Homestead mailing list

[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

And some wonderful books, old and new on Vernacular Architecture.



PAPERCRETE

http://www.starship-enterprises.net/Papercrete/Mixer/
 (a junked auto rear-end on-trailer mixer)

http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com/paplowcoshom.html
 (Books sold by Charmaine Taylor, including excerpts from Jack Bays 
Rub-R-Slate mixes and uses---some Bays mixes also in the Kern books)

http://www.padobe.com/mixer.htm
 (specs, formulas, usages, many caveats)

http://www.fiberfoamconcrete.com/
 (papercrete mixes, mixer, newest additives, block molds, reference to 
tip-up walls with window, door bucks.  I have always been suspicious of 
papercrete's ability to absorb water.  Even with the newer additives I 
would make some standard blocks, weigh them dry, immerse them in water 
for a week or so and reweigh them---crush them to destruction in both 
states to get an idea of their strength and durability under rainy 
conditions---and of course use a wide roof overhang like adobe, possibly 
coat the exterior surface with something like Jack Bays (deceased) 
Rub-R-Slate described in the Kern books and some sold by Charmaine 
Taylor---or a silicone to shed water)

Have to give a lot of attention to tying down papercrete walls and 
fastening roof structures to them---they don't weigh much and don't have 
much tensile strength, so a bond-beam is essential, together with tying 
it to reinforced concrete footing and stemwall with rebar.)

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/cast_earth.htm
 (Cast Earth is a variant in which walls are poured in forms.  The mix 
requires additions of retardants to delay walls setting up.

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/vernacular.htm
 (some wonderful books on Vernacular Architecture, from the old Lloyd 
Kahn "Shelter" to his newer one  "Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter", 2004, 
and all the other books to which reference is made on this website.  If 
you had the two Kern books on the nuts and bolts of building, the 
Christopher Alexander books which tell you how you should handle inside 
and outside spaces to make a home "feel right" to occupants, and the 
books on this website, you would be halfway to becoming a good builder, 
i.e., able to build a more livable house by escaping the depressing 
closed-angle, limited-view Indiana Box beloved of bankers and divorce 
court lawyers.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/dirtcheapbuilderbooks/rubles.html
 (ALL the Jack Bays Rub-R-Slate formulas for $12.00---a rare bargain 
everyone should have on hand)