This house is made of paper. It’s probably stronger than yours.

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Would you live in a house made of paper?

Thousands already do, and chances are their home will still be standing decades after yours is torn down.

They’re built from papercrete.

Papercrete is pretty much what it sounds like.  While specific recipes and mixes vary, papercrete is shredded or pulped paper, mixed with concrete or cement to create a strong, lightweight, durable building material.

Its wood fiber content makes it much like lumber, in that it is light and can be cut.

Its cement content makes it much like concrete, in that it is fireproof and durable.

I’ve been experimenting with papercrete for use in building a desert home.  Using a simple 50/50 mix of paper and cement by dry weight, I cast a 12x6x6 inch block and have left it sitting out in the blazing hot/freezing cold/always wet and humid weather of the D.C. area.

Two years later it looks exactly like it did the day it dried.  No degredation or cracking, even after supporting hundreds of pounds of weight.  In fact, mildew refuses to grow on it.

You should check out papercrete.  Here’s a short video of someone demonstrating how to make and use it in bulk.

What would you build with papercrete?