My wife has started doing some experiments with hempcrete too. We grabbed a few molds at the second hand store recently too cast hempcrete in molds. We are working in different venues to test a range of uses for this medium.
She dry mixed the lime and Durobond before adding water. Then water was added and care was taken to leave the mix a little dryer than the last batch.
We then mixed in the hurds.
We than covered the molds with plastic wrap to avoid the mix sticking to the molds.
We had the mix workable to about the consistency of play dough .
Packing the molds we let them sit for a couple of hours to let the durobond set.
Here is the result!
From here these could be finished with a lime wash or other medium. It just gives an idea of the many ways this medium can be used.
I took a couple of pieces of these samples outside and have left them there for the past week and a half. The goal is to see how the binder endures the weather when using the fast setting drywall compound as the setting agent. So far this seems to be going ok.
The products cast in the last experiment have actually started curing out now and are hardened to an acceptable level now that the moisture has started to cure out of them.
The next project which is well under way is the Hempcrete chicken coop
Thanks for following our journey!
