Advantages of Using Hempcrete

When I met Jack Herer, the late pro-cannabis, hemp activist and the author of, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, I immediately became obsessed with the idea of hemp saving the world and bought a case of 100 of his books to give to everyone who would listen. I collected 10,000 signatures of the 75,000 needed to get the first medical marijuana initiative on the California ballot. Eventually, I built a small cabin using hempcrete.

Benefits Of Hempcrete

Of the 50,000 known products we can make with hemp, hempcrete is my favorite. It is a mold-resistant, pest-resistant, rot-resistant, fire-resistant, carbon-negative building material.

In addition, hempcrete offers everything you want in a building or wall. It breathes, regulates the temperature in a building, insulates, is non-toxic, environmentally safe. It also removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it uses to grow, process, and transport it, in other words, it's carbon-negative.

Hempcrete is just the woody part of the hemp stalk shredded and mixed with lime into a fluffy mixture that can be formed into bricks or filled into forms to construct walls.

Key Advantages of Using Hempcrete:

Hempcrete has great energy efficiency
Hempcrete maintains a steady temperature
Hempcrete doesn’t shrink, so there are no crack lines
Hempcrete is a breathable material
Hempcrete provides a healthy environment
Hempcrete is very simple to use if you follow the process correctly
Hempcrete gains in strength over time
Hempcrete can also be applied by spraying or plastering
Hempcrete can be used seamlessly around the building to create an airtight layer
Hempcrete has the versatility to be used in floors and roofs
Hempcrete is hygroscopic, so absorbs moisture and humidity within the building source

Bricks can be made from it but it is better to fill a wall using forms to create a solid wall for better strength and insulation.

Hempcrete is breathable meaning it absorbs moisture from the air when humidity is high and released it again when humidity levels drop. This ensures that water vapor can pass in and out of the wall rather than becoming trapped and causing damp problems and making for a healthier and more comfortable home. It also means that no plastic moisture barrier is needed in the wall.

“Hempcrete walls are simpler than most conventional wall systems. They don’t need a vapor barrier, additional sheathing, rain screens or complicated engineering to prevent moisture buildup in the walls. Vapor permeable, i.e. breathable hempcrete walls regulate indoor humidity. They allow moisture to pass through the wall instead of getting trapped in the wall cavity.

“Yet they are airtight and provide good thermal insulation. The lime binder provides fire and [mold] resistance, repels pests, and makes the composite extremely durable. Hempcrete provides good racking resistance and becomes structurally stronger over time. It does not deform or crumble and so does not slump or create air gaps in the walls.”

Because hemp mixed with lime is a natural fire retardant there's no need for formaldehyde-based fire retardants or volatile organic compounds. When the carbon in the hemp and the calcium in the lime combine a bond takes place that creates calcium carbonate which is basically what a seashell is made of. This is what gives hempcrete its beneficial properties. The result is a lightweight insulating material weighing only about an eighth of the weight of concrete.

Hempcrete is unique in its ability to provide excellent thermal and acoustic properties in a single structurally sound, airtight building material which can be used to form the whole thermal envelope of a building. Other modern construction methods require the use of several different materials, products, and assemblies to match hempcrete’s properties and meet the many different requirements for walls, floors and roofs.

Hemp can be grown in rotation with food crops to improve the soil and reduce weeds, it does not require agrochemicals in its cultivation and there is no need for pesticides or insecticides.

Building with hempcrete is explained simply in this short video I think you'll enjoy.

Building With Hemp – An Incredible Natural Insulation & Sustainable Material

Building with hempcrete is the way to a sustainable future but it doesn't stop with just building walls. I mentioned earlier that there over 50,000 known products are made with hemp and many of those products are found in a typical home. You can read more about that at Hemp Can Grow Jobs And Houses Once We Grow Our Awareness Enough To Understand Its Benefits

Some of the products that hemp does and can replace include:

carpets
Interior and exterior paint
fabrics for furniture and drapes
mattresses, bed sheets, blankets, pillows
laundry detergent
countertops and sinks
roof tiles
plastics
flooring and floor tiles
molding
plumbing
biofuel - about 1000 gallons/acre

Basically, anything made of brick, plastic, or fabric can be made with hemp. Fabrics as coarse as burlap or fine as silk, plastics as thin as a plastic bag or as strong as ABS plastic used in plumbing. In fact, hemp plastic is much more durable and sustainable.

It truly is an amazing plant that can be grown on marginal land in any climate while improving the soil structure and without chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Hemp does not get you high but the lack of education about this wonderful resource has held it back from being fully understood and applied today. This is changing in many parts of the world but the US is still dragging it's feet. The US accounts for 50% of world demand for industrial hemp but imposts almost all of its hemp.

In raw numbers, hemp is still a very minor crop, but it is rapidly expanding: in 2016, less than 10,000 acres were grown nationwide; in 2017, nearly 26,000 acres – more than double the prior year – were produced by about 1,500 farmers. source

Considered a low-maintenance crop, hemp plants typically reach between 6 to 15 feet in height. Depending on the purpose, variety and climatic conditions, the period between planting and harvesting ranges from 70 to 140 days. One acre of hemp can yield an average of 700 pounds of grain, which in turn can be pressed into about 22 gallons of oil and 530 pounds of meal. The same acre will also produce an average of 5,300 pounds of straw, which can be transformed into approximately 1,300 pounds of fiber.

Industrial hemp may be an excellent rotation crop for traditional crops because it suppresses weeds and decreases outbreaks of insect and disease problems. Hemp may also rebuild and condition soils by replacing organic matter and providing aeration through its extensive root system.

Here are the statistics and expected yields per acre for industrial hemp according to the USDA. For hemp produced solely for fiber, the average yield is between 3-5 tons per acre. For the average size hempcrete family house, you'll need about 14 metric tons which can be grown on about 3-5 acres.

Here are some farming statistics for a small hemp farm operation

And here are more stats on Building with Hemp and Lime and it's construction properties.

Then there is marijuana which looks the same but is completely different. I love both plants and have a special relationship with cannabis you can read more about at Sowing Seeds Of The Devils Weed - Confessions Of A Second Generation Pot Farmer. This post won the best life advice category announced by Hive account@ned at Steemfest 1 in Amsterdam.