permaculture

[Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

At 11:09 PM 11/26/02 -0800, you wrote:
> Aloha,
>
> > I'd sure look at concrete reinforcing wire for some of these
> > applications  ya'll are describing.
>
> What kind of wire are you referring to, Mark?  The thicker, larger-mesh
> (6" square, etc.) kind used for reinforcing slab pours and so on?  Or...?

Thats the stuff.  I see it in a lot of widths and shapes at the local 
pre-cast concrete products factory, not sure if it is ordered that way or 
if they form it there.


> > I agree with Kirby that the chicken
> > wire, made of  two metals and thin, seems a little out of place.
>
> Thin and many is good, for ferrocement - it's the fine matrix of embedded
> tensile fibers (e.g. metal mesh, lath, etc. in most cases) that gives it
> strength and rigidity.  FC is a different combination of materials with
> different properties than 'civil-engineering-style' steel-concrete (slabs,
> bridges, beams, pilings, steps, etc. etc. )

Why not use standard concrete fiber (fiberglass I think) rather than mess 
with all that chicken wire?  Seems like a lot of work.  BTW - my objection 
is to chicken wire specifically, like Kirby noted, the stuff tends to rust 
out fairly promptly with moisture and is a coated wire, dissimilar metals 
tend to have corrosion problems as they form mild electric currents and 
move atoms around.  Has anyone knocked apart some of this chicken wire 
reinforced material after a few years?  Be interesting to know if the CW 
held up.
M


Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM