Interior finishes include many of the same alternatives as exterior. One approach to interior finish was
used in a large home in Arizona. The owner covered all interior surfaces with a thin layer of drywall joint
compound. A few cracks developed over time.
Kelly Hart has used a white lime wash, which is particularly attractive, in several rooms of his home. He
also discovered a way to mix latex paint 1:10 with water to produce beautiful water-based stains. His
bathroom stain is particularly attractive. Stains not only dress up the look of the papercrete, they also
cut the cost and amount of paint used by ninety percent!

Lime wash on
papercrete ceiling.

A stained papercrete
wall in a bathroom.

FLOORS
Many people using papercrete prefer alternatives to concrete floors, because of expense and
environmental issues. Papercrete itself may not be the best solution for floors since the point pressure
of table and chair legs will indent it - unless a great deal of cement is used. One practitioner we spoke
with makes papercrete floors in yard quantities, about 200 gallons, with six sacks of Portland cement
and about 45 shovelfuls of sand. That provides a hard enough slab to work well with floors.
Some people use papercrete as a sub floor to insulate the floor from the surrounding earth and provide
a base for a radiant heating system.
An earth floor made of adobe, or adobe mixed with papercrete
instead of straw, is an alternative. Earth floors can be finished
and decorated in various ways. There are many books
available about building earth floors.
Another lesser-known option for floors is tamped road base.
Road base, sometimes called "city base," is what is used for
making roads. Be careful. If you simply ask for " road base",
you may get common ABC gravel with little else in it. The type
of road base you need has a mix of rock, sand, clay and dirt in
An adobe earth floor inlaid with specified quantities approved by cities for roadbeds. In the
Phoenix area, the material is called ABC MAG. The MAG
flagstone.
stands for Maricopa Association of Governments. This is a
consortium of cities in Maricopa County where Phoenix is located, hence "city base." ABC MAG has a
mix of under one-inch rock, sand, clay and dirt. This material is applied in several layers. Each layer is
screened finer, dampened, screed, tamped and troweled smooth. After finishing, the top layer should
be as smooth and level as a conventional floor.
Successive screening is a lot of work. With some investigation it's possible to find out what the
constituents of the road base are. Buy them separately and dry mix them using aggregate sizes

appropriate for each layer. This saves a good deal of labor.

The finished floor is sealed with boiled linseed oil and turpentine. The entire process is described in a
chapter called "A Tamped Road Base Floor" in "The Art of Natural Building."
Road base can only be had in the colors of nature and the colors vary from location to location. In the
Phoenix area they vary from gray to brown. In Austin, I'm told they are reddish. There are probably
ways to vary the color. An advantage to road base is drying time (which is much faster than adobe.) It
only takes a few days in dry climates.
Road base costs under $5.00 a ton, if you pick it up. Working with it is easy - no mixing straw, clay,
papercrete, etc. Two 12-ton truckloads cover 500 square feet. It is also very durable having a plasticity
index (in Phoenix) of 0-5. The plasticity index is a measure of a materials' tendency to sag. Smaller
numbers are better, but it's common to see ratings of up to 12.

HEATING AND COOLING

This is where papercrete shines. With a papercrete envelope and well-insulated doors and windows,
much smaller heating and cooling systems are possible.
In fact, with some planning, the heating system of the home can be built into the floor. Solar heated
water is circulated though a serpentine system of plastic pipes embedded in the floor to produce radiant
heating. Since the floor has quite a bit of mass, the heat is retained for long periods when the water
isn't being heated, such as at night. Usually a small fireplace or electric heater can easily supplement
the radiant heating.
Cooling costs are also greatly reduced. A much smaller air conditioner or evaporative cooler can be
used. If you want to live comfortably off-grid, newer solar power systems are an option. The new hightech systems are computer-integrated with wind-power generators and propane generators. On
extremely hot or cold days, when quick heat or cooling is necessary, the new systems seamlessly move
to the generator. As soon as the demand falls within the supply parameters of the solar or wind
equipment, the system switches back to them. So fossil fuels are only consumed when peak demand
requires. This kind of system is also modular. The initial system can be small if you are living in part of a
structure while building the rest. As you add on to the structure, additional modules can be added to
provide the increased capability you need. This is great because you don't have to buy more capability
than you need before you need it.

FORMAL TESTS
(Find out how to get a papercrete "Technical
Report" compiled in the engineering laboratory of a
major university.)
Anecdotally, a lot is known about papercrete, but
not much has been formally tested. We will be
testing as many parameters as time and funding
permits. As results become available, they will be

posted at the end of this section. In order to gain

visibility and acceptance in the marketplace, a
battery of tests will have to be run, standards set
and quality controls initiated. Some of the tests
which need to be run, after a standard mix is
established, are as follows:
Material Characterization - Compressive strength,
tensile strength, shear strength, long term
deformation (creep), water permeability, fire
resistance, heat and sound insulation, long term
behavior (degradation).
Structural Elements - Strength in pure bending,
strength in axial force and bending moment,
strength in shear, effect of reinforcement.
Although we may not be able to accomplish all of
this testing in the near future, these are the types of
tests which will be required over time to provide
architects and design engineers the information
they need to establish papercrete as a mainstream
building material.
We have tested more than 50 different
combinations of materials. We are looking at
various percentages of Portland cement,
Portland and sand, Portland and fly ash,
Portland and rice hull ash, clay, Styrofoam, lime
and paper mill sludge. We first look at
compressive strength. Then we examine
thermal properties, creep and pull tests. We
have also investigated cure time by testing
identical samples over time.
Blocks made adobe style vary from blocks
made in a press. Pressed blocks are much
stronger, more regular and water efficient.

Test samples drying on shade cloth.

New TECHNICAL REPORT now available.

The basic constituents of the test mixes are:

1. Paper/Portland Cement
2. Paper/Portland/Sand
3. Paper/Portland/Fly Ash
4. Paper/Portland/Rice Hull Ash
5. Paper/Portland/Styrofoam
6. Paper Mill Sludge/Portland./Fly Ash
7. Paper/Portland/Glass
8. Paper/Portland/Clay
9. Paper/Portland/Lime
*10. Hammermilled paper
After initial tests on these mixes, we will narrow
down the alternatives and try cross-over mixes
based on which initial mixes test best. For example
if, the Paper/Portland/Styrofoam combination has a
superior compressive strength, we may want to try
Fly Ash as a substitute for a percentage of the
Portland cement to see if we can reduce the costs
of the mix. Other tests involving ground low-grade
paper and cardboard are also planned.
We recently sent a sizable sample of junk mail,
paper packaging, and other paper collected around
the house to Schutte Hammermill in Buffalo, New
York. They are helping us research the proper
hammermill and screen size to use for "hammering"
low-grade mixed paper into a dry fibrous mass,

which can be more easily handled and mixed than

un-milled paper. Using "hammered" paper would
allow mixing in a conventional rolling mixer or even
a cement truck with a rolling mixer.
Specifications for papercrete do not yet appear in
ASTM and extensive engineering tests have not yet
been run on papercrete. We have begun contacting
officials in the ASTM organziation and the ICC to
determine a procedure for seeking approval of one
or more of the mixes we are testing. More testing
needs to be done in recognized and controlled
engineering environments. That having been said,
there are a growing number of homes and other
structures built of papercrete (some of which have
been standing for many years) so there is little
doubt that papercrete works well as a construction
material.
The compressive strength of papercrete has been
measured a number of times and is variously
reported to be in the 140-160 lb./sq. inch range -but compressive strength is probably not the most
accurate way to judge papercrete. Compressive
strength is a measure of load at the instant of
failure. This works for concrete because when
concrete's load is exceeded, it literally explodes.
When that point is reached, the compressive
strength is known. But papercrete never fails
catastrophically, it just compresses like squeezing
rubber. So a more accurate measure of

papercrete's strength is its stiffness - in other

words, how much does it compress under what
load? We have found that this value is less than the
compressive strength of concrete, but many times
greater than would be needed to support any kind
of roof combined with just about any roof load. So
with papercrete, you don't have the sudden
catastrophic fragmentation, which is characteristic
of concrete or earth, just a slower squish. When the
load is removed, papercrete actually rebounds a bit
in an attempt to return to its prior shape. What does
this all really mean? It means that papercrete has
no problem with strength. A structure several
stories high can be built with it. The next issue is
creep. What will happen to a papercrete wall under
constant load over time? Will it slowly compress or
will it keep its shape?
The tensile strength of papercrete also seems
sufficient to the task. Just try to pull a single sheet
of paper apart by pulling laterally on the edges. It
has great strength. Ripping a piece of paper is
much easier than pulling it apart. So the shear
strength of paper is not as great as its tensile
strength. But a papercrete block is the equivalent of
hundred of pages of paper - almost like a catalog.
Papercrete has very good sheer strength as a
block. Lateral load involves sideways force - the
wind load on the entire area of an outside wall for
example. Because papercrete walls are usually a

minimum of twelve inches thick, and usually pinned

with rebar, they are very strong laterally. No
extremely long lengths of flat wall built with any kind
of material should lack reinforcement. The
reinforcement might be internal - using mesh or
rebar, or external by curving the wall or connecting
the wall to perpendicular walls at reasonable
intervals. Structural testing will tell us the best way
to design for papercrete construction. Again,
papercrete is not yet part of the Universal Building
Code, but in practice works very well.
PAPERCRETE R-VALUE
"R-value" is a measure of a material's resistance to
heat flow. The R-value of papercrete is reported to
be between 2.0 and 3.0 per inch - the higher the
number, the better. I have seen documentation from
the Department of Energy, which was done on two
samples of Lex Terry's blocks. Lex uses a 1:1 mix
of Portland cement with Fly ash to paper, with
about 12 shallow shovelfuls of sand added. His two
samples came back from DOE with R-values of
2.24 and 2.16. The percentage of Portland cement
and fly ash was 65% Portland cement and 35% fly
ash. Lex makes his blocks 12 inches (30
centimeters) thick. He adds an average of about an
inch (2.5 centimeters) of papercrete exterior stucco
and about the same amount for interior finish. That
means that his total R-value will be at between
30.24 (14 x 2.16) and 31.36 (14 x 2.24). That's

quite good compared to an

older standard wood frame wall
of R- value 19. The R-value of
hollow masonry block is only
1.75.
INFORMAL TESTS
Fire There have been several reported incidents
involving papercrete and fire. One of them was a
case of arson. A gallon can of gasoline without its
top was thrown on the roof of a papercrete shed
followed by a lighter. The accelerant eventually
caused the papercrete to begin smoldering like
charcoal. A volunteer fire group responded and had
to return several times before they understood that
papercrete smolders and does not burn with an
open flame - they thought the fire was out. When
they thoroughly doused the smoldering area with
water and scraped out the blackened material, they
put it out. Firemen in larger cities routinely do this
when putting out fires in blown-in attic insulation,
which is similar to the pulped paper in papercrete.
Another fire was caused by a plumber, while
sweating on copper water-line connectors with a
torch. Apparently he didnt use something to shield
the paper blocks from the torch. No one noticed
that a block had started to smolder. When someone
did notice, 36 hours had passed. The blocks in a

four-foot square section of wall had been reduced

to ashes.
While the issue of fire should never be minimized, I
think a wider perspective is helpful. In my area of
the country, several construction fires caused by
grinders, torches or welders make the evening
television news each year. There are numerous
other fires, which are contained by workers
themselves and dont get broadcast. In some
cases, these fires result in spectacular losses,
which occur in less than 20 minutes and once in a
while people get hurt or killed. When these things
happen there is never a suggestion that wood
should be outlawed for construction purposes.
My point is this. I would rather live in a structure,
which would give me hours and hours to locate and
fight the fire than in one, which would incinerate me
before I can get to the front door.
Having said that, caution is always the best policy.
Watch what youre doing with anything that gets hot
or produces sparks or flames around this material,
or wood, or fabric or anything else that might burn.
I once pounded a piece of rebar into a papercrete
wall, which veered off vertical and came out
through the wall right where I wanted to locate a
door jam. I didnt want to go through the trouble of
extracting the rebar so I decided to cut it back from
the door jam by slicing into the block with a grinder.

I knew there was a fire risk so I had a bucket of

water nearby. I sliced into the block with the
grinder and cut off the rebar in a hail of sparks that
lasted several minutes. I thought I would surely set
the block on fire, but it didnt burn. I stuck my pinky
back in there when the rebar had cooled, and
watched it closely for a few hours while working in
the area, but no fire. Maybe it was because I use
quite a lot of Portland, fly ash and sand in my
blocks. The more inert ingredients in something,
the more difficult it is to burn.
I think the question is does papercrete catch on fire
more easily than other materials and I really dont
believe that it is more flammable than anything else
under normal circumstances. Anything - even rock
- can be burned when the conditions are right.
Our block and roof panel mixes cure into a material
which will not burn with an open flame. If an
accelerant like gasoline is applied to it or it's held
over an open fire for a prolonged period ( 30
seconds or more) it will begin to burn slowly like
charcoal rather than rapidly like wood.
It will eventually be reduced to ashes, but a single block will
take several hours to be consumed. However, I recently
witnessed a way to treat it so that it will not burn at all. Artie
Skeeter, from Blue Lake, California working with Shane
Kellerfrom Arcata, California, tried some textile fire retardant on
papercrete. Many fire retardants are expensive and give off
toxic fumes, but a mixture of boric acid and borax is
environmentally friendly and will protect the block from fire.
Boric acid is used in eye washes. This concoction has been
used for years to treat curtains, draperies and other textiles in
theaters, playhouses and dance clubs where people congregate
in great numbers.

The National Fire Prevention Association (Reg. 701) Standard

Methods of Fire Tests for Flame Propagation of Textiles and
Film (1977) provided some uncomplicated formulas.

This paper Crete, coated with a

boric solution, was held in an open
flame for two minutes.

Artie and Shane settled on 1 cup of Borax and 1

cup of Boric acid in a gallon of water. It's not too
expensive and the great thing is that it seems to
work. Another great thing is that it's not necessary
to treat all blocks. The interior plaster and exterior
stucco used with papercrete contains a high
percentage of Portland cement. That in itself will
not burn. So the only weak point is inside the block
near electrical outlets, switches and other places
where wires goes through walls, into boxes, etc.
Properly wired, these places should never cause a
fire, but many home fires are
traced back to faulty installation of wiring. So if you want to
be extremely safe, we recommend soaking the outlet holes,
switch box holes and anywhere wire goes through walls with
the above solution before installing the boxes. This is not to
say that papercrete will never burn. Any material will burn or
melt if enough heat is applied - even rock. But for all
practical purposes, papercrete is relatively safe (safe as or
safer than wood) without being treated. It's even more safe
with the boric acid solution above.
After two minutes in the fire, it blackened
but did not catch fire,
smolder or burn.

Wicking Much had been written about wicking - that is the

capillary action of liquids (in this case water)
through construction materials such as concrete.

The idea is to prevent water from wicking from the

ground through the footing and up the stem wall
(defying gravity) into the papercrete wall - a
potentially serious problem.
Since we mentioned using sand bags for a
foundation - seeFoundations , we wanted to double
check that such bags wouldn't wick. We first filled a
bag with what looked like sandy soil. We placed the
bag into a metal basin and filled the basin with
water half the depth of the bag. Within two hours,
the top of the bag was sopping wet. The water had
defied gravity and climbed to the top of the bag. We
were amazed that this had happened since the soil
we used was quite sandy, or so it appeared. We ran
a "shake test" on the soil see FORMULAS - Fidobe and
Padobe - and found out that
the soil was actually 30 percent
clay. We then repeated the test
A simple wick test.
above with "all purpose" sand
purchased from Home Depot. We allowed the bag
to sit in water over night and there was no wicking
at all. It is not a secret that sand will not hold water,
but we were somewhat confused by the fact that
soil can appear so sandy and yet, in combination
with clay, wick like a sponge. So, the lesson is if
sand bags are used for the stem wall, make sure
the sand is really sand. If the sand is not purchased
- that is, obtained from a river bottom or other
source - be sure to run a wick test as described

above before using it. Since the test is so easy, it

might be a good idea to test every load to make
sure that other soil types are not contaminating the
sand.
Glue These two pieces of papercrete were cut and ground for
test purposes. Their finished dimension was 3 1/2 x 3 1/2
inches (about 9 x 9 centimeters). We wanted to find out how
well conventional white glue would hold the pieces together
so we put a medium amount of glue (several tablespoons) on
the bottom piece, layed the top one in place and let them set
over night.
The result was remarkable. They will not come apart. We
have tried everything short of destroying the pieces to get
them apart.

This would seem to indicate that papercrete could

be used in applications calling for quick assembly
by cutting the pieces to size in advance and letting
the user simply glue them together.
We will be posting the results of engineering
structural tests and other informal test as they
become available.

This section pertains to setting up a business making and selling great numbers of papercrete blocks,
and/or specializing in building large numbers of papercrete
homes - at least more than one or two. What we are working
on is mainstreaming papercrete as an approved residential
and commercial building material. Our One-Day Papercrete
Commercialization Seminar offers strategies for starting a
business with BetR-blok, a new pressed type of papercrete.
Presently, papercrete in all its forms is a victim of Catch-22. It's
a question of market. Without a market, there's no investment.

Our BetR-blok system produces

strong, consistent blocks

Without investment, its difficult to develop a market. Right now, it's a challenge to convince
entrepreneurs to invest in block making operations when few people even know what papercrete is. We
are bringing about gradual change in the area of acceptance, but change takes time, and investors
want a quick return on their investment. So, individuals interested in starting a papercrete business are
probably going to have to work in partnerships like the one we are suggesting or do it on their own - at
least for the time being.
The fact is that there are already markets for papercrete (especially for BetR-blok) just not a mass
market yet. So, to get started, an individual is going to have to develop his or her own market - go out
and get an order for some blocks and then fill the order.
The largest potential market for blocks at this moment is as "in-fill" for homes. Since papercrete is not
formally approved as a "load bearing" building material, it cannot legally be used in most localities to
support a roof. But as in-fill," the papercrete walls are built between roof-supporting posts and filled in
between them, hence "in-fill." The posts are connected to the foundation at the bottom and tied in to
beams on top. The roofing system is built on top of the beams. This approach is commonly called post
and beam." Post and beam design has worked to get many homes and other structures "approved"
around the country - especially in the West. Papercrete works well in this application but the post and
beam approach adds additional un-needed cost and complication to construction. We are striving to get
approval using BetR-blok for "load bearing" applications - no posts. The only hurdle is ICC approval,
which costs money and takes time.
Of course, with some limitations, papercrete can be used to build garages, sheds and other structures,
which do not house people. Another market is garden and perimeter walls, or other landscaping
applications. We have made bowls and planters which have stood the test of time and stood up well in
outside conditions so there are a lot of ways to make money working with papercrete. But here we're
talking about building homes.

This is a papercrete planter

with bottle caps glued to it
after painting with left over
spray paint. It's been out in the
weather for a year with no
visible degradation.

It 's possible to build nearly any type of home with BetR-blok if you can find independent engineers to
"stamp" building plans. By approving the plans, the engineers shift the liability from the local Building
Safety office to their own insurance company. Engineers are very dependent on their insurance
companies. They must have liability insurance in order to retain their license to do business. If they
make mistakes resulting in claims, their insurance company may well drop them. If one insurance
company drops them, they probably will not be picked up by another one. This means they will be out
of business - their entire career down the tubes. Engineering firms are especially loath to try anything
new. Their insurance payments are huge and their potential liability formidable. This is the worse case
scenario but it should be understood that it is sometimes difficult to find engineers willing to take on the
responsibility to try something new. And if they do, they will probably want additional tests performed to
justify their assumptions and computations. We have worked with engineers and generally they want
some additional data before they agree to stamps plans - they call it due diligence. As papercrete
becomes more widely known and tested, especially in a consistent form like BetR-blok, it will be less
difficult to find an engineer. Luckily, there are engineers out there - usually individuals - who will work
with papercrete builders. It just takes time to find them. But let's get back to making blocks and building
homes. What are the challenges? The first challenge is getting good information.

Sheds under 120 square feet (12

square meters) usually do not
require a permit.

A papercrete pond, which has been

holding water for three years, with
no leaks.

INFORMATION
It makes obvious sense to verse oneself on the properties and characteristics of papercrete, whether
you want to sell blocks or build homes. The only way to do that is to read everything available on the
Internet and contact others or read material from others who have already worked with the material.
The frustrating thing about doing that is that previous builders have varying and sometimes conflicting
recommendations about how to do things based on their experience. Most of the knowledgeable people
working with papercrete have not had the time or opportunity to compare notes with other practitioners
about what works and what doesn't. What each person feels is true is only true based on that person's
experience. There are differences of opinion on just about everything - from the "best" mix to the "best"
building method. For example, the construction approach described on this website specifies rebar in
the construction of the walls. Some practitioners feel that rebar is unnecessary. What is needed is a
standard building procedure, which can be permitted anywhere in the country. Part of the problem with
a standard building procedure is papercrete's flexibility. It can be poured, slip formed, formed as blocks,
or as tilt-up panels, "harled," daubed, made into roof panels, etc. A comprehensive building procedure
describing all of these methods will eventually emerge but it hasn't yet. So the best approach is to
decide what product is to be marketed and then set about defining the building approach which fits the
product. That's what we are doing with pressed BetR-blok. No one ever said it was going to be easy,
but we know what works. We've been actively involved in papercrete construction for almost ten years.
We can save people who want to start a business a lot of time and money by passing on our business
experience and offering opportunities for partnerships. That's specifically what we do in our One-Day
Papercrete Commercialization Seminar

VOLUME MIXERS
So far, we and maybe a few other people are the only ones working on equipment to produce
papercrete in volume. This is true because most of the people using papercrete are individuals busy
building their own homes. Part of the reason that volume papercrete mixers haven't been developed yet
goes back to the market for papercrete. Why invest in a developing a mixer for material which isn't in
widespread demand. The other reason is that the people using papercrete are using it because it's
cheap. Environmental and other benefits aside, they are using it because they don't have a lot of
money. So this group doesnt have the time or money to start engineering volume mixers. The lack of a
low cost, high volume mixer has been a barrier to producing papercrete in bulk.
Conventional concrete mixers cannot pulp newspaper or cardboard. But if the paper or cardboard is
hammer milled (pounded by spinning "hammers" into fiber), a conventional small mixer will work fine.
Even a large concrete truck can be used to make the mix with hammer milled paper. But hammer
milled paper cost a lot and therein lies a problem. If the mix components become too expensive, the
profit margin on blocks is lowered to a point where it doesn't make sense to make the blocks that any
mixer is designed to produce. Another approach is to use shredded paper. Shredded paper works in a
conventional concrete mixer. But it takes a lot longer (many more tank turns) to mix papercrete

components using shredded paper, because the shredded paper takes longer to break down than
hammer milled. So the optimum mixer - one which pulps and mixes - does not exist off the shelf.
That's where we come in.
We are perfecting a design for a volume mixer which pulps and mixes newspaper and cardboard - and
then elevates the mix for filling press hoppers or forms. We have a Mega Mixer, which focuses on the
least expensive way to make and move mix. The secret to our approach was our press. Pressed
blocks are strong and consistent regardless of mix variations. That sounds counter intuitive, but the
press makes good blocks with the simplest mix recipe. And simple, in this case - and in most others, is
also the least expensive.
The next challenge to starting a business involves perceptions.

PERCEPTIONS
Most people accept their initial perceptions as fact. "You only
get one chance to make a first impression," as the old saying
goes. This is as true of papercrete as anything else. If a person
goes to look at a home made of papercrete and the home is
minimalist in appearance, that person will equate papercrete
with minimalism. If a person sees a video about papercrete,
and the presentation is amateurishly done, that person will
conclude that papercrete is not to be taken seriously. Once the
impression is made, it's difficult to change. But luckily, some
artist-builders are doing incredible design work with papercrete
Papercrete homes can be built and are radically changing the early impressions of it. There
beautifully, with all the amenities, will be a day in the not too distant future when papercrete will
be a material of choice for beauty, value, and durability.

for much less than conventional

housing.

COMFORT
A home built using innovative or "alternative" construction materials doesn't have to be uncomfortable
to live in. In fact, many of these homes are more interesting to look at and more healthful and
economical to live in than conventional housing - and they usually cost a lot less to build. Shrinking
resources and expanding environmental concerns necessitate closer examination of alternative building
techniques, which at first glance may seem untenable but turn out to offer dividends measured in many
dimensions.
Papercrete, when made with Portland cement, looks a lot like concrete. This is a blessing and a curse.
Many properties of papercrete make it more flexible than concrete, but in some ways it doesnt act or
perform the same as concrete. This leads some people to
think that it isn't as "good" as concrete. The fact is that both
materials have their strengths and weaknesses and both need
to be used properly to be most effective.
When I first saw a pile of papercrete blocks, I was struck by
how rough and irregular they were and how much one block
differed from another. This turns out to be completely natural.
Inconsistencies in mix (see Mixes), the type of paper used, the
makeup of the paper, ambient temperature, humidity, hours of
sunlight and other factors can cause changes in the final
product. Papercrete is very forgiving but not completely
consistent and, fortunately, it doesn't have to be. Pressing is
the solution. Pressed BetR-bloks are strong, straight and

Papercrete blocks are not always

perfectly smooth or square, but it
doesnt matter.

square, and just more attractive than those poured on the ground.
As poured-on-the-ground papercrete blocks dry, they often slump or sag lengthwise and taper inward,
from top to bottom, around their perimeter. This happens especially in a wet mix because there is less
weight at the top of the mix when it is poured and more weight pushing out at the bottom. The result is
a block that is not completely rectangular when viewed from the end, and may be bent slightly over its
length. In addition, the surface of papercrete is often rough and the entire block may have quite a few
small voids in it. At first, papercrete blocks seemed a little primitive to me compared to the perfect
dimensions of concrete blocks and bricks. I quickly came to understand that I had to let "papercrete be
papercrete." It's not concrete or brick or adobe. It's something different and the irregularities are actually
not flaws but characteristics. In reality, the irregular shape is of no consequence and the rough surface
and voids actually allow one block to adhere better to the next block when mortared together with a wet
layer of papercrete.
When a wall of poured-on-the-ground papercrete blocks is
completed, it will never be perfectly smooth - no matter how
much care is taken in laying the block. It doesn't matter that it's
not smooth. In fact, being rough helps the exterior stucco and
interior finish to adhere to the wall. Areas that protrude too
much can easily be trimmed with the claw side of a hammer.
Areas that are too concave are simply built up with papercrete
stucco. In the end, being careful with the outside stucco and
the interior finish covers all seeming imperfections.
Walls made in tall forms, like those used in monolithic concrete
Lex Terry applies papercrete
stucco. No stucco wire is needed. pours, have their own unique characteristics. As explained

under Forms, trying to pour layers of great thickness results in

a great deal of compression at the bottom of the form. This can cause the wall to dry very slowly and
unevenly, and to shrink a great deal, resulting in pocketing that appears as voids and crevices. Usually
these voids can easily be patched with a richer mix of papercrete and Portland cement or some other
binder, which dries in the cracks and voids without shrinking. Or the wet mix can be vibrated to allow air
and water to come to the top of the mix. Regardless of the "workaround", when the wall is covered
outside and inside with stucco, or some other finish, the seeming imperfections are no longer visible.
The final surfaces can be made as perfect as time and patience permit. So marketing should always be
based on the final product, not on the process to get there.

HYDROPHILIC
Hydrophilic means having an affinity for water; readily absorbing water. Papercrete is hydrophilic. When
I first learned that, I thought it was a fatal flaw and set about finding a way to make papercrete
waterproof - in other words to make it "hydrophobic." There are ways to waterproof papercrete without
affecting the positive properties of the material. But even without waterproofing, when papercrete
absorbs water (if it was originally mixed with sufficient binder) it doesn't lose its shape. In other words, it
doesn't turn into mush like un-stabilized adobe. When water goes into untreated papercrete, it quickly
evaporates as soon as the rain (or other source of water) stops. Untreated papercrete is temporarily
heavier while carrying the water, but as long as it can shed the water through evaporation (in other
words as long as it can breathe) the water is not harmful. If the water is trapped and retained, mold,
mildew, fungus, etc. may take hold. Trapping water in any building material is to be avoided. That's why
it's best to either let the material breathe or moisture proof it completely. Many structures with untreated
papercrete walls and roofs have been standing for years with no apparent ill effects,
but waterproofing papercrete is practical and possible.
It might not be a great idea to build in a flood plain with papercrete but plywood, drywall and other
materials dont do well in water either. Building in flood plains will probably be prohibited in the not-toodistant future, because insurance companies are trying to refuse issuing insurance to homes
constructed in flood prone areas.
It would seem to make sense that papercrete would do best in dry climates of the world like the Great

American Desert, which comprises a good deal of the western United States. However, there are
homes made partly of paper in locations like Vancouver Island - off British Columbia, Wisconsin and
even Rockport, Massachusetts. The Paper House in Rockport was built in 1924. It's in-filled with
newspapers glued together and covered with varnish. Kelly Hart's home, in the mountains of Colorado,
has been through over 200 freeze-thaw cycles since it was built and has exhibited no degradation or
change in appearance. So humidity, water ,and snow may not be as great an issue as previously
thought.

FLAME RETARDANT
The term "flame retardant" has to be differentiated from "fireproof." Unless you add a significant
percentage of non-flammable material to any papercrete mix, it will burn. It will not burn with an open
flame, but it will smoulder like charcoal and eventually be consumed. Papercrete made with a 4-to-1
ratio of cement to paper, by weight, won't burn at all, but that amount of cement is too costly and may
negatively affect R-value. Papercrete made with a 1-to-1 ratio of cement to paper, by weight, will
smolder like charcoal, but does not burn with an open flame. Smoldering with no flame is considered
flame retardant. So might a fire smolder in a papercrete wall for for some time without detection? The
chances of this happening are extremely low.
A papercrete practitioner tested this possibility and thinks that such an occurrence is highly unlikely. He
bored a three-inch hole in a papercrete wall and emptied an entire can of charcoal lighter fluid inside.
He managed to get the papercrete to begin to smolder, but it would not continue to smolder for long
because of lack of oxygen. It was suggested that fireproof mortar (high percentage of Portland cement
or other fireproof binder) be used between the blocks as walls are erected, and fireproof stucco be used
on the outside of the home to "encase" the blocks in fireproof "containers." This would limit a
smoldering fire to the destruction of only one block in the unlikely event that it should ever occur at all.
In late 2005, we did some additional informal testing on papercrete and fire. A simple mix of boric acid
and borax will completely firepoof papecrete. See the "Informal Tests" section in Tests. In early 2006,
we have been doing experiments with sand content. Adding more sand increases compressive
strength and fire retardancy, but we don't know yet how much it effects "R" value, if any.
So there are significant challenges going into business making papercrete, but every beginning is
difficult. One thing is certain. Papercrete is a concept whose time has come. Papercrete, in its present
form, or something similar to it will have to be developed to stop the avalanche of our forests into our
landfills. In any challenge there is also opportunity. The best future is for those who find the
opportunities in the challenges and benefit themselves, others and the environment with their solutions.
This is our focus.