To use papercrete I must build a mold that will allow water to drain away from the papercrete. As my walls are 12’x8′ (yeah, I know, the height keeps changing), with the two *tall* walls being 30″ taller at one end, I need a 12’x11′ layup table.
The frame can be 2″x6″, over which I’ll fasten an expanded rolled metal layer (I’ve got a couple sheets I can cut and weld together to make the face of the mold), over which I’ll spread shade cloth. I can get a sheet of shade cloth for ~$100.
Building the walls for the pump house will tell me whether I need an additional stiffening layer between the shade cloth and the steel layer to keep the facia wythe from mirroring the topography of the rolled expanded steel.
I’ve looked at a lot of papercrete blocks on the internet, and walls slipformed out of papercrete. I like the way the slipformed walls look. Very reminiscent of rammed earth. Looking at the blocks sparked a thought. Ferrocement is vibrated into place to evenly and thoroughly distribute the concrete into the layers of reinforcing. Shouldn’t papercrete be vibrated as well to evenly distribute the fibers throughout the slurry to produce a panel with uniform shrinkage, strength and insulative value? Makes perfect sense to me. I’ll have to try and see what I get.
The side edges of the papercrete panels will have to be slanted to accommodate the joining of the walls. For the pump house the panel edge angle will be 45°. Because the house pods are 8 sided, the panel edge angle will be 22½°. I’ll rip a couple boards to stick under the edge of the shade cloth to get the angle I need. I can screw the slanted boards in place through the expanded metal. When the walls are stood in place I’ll glue the joint and apply additional papercrete to smooth out the joint. Because the papercrete is not my structural layer I am less concerned with the possibility of a poorly glued joint.