Cenizo Journal Spring 2018 | Page 4

A n unplastered papercrete wall in Linda Beranek’s tiny house shows how new con- struction can look like the layers of an ancient city undergoing excavation. A n archway in the greenhouse at Eve’s G arden, owned by Kate Thayer, beckons the explorer to experience an astonishing array of papercrete mastery. www.evesgarden.org PAPERCRETE By Danielle Gallo T he thing about common sense is that it tends to be less than com- mon. In this moment in history, in this society, we excrete into our potable water, eat food that has to be transported from other continents and build our houses mostly out of wood of a decreasing quantity and quality. These practices are not only common but are frequently dictated by law, and are hardly sensible. 4 Thankfully, I live in an unincorporat- ed village with no building codes, so I’m free to build houses out of whatever I please. The Big Bend isn’t known for its surplus of trees, but we do have an amazing amount of trash around here. That’s why I love to build with paper- crete. Papercrete, as many West Texans are aware, is made by pulping used paper and mixing it with Portland cement and Cenizo Second Quarter 2018 The Hostel at La Loma del C hivo, owned by G uilford Jones, is a massive barrel-domed and buttressed building for the road-weary traveller. an aggregate such as sand to make a light, fibrous, cementitious block. While it doesn’t have the strength of concrete (average compressive strength is around 260 psi, whereas concrete can have a compressive strength in the tens of thou- sands psi), it has a lot of advantages over its much harder cousin: it is insular, it’s inexpensive and it cleans up the environ- ment. I like an independent support struc- ture for a papercrete house because of its low compressive strength, and I find a steel roof supported by oilfield pipe does very well. It adds another recycled element to the structure and eliminates the worry of slow compressive failure over time in the walls, minimizing continued on page 26