[Cob] building codes

[Dirtcheapbuilder-Charmaine]

you can do the same with lime and shredded paper, as in the Chineses 
recipe I refer to.

  soaking for a 2 WEEK period with just enough water, breaks down the 
paper, and a quick rototilling mix may do a similar job.. you get a 
cottage cheese type plaster that can be altered significantly with 
sand.. gritty Mexican style wall plaster or less sand makes and old 
work softer plaster.   try it too.

here is the recipe again.

Chinese recipe for Paper Lime plaster [interior use]A  By WEIGHT-1 part 
  (lb.)  chopped/shredded paper-office paper – or newspaper insulation 
to 10 parts (lb.)  soft lime putty (type N or S hydrated lime soaked in 
water 48 hours) Mix  well in large bucket or bin with tight lid. Seal 
lid. Let mellow 2-4 weeks, stir in 1/2-1 parts  sharp sand to make more 
trowelable. Mix with paint stem/paddle blade to make creamy.. Spread on 
wall by hand or trowel. Sculpt and  dry. feather edges thin at stop 
points. Can be limewashed; embed tiles while soft.   Adding extra  sand 
gives a stronger, more old  world  plaster/mortar look; for outdoor use 
eliminate paper or coat with sealer, or waterglass. Note from 
Charmaine: Successfully applied to  new and old DRYWALL, particle board 
on my work studio & bathroom walls.
AND used outside in weather as an external plaster!!  still sticking 
and staying in place, with a thin layer of waterglas applied  one time, 
2 years ago.


Charamine



On May 6, 2007, at 7:10 AM, <raduazo at cox.net> wrote:

        Someone talked to my last week about doing a plastering project 
in New Orleans. I have mixed cob with a rototiller and I have mixed 
earth floor material with a rototiller, but never plaster.
        This week I did a very small scale test on plaster which I think 
could be ramped up to large scale production. I started by putting a 
bundle of news papers in a soaking pit and after two days removed the 
papers and tore them into strips. (The soaked paper tears very easily.) 
I then put it in a mixing pit and turned it for a bit with fire clay 
($12. per 50 pound bag from places that sell brick laying supplies.) 
The result is a light clay insulating material with a little clay and a 
hard plaster with more clay. The light material could be molded and 
dried into blocks to fill cavities for insulation and the hard material 
makes a fairly decent wall plaster for covering a lath.
          You can, of course, substitute screened clay for the fire 
clay. I usually dry clay, break it up with a tamper in my concrete slab 
and pour the powder through a screen.
              If anyone has a project where insulating blocks might come 
in handy it would be nice to see someone else experimenting with this 
and other new materials.
Ed

---- joe r dupont <joedupont at juno.com> wrote:
> one more time.. houses should be able to be built as experimental..
> period. if you buy an experimental home .. its your risk.. that's all
> it is called freedom..  like i said.. if i lived in an earthquake area 
>  i
> would sleep under a  steel cage to stop from being crushed.
> not a bad idea.
> joe
> On Fri, 4 May 2007 15:21:12 +0100 "Wesley Sandel" <wsandel at gmail.com>
> writes:
>> I've been reading the posts on building codes.
>>
>> It's true, it seems pretty damn silly that you can't just build
>> whatever you
>> want to live in, but often have to conform to all kinds of standards
>> that
>> may seem to make no sense (except in most rural areas, where
>> apparently you
>> can just build whatever you want anyway).
>>
>> But not all codes are just attempts by big brother to force you to
>> give your
>> money to corporations.
>>
>> I've spent a good bit of time in Central America. After awhile I
>> started
>> remarking on how ugly and expensive all the structural concrete
>> homes were,
>> and how much cheaper and more liveable the natural product homes
>> were. Then
>> it was pointed out to me that every 20 years or so they have a
>> series of
>> horrendous earthquakes and lots of natural homes fall down on
>> people, so
>> they've fallen out of favor. The locals have opted, without code, to
>> use
>> steel reinforced concrete when they can.
>>
>> I was involved with a non-profit in Houston, building low cost
>> housing. On
>> one project, someone hung the drywall before the electrical was
>> inspected,
>> and the city inspector made us cut holes in the drywall every few
>> feet to
>> verify that everything was up to code. We were pretty upset. But the
>> fact
>> is, a lot of contractors will cut corners to save money, and one of
>> the
>> functions of the code is to prevent that happening and compromising
>> safety.
>>
>> Codes are often safety driven.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Coblist mailing list
>> Coblist at deatech.com
>> http://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist
>>
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Coblist mailing list
> Coblist at deatech.com
> http://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist

_______________________________________________
Coblist mailing list
Coblist at deatech.com
http://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist


Charmaine Taylor Publishing
www.dirtcheapbuilder.com  www.papercrete.com
PO BOX 375   CUTTEN CA 95534  USA
Tel:  707-441-1632   11-4 PST