Wendy and Mikey moved to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico primarily to build. Build community, build a home, build a fence and some insulation! If you’ve ever started a DIY construction project, you know that building materials can get expensive and most times are not environmentally friendly. What if you could get a majority of your materials for free, from a recycled source? You can! It’s called Papercrete! Papercrete is basically what the name implies- paper plus concrete. Wendy and Mikey show us their recipe and methods for creating their own building material from scratch.
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Technorati Tags: Wendy Tremayne, Mikey Sklar, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, eco-hotel, green acre, green, sustainability, sustainable, recycle, reuse, papercrete, diy, ryanishungry
Hey, I love the papercreate thing. I would love to see another piece that really gave us more detail about how it’s made. I didn’t grasp the mixer, and I found that after watching it, I had a bunch of questions. Here’s a thought - show a piece like this to a few folks, have them write down their questions, then do another piece based on their questions.
Just a thought,
Milt
Two comments:
1. I produced a short music video which gives another view of the mixer which maybe helpful. The mixer is simply a old truck axle with that has been tilted 90 degrees and had a lawn more blade bolted to it. There are many websites about papercrete describing how to build your own “tow behind third world mixer”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CGhD1ESUxPo
2. We have changed the recipe since the shooting over the video to lower our costs.
The new recipe is:
- 80lbs of paper
- 40lbs of paper cement
We do not pre-tear paper anymore. The mixer is good at that. We just use quite a bit of water. A dry mix does not vortex well enough to chop everything. Our mixes now take about 20 minutes to complete.
Pioneers. The fence is looking nice. You guys should visit them in a few years and check in on progress. I’m sure you planned on it anyway. These two make me want to start something. I’ve said it before.
Mikey and Wendy should have Green Acre opne to the public starting Fall 2007. we should all go stay and show support. It’s in the middle of nowhere, in the desert, and that’s part of the attraction. There is a new private spaceport about 30 minutes away.
More awesomeness. That looks fun. That’s good that you are finding ways to do it easier and less expensively. The easier you can get the process, the more likely people will use it.
PaperCrete–Neat!
If they are considering something as minor as the benefits of sequestration of carbon in the paper, they really must address the major waste of gasoline by hauling the whole truck and mixer about the yard. They could hook the mixer directly to a small gas engine, to the hub of the truck axle, or to a power takeoff.
YEAH, for taking the time and effort to make it yourself, instead of depending totally on the out-of-control corporateering building construction industry.
The truck certainly does use gas. We drive a maximum of 5 miles a day for the mixes. Usually much less than that. Thats about 95 lbs of CO2 being released into the atmosphere. The real gas hog is when we have to go and pickup paper or supplies which can be six mile trips. How many miles did you drive today?
We considered smaller electric motors, but burnout and torq were the primary concerns. Today all we shredded was damaged phone books. Many motors would have gagged trying to deal with shredding 80 phone books.
I really appreciate the videos and information you have put out there for the rest of us to use. I have a couple of questions for you, if you have sometime to answer them. What is the name of the tool that you use to spray the papercrete? To what thickness have you sprayed papercrete, or to what thickness do you think you could spray it to? I have worked with stucco for a number of years and have found that it will release from a concrete surface if the surface is not properly prepared, have you had this problem? My solution has been to buff up the concrete surface with a grinder and use Elmer’s glue in the mix. I suppose a person could use a wheat paste instead of white glue but I am wondering what will happen to that papercrete in a number of years. I am especially concerned about the mixtures that area sprayed to the containers, due to the different rates of expansion the 2 products will experience. Overall though a little loss of surfacing is a small hiccup. Good luck and I hope to see more videos.
Hi James,
The tool we use to spray papercrete is a device called the “tirolessa sprayer” it is available for $225 from http://ferrocement.net . We also use a large air compressor (6HP, 60 gal, 11CFM, 220V) and 100′ of half inch hose. The combined cost of our spraying setup was just under $1000 for all items mentioned above.
We have sprayed papercrete to 1/2″ thickness. If multiple layers of expanded metal lath were used we could go to many feet of thickness. The lath can get expensive fast.
We have experienced the same as yourself as far as applying papercrete to a concrete surface. Our solution was to use old latex paint. This is the same paint we used paint the interior of our home 5 months before. We just added a cup or two of old latex paint to each 5 gallon batch of papercrete and mixed it in place with a handrill and egg beater end.
I’ve just finished sealing our 300′ fence of papercrete by using a elastomeric roof sealer paint. It was a expensive endeavor at $90 for each 5 gallon bucket. However, I believe our fence and stucco will survive for decades due to this investment.
We are going to try mixing a cactus called “Prickly Pear” tomorrow and see if we can use that as sealant. Several southwest based green builders and natives that have inhabited the land for centuries have used this cactus to block out moisure and as a cement alternative.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions. My interest here is to use papercrete as insulation on an existing concrete basement wall. As I live in Canada I have to insulate against cold. There are a few alternatives available to me but none are particularly attractive. With that in mind I am going to attempt to use papercrete as either a spray on coating or use a technique called harling. As well I have an idea for using papercrete in place of a traditional poured concrete floor and surface that with a clay flooring. If I get really ambitious I will film the entire debacle so my eventual grandchildren with have something to laugh over. Thanks again
Thanks for the great info. I’ve got some paper questions. I’m curious if you prep the paper in any way before putting it in the mixer. Do you remove the spines of magazines? Rip the phone books into smaller pieces? Take great care to remove staples, etc.? Do magazines work as well as old newspapers?
Hi Kim,
We do not prep the paper at all before it goes in the mixer. In this video we are tearing the paper, but we don’t even do that now. If there is enough water the mixer can easily shred the paper without assistance or extra preperation. The magazine spines and phone books can all be used as is. We have found two cases where we prefer not to use any books with spines.
1. When shooting papercrete (we use a big air compressor and a hopper). The spines clog up the hopper.
2. When pumping papercrete. (we use a 3″ trash pump). The spines might be able to clog the pump, so we only use newspaper when pumping.
Although many types of paper can be used. I highly recommend securing waste newspaper sources. Newspaper is a weak fiber that breaks down easily with minimal amount of energy. Phonebooks, magazines, and cardboard can work, but they will add time and energy to your project. You will get the strongest most cohesive mix from straight newspaper.
Some relevant links:
Youtube video of papercrete being pumped:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhoScNNYNQI
Youtube video of papercrete being sprayed on a shipping container:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DJZrrh8AVc
Youtube video of papercrete being sprayed on papercrete fence:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zOoKBgZ_8E