Cob: papercrete(?)remodelling/ pigment in linseed oil

[Scott Gregorie Howard]

My good friend is opening a philosophy cafe/ art gallery in north Portland
soon and she has to fix up the interior to get a deal on rent.

She and I are both students of natural building and we had some ideas
about how to approach the problem in some cheap and non-toxic,
non-polluting ways.

First, the walls are just standard walls with no insulation at the moment,
and the same goes for the ceiling. These are the two main tasks.

My best Idea was to try making papercrete blocks just the right size to
fit between the joists (16 inches apart?) and make a shitload of them-
enough to fill the entirety of the walls up to the ceiling.  Maybe they
could be mortared in with a light lim-sand mortar. My only preoccupation
is how future remodellers will be able to deal with a lime and paper wall-
seems fine I guess.

Now the ceiling could just be covered with boards of coarse, but maybe
there is some other alternative I haven't heard of that is available and
cheep- like some of those fiber and lime (was it?) boards that they make
by hand in Germany. We would be able to make the boards our selves to the
required dimensions.  Someone mentioned these fiber (hemp maybe) boards
recently on this listserve. Please tell me again.

Other Ideas we had included using rock board, or making our own fiber
boards for the walls and buying eco-friendly insulation.

Under all of the above scenarios we would like to finish the wals and
maybe the ceiling with a fine earthen plaster with some sort of pigment. I
know there are some great resources out there for this by Bill and Athena
Steen and others. But I have also wondered for some time if any one out
there has ever tried simply applying pigment along with a coat or three of
linseed oil of some dilution just as a pointer doing an oil painting
would? I would really like to hear about anyone who has tried this.


Thanks,

Scott

Portland, Oregon