Paper Houses

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For waterproofing, he used Elastomeric roof coating. First he put down four 5-gallon buckets of Elasto Seal primer, then covered it with four buckets of Snow Roof. He figures he could have done the job with half as much primer and roof coating, but he opted to spend the extra money for extra protection.

PLUMBING AND WIRING

Any plumbing and wiring in the floor slab is done in the standard way. Since papercrete and fidobe can be easily sawed, it is also simple to place plumbing and wiring in the walls after the house is completed. Just make two parallel cuts with a chain saw, pop open the groove with a screwdriver, install the plumbing or wiring and stucco over it with papercrete or fidobe. Holes can be cut for electrical outlet boxes with a saber saw; simply mark the location of the box, cut around the perimeter with the saw, then pop out the papercrete "plug" with a screwdriver.

STUCCO

Both papercrete and fidobe can be used as stucco. For papercrete stucco, it's good to use a lot of cement (at least two bags per 200-gallon batch) for extra hardness, adhesion and protection against fire. Some people have had great success applying papercrete stucco directly to the wall without chicken wire, but others have had trouble getting it to adhere properly. The rule seems to be: the greater the cement content, the better the adhesion. Fidobe stucco seems to adhere well to a fidobe wall. (For more on do-it-yourself stucco, see "Stucco Made Simple," January 2000, MEN #177.)

COST

Andy estimates that the materials for his 16' x 32' house cost $4,050, which works out to $7.91 per square foot. This isn't at all bad by today's standards. Virginia estimates a cost of $20 per square foot for her addition, largely because of the conventional roof. Some people are building with fidobe in the $1 per square foot range (no, we didn't drop a decimal point!), but this requires scrounging all the doors, windows, lumber, etc., and using a rubble trench foundation. It's very possible to keep costs to $5 a square foot if you buy used doors, windows and lumber. It all depends on how much energy you want to put into hunting for used materials and how successful you are on your quest.

WOULD THEY DO IT AGAIN?

Both Andy and Virginia say yes, definitely, though both agree it was a lot more work than they had anticipated. Mixing their own slurry was of course the biggest time- and labor-drain: Andy mixed a total of 100 loads; Virginia mixed 150.

Should the day come when we can buy ready-made blocks at a reasonable price, or if somebody comes up with a reliable slurry pump, the labor required will drop astronomically.

The papercrete/fidobe movement is just beginning. We like to say it's where straw bale was ten years ago - most people have yet to hear of it, and only a few houses have so far been built. But there is a crying need to do something useful with all the trash this culture generates. Rather than calling used paper and cardboard "waste" and throwing it into landfills, we can instead turn it into a valuable building material. It's a golden opportunity for this country to start managing its solid waste "problem" with a little common sense. Imagine being able to build your next house out of used pizza boxes and junk mail!

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