[Cob] more on papercrete

[dirtcheapbuilder-Charmaine Taylor]

Well... you can try adding boiling water to paper, and  by letting it 
set for a day to help break it down,   Getting cross shredded paper ( 
smallest possible bits) is best.   Most  copy shops, legal offices, 
Staples, Office Despot and others have bags of it to recycle, and you 
can haul it away free.  add the hot water ( add a tiny amount of bleach 
if it will sit for long)

You can hand mix shredded paper and clay, I add lime of course, and 
have been making papercob,  and cobwood (with sawdust) for 5 years now. 
as a plaster, and it is great.  adding  recycled gyp drywall crumbled 
to dust, is a great filler for the paper clay plaster.

lots of folks have caught on to this...the more clay the less the fire 
ability, and with clay and lime in paper  it may not burn at all.

Becky Bee started adding paper after she and I talked about it 4 years 
ago. And paper and clay  comes from the art world where sculpting is 
done..so books on that topic can help.  you can BUY $$ pulped paper for 
art, but using shredded stuff is cheaper.


I make a Chinese paper-lime plaster recipe for my walls, which will not 
burn..period.   SO you can have a nice  whitish  plaster with shredded 
office paper, and lime soaked together.   some hand mixing can make it  
ready to place on the walls, and adding a bit of sand give it more 
body, and changed the texture.

  [Rainbow- I will include a recipe with you recent ord]er.

>
Charmaine Taylor Publishing    books at dirtcheapbuilder.com
PO Box 375 Cutten CA  95534 USA  -- 707-441-1632
www.dirtcheapbuilder.com  &  www.papercrete.com
New& Used books:  www.tomfolio.com & www.biblio.com

On Oct 19, 2004, at 8:14 AM, <rainbow at rainbowolf.com> wrote:

> Peace be with your day.  I am very keen to work with papercrete as the
> 'plaster' [interior and exterior] on an earthbag dome.  [I hope this 
> is not
> too far off the thread here....]  I have Kelly Hart's video and found 
> it
> very informative, however I don't think I am a competent enough 
> engineer to
> construct something for the mixing of the papercrete.  I wondered if 
> anyone
> had some simple ideas for mixing the paper and water into a slurry 
> without
> using electric power.  Any and all advise is appreciated, thank you.  
> Best
> of days to you.
>
> rainbow
>