permaculture

["John Schinnerer" <john@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

Thanks for all the info, Gene.
My original question here still applies:

> The use of fiberglass fibers in a mix adds tensile strength to the mix
> and eliminates the need for wire mesh.
...
> Trowling cement containing fiberglass fibers is no problem, you hardly
> know it's there.

I can't trowel it onto thin air, though...I still need something to form
the shape that I'm troweling onto - so, what do you recommend?

How about using engineering fibers while plastering a mesh armature, which
can rust if it's going to but with the fibers the rusting won't affect
strength much if at all?

For DIY work and relatively small projects (which is what I'm interested
in) forms are lots of extra work, lots of extra materials and money and
very limiting as to what shapes can be formed compared to just shaping the
armature and then plastering it.  Plus for stuff that's one-off, the forms
are pretty much useless after the structure is done.  So I'm not going to
make forms - by that point I might as well do regular poured steel and
concrete, possibly made easier by use of cempo/energrid/rastra or faswall
type units.

Can you clarify sources and uses of fibers - I've heard of 'engineering
fibers' that can be added to any mix, is that what you're referring to?


John Schinnerer, MA
-------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net