House made from recycled plastic blocks

[DAY]

Have you calculated the R value?

I can't tell from the photo, but your "machine" may be similar to the Cinva earth ram used to make blocks in the Third World.

Finally, the new 'plastic' decking, furniture, etc is made from recycled shopping bags. Perhaps you could use that to frame out the window and door openings.

 

[woodsmith]

If the off gasing is a threat then we are all dead. The blocks are made from stuff all around us all the time. The walls are intended to be plastered anyway because some of the stuff will deteriorate in the sunlight. Besides that, we've been covering ugly with plaster forever as human beings.

The risk would be the off gassing within a closed building, that could allow quite a build up of toxins inside even with plaster, though you are using a mud plaster? That will be porous.

It may not be a problem but it would be worth monitoring when the building is done. You wouldn't want sick building syndrome.

I've experienced that with an environmental straw bale lecture theatre that was almost unbearable to be in unless the doors and windows were left open and the room only half full.
The VOCs came from water based wood varnish, PVC cable insulation, fire retardent treatments, water based wall paints and plastic chairs all trapped inside because it was also draft proof and very warmly insulated!:laughing:

 

[DAY]

I've experienced that with an environmental straw bale lecture theatre that was almost unbearable to be in unless the doors and windows were left open and the room only half full.
The VOCs came from water based wood varnish, PVC cable insulation, fire retardent treatments, water based wall paints and plastic chairs all trapped inside because it was also draft proof and very warmly insulated!:laughing:[/QUOTE]

I guess my drafty old 1783 Pennsylvania post and beam stone house ain't such a bad domicile, after all. . .:thumbsup:

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Maybe next week during the event week I'll have the time to really post some stuff up. As it is I got to bed about midnight and I was up before six. There is so much stuff to get done and this is such an adrenalin rush. As the grandson who rode home with me last night put it, "about the time you're ready to fall over someone comes up and their excitement sends you back over the top again."

It's one exciting moment after another. For those who were with us that weekend four and a half years ago when we did the ATV bridge project you can multiply that event by two months and hundreds of visitors. Today we have two reporters visiting wanting to do stories.

 

[schmism]

Have you considered the bale density

That was my first question.

Im curious to see some of the engineering calcs on bale density and theoretical density and load bearing capacity of the plastic.


heres a question.... if you live in the middle of BFE nowhere.... were in the world (pun intended) do you get "an entire large front loader garbage truck" of plastic?

 

[MarkV]

Harvey you are always thinking out of the box. Well done and I hope you will post updates as time allows.

MarkV

 

[2manyrocks]

Straw bale house made out of recycled plastic.....from what I've read, the thorny issue for straw bale construction is the uneven settling of the roof because of the varying density of the straw bales. If plastic bales have a more consistent density, then maybe not so much a problem. Some of the straw bale houses have been framed enough to support the roof, and the bales just used as in-fill for the walls. I've read that a man named Pliny Fisk used a metal truss and metal roof in combination with straw bales for a model farm developed for the Texas Dept. of Agriculture.

One advantage the plastic bales ought to have over straw is they shouldn't wick moisture out of the footers into the wall.

The exterior finishing of straw bale houses has tended to be stucco with plaster used to give the interior a more uniform appearance. I'm curious what the plan is for exterior/interior finishing will be for these plastic bales?

 

[Ford tractor]

Color me stupid, but I can't find the link to the gizmo that makes the bales.

A little help! Please Thanks!

 

[mbrule]

Color me stupid, but I can't find the link to the gizmo that makes the bales.

A little help! Please Thanks!

http://recycledplasticblockhouses.com/

 

[2manyrocks]

Another issue is the lack of uniformity in the trash that makes up the block will make it harder to attain uniform compression and probably will affect how the block holds together over time. It's not like straw that bundles up nicely.

Unless the trash is cleaned, then I guess it could smell when temperatures heat up.

I am a bit surprised that they are using a screw to compress the bale. I would have expected a scissors car jack from the standpoint of being more common.