Good to see this happening in the UK. IMHO all new builds should use hemp. Best book on the subject (so far): The Hempcrete Book: Designing and building with hemp-lime. William Stanwix and Alex Sparrow
Awesome, if you have any questions drop them here, we will be doing more hemp for some internal walls soon so if there is anything you'd like to see a bit more detail of, let us know. We are also recording a Q&A in a few weeks to try and answer all the questions we've been getting. Thanks for watching.
Great video mate. We built a 10*12 building to learn about the material. We got wiped out by wildfires in California hills, so fireproof attributes are a win for hempcrete. It’s interesting to see the building perform from keeping cool and warm with zero AC, it also avg out the humidity. We cannot get NHl in the USA at a feasible cost so had to figure out a pozzalon to mix with the hydrated lime, Metakaolin seems to work great and is available close by.
Thanks. Yeah we are quite lucky to have good supplies of lime, France is just over the channel and is a big producer. Has your building encountered a wild fire yet? We have a block we made that we are going to test in a fire and see how it holds up. Will also be doing tests of how the house performs with temperature, we'll be starting the under floor heating install soon and already have the sensors gathering data. Cheers for watching :-)
@@thelowcarbonproject No we built it after the 2020 fires over here. I have tested it and it'll just blacken the surface few mil. There is no flame spread or smoke, I think scored 0(best) out of 450. It's very cool that once we have the house built we then get to experiment of how the house performs. Look forward to more vids. Cheers!
@@thelowcarbonproject shame we dont have a good alternative to the lime itself, particularly when some has been found to contain arsenic in small dosesa nd Calcium Oxide is on the hazardous substance list of course :) Arent the white cliffs of dover limestome? funny to have to ship if from abroad haha
This building method seems quite complicated. Def not a diy thing. The more I see all of these alternative methods the more I go back to stick frame actually making a lot of sense.
@@nofurtherwest3474idk, I've seen some other videos where people were doing this for smaller houses and the people didn't look as professional but I think its doable as dying if someone learns and prepares enough. 1 couple made a nice modest house and took them a week with their friends to make the walls.
You're welcome 🍻 Did you mean "less thermal bridges"? We will be covering all that sort of stuff in later episodes when it comes to heating, power and efficiency testing. Thanks for watching
Молодцы, желаю вам дальнейших успехов! Буду с нетерпением ждать следующих выпусков. Я из России, из Московской области. Очень хочу построить себе дом по подобной теххнологии, с применением костры конопли. Но у нас очень много вариантов технологии построек на основе костры конопли, сложно выбрать. Я, как архитектор-проектировщик частных домов изучаю методику и особенности построения и проектирования домов из костры конопли со связующими. Информации немного. Гидравлическую известь купить у нас можно, но очень дорого, есть варианты составов с гашеной известью и метакаолином. Изучаю дальше. У нас есть фирма, смешивает костру конопли с цементом и изготавливает блоки. Но подобно вашему вариант мне больше нравится. Подписалась на вас и желаю вам дальнейших успехов и здоровья! Ольга.
Im looking at options right now but this seems like i need wood, plastic and the hemp concrete and lots of work. It feels like I would be better to build a 'prefab' and use hemp insulation and then a sustainable cladding. I was the biggest producer of hemp in Spain for a few years but the government stopped us processing it in any form at all :*
It's quite a lot of work but very satisfying. We have hardly any plastic apart from a bit of conduit, if your referring to the shuttering that can be replaced with wooden boards. That's interesting about Spain, did you produce for CBD or industrial hemp? Is it just the processing of hemp that's an issue there or growing as well. We have a big interest in spanish rules for future projects.
@@thelowcarbonproject Was initially growing for cbd, we were the first company in Europe to have legal products on shelves about 7 or 8 years ago . grew to over 60 hectares and was going to create a very large central processing hub to be able to seperate all the consituent parts, you know, shiv , flower, etc so that we could supply the animal and building companies the product ready to use. Big investment secured for it.. But yes, first we had covid, then Spain simply stopped us doing 'any' processing at all. so we could grow it and chop it, about it. thererby killing what 'shoul;d' have been the leading hemp country in many ways (obviously the free sun making it very efficient. So, yeah basically 12 years of hard work down the drain for me personally :) Now Im moving to Portugal , somewhat related and now probabaly a better place to set up
Cheers mate🍻 Good looking carbon catcher You got! I'm from Finland and curious to know how is Your outside temps at winter and since that material is breathing as well it's isolating, i wonder how You'll solve the outside surface? Keep up the good work👍
Hi, thanks for watching. We're in SE England so temperature rarely drops below -5 degrees C, we occasionally get cold snaps but they don't tend to last too long. The walls will be coated in 20mm of hydraulic lime render and a silicate based paint on top which will provide plenty of protection. That work is starting early September. The hemp walls will have had plenty of time to fully dry out by then. We will be setting up temperature sensors and logging how the building performs throughout winter, and will be showing that in future episodes. We have heard from multiple sources that these buildings maintain a temperature of between 18 and 20 degrees (without heating) so will be interesting to see how well this one performs. Cheers
Yeah it was pretty quick considering there was only 2 of us. By moulds, do you mean the black boards? they are shuttering that is usually used for concrete forming. We used them on the outside and have a breathable "permanent shuttering" on the inside. We hired the temporary ones from Graham at www.hemplimespray.co.uk
I'm looking for into buolding a house using "larsen trusses" this eliminateds (almost) all thermal bridges. For intelnal and external i'll use pavatex isolaor multi 40mm wood fiber board. This can be renderd with a lime render on the outside and clay plasyer on the inside. For insulattion, the wall wil be blown in with cellulose insuation. All the "bouwknopen" will be seald with airthigdt tape. The clay render is also seen as airthight but vapor open.
Came in for the usual share of the hemp jokes, but I seem to be the first visitor here. Ok, here we go. This is a high rise building. Good job, fellas, I like it. If I wear a pair of the sugar cane jeans, I can totally see myself living in such an eco-friendly house too...
HIGH rise 😅 that's an original one. Thanks for the comment. It was hard work making this one but really enjoyed it and would definitely do it again. Great thing about this material is, anyone can do it. That and the fact it's made this build carbon negative already, still working on the numbers but will try and get an episode on that out in the near future
It's not structural, so high rise would be difficult. There is one recently completed, which was 12 floors and reinforced with concrete blocks in Cape Town. It would be good to use as insulation on pretty much any building as well.
Does anyone know if this could be done with a steel frame? 🤔 I can't see why it couldn't. I am glad to see the hemp industry growing here in Aus. Hopefully, prices come down for hemp soon.
We've not seen it used before, if it was used it would need to be coated in something as the hemp lime is corrosive. It actually ends up petrifying the timber over time, making it even stronger. How much is hemp there? It is £9 per 180 litres here. Total spend was 11k including the lime.
Wow, beautiful walls! Your house is truly amazing... May I ask what the "permanent shuttering" you used is? Did you purchase that (from what company?) or make it yourselves? If it's a product you purchased would you mind adding a link to the company you purchased it from? Many thanks!
@@davefrofisher The brand we used was CEWOOD but there are others available. Search for wood wool board and that should show what's available in your country. We got these from here - www.lime.org.uk/products/boards-backgrounds-insulation/wood-wool-boards.html Knauf do them aswell - www.knaufinsulation.com/what-we-do/our-solutions/heraklith-wood-wool-solutions
@@thelowcarbonproject cheers for getting back to me, actually meant the interlocking formwork brand name? But thanks for the links to the wood wool boards too. Would you do it the same way with the wood wool boards if you did it again?
@@davefrofisher Ahh sorry, we hired the panels from another hempcrete guy, not sure what brand they were but these that i've found look very similar. www.geoplastglobal.com/en/products/formworks/geopanel/ We probably wouldn't bother with the permanent shuttering again but there are benefits to doing it. There is less tamping so over a whole building, uses less hemp and is maybe a tiny bit more insulative. Also less shuttering to move when pouring. But there is also additional cost to using the boards and the hempcrete probably takes a bit longer to dry. The permanent boards would be useful if we were wanting to plaster and finish indoors before the hempcrete has dried properly.
Really great and informative videos. May I ask why you did not choose for a double stud wall with permanent shuttering at each side? In such system you would not have to tamper any side, resulting in a better insulated wall. Is that correct? Waiting to see the next episode.....ciao from Italy
Hi, there are a couple of reasons for that. The frame is located on the inside edge of the walls so we wouldn't actually have anything to fix a permanent shuttering to and would mean a lot of messing about with spacers adding time and they also wouldn't be held in place very well. Cost is another reason, there wouldn't be too much additional insulation added with another layer of shuttering on the outside so saved quite a bit. If by a double stud wall, you mean another frame on the outside edge to attach to, that again would cost more money, make it a lot harder to place the hempcrete and possibly create thermal bridging which is something we want as little as possible.
Nice gloves.. i need those.. long ones... recently i bought ones at home depo. Yesterday unpacked at home and turns out they are not so long as i was expecting..😂 hadn't time to improvise and now i have sour right arm.. 😅 need to think of some solution for today... it's not so easy to find long gloves, at least at my location.. 😅
Have you tried amazon? Just did a search for long work gloves and they had some (UK though). Alternatively, you could try a long sleeved shirt and maybe gaffer tape the top of the gloves. We didn't get any burns until the last couple of days when it got really hot here, we found the sweat mixed with the lime and burnt where the gloves contacted the skin.
@@thelowcarbonproject yesterday i used painters suit, but turns out it don't hold the water.. it let it through, together with lime.. thats why i got burnt.. now i'm at the start of my project (kitchen at home), and can't wait for order to ship from amazon.. need fast solution.. i think i'll go with the same painters suit and the same gloves, but this time i'll wrap my hands till elbow joints with something... food film or duck tape or both.. :)
The hemp Crete has more insulation qualities. Rammed earth is beautiful but depending on where in the world you build it may need 4" of insulation embedded into the outside walls.
Yeah quite a few been built here, there was a Kevin McCloud show called the street and someone built one, he also built a place called the Triangle which had multiple houses. We haven't got a final cost yet but will be going into that, once Matts worked it out fully. A rough estimate for Hemp, lime and timber for the frame was about £10K. It's a self build so not included labour in that cost yet. Stay tuned for a proper cost break down episode. Cheers 🍻
When we did that, we used 2 buckets of water, 1 bag of lime and half of 180 litre hemp bale. We recently mixed by hand for an internal wall and used 1 whole bag and doubled the rest, worked really well and gave nice mixes. New video coming very soon on that.
Can I combine hempcrete with stone? Is it "strong enough"? I really like stone houses for their look and it keeps cool temperature inside house during summer
Hi, you could spray hempcrete onto the internal side of the stone to provide better insulation but the morter used in stone walls would have to be breathable. You could also use precast hempcrete blocks internally. There are structural blocks available, but mostly, hempcrete needs a frame if it is a structural wall.
It dries naturally, we had to wait about 6 weeks (we actually gave it a lot more) before rendering. Each mix only had about 25/30 litres of water and the hempcrete actually petrifies the wood inside, so it gets stronger as time goes on. It's also mould and rot proof.
great video, good explanations. Thank you. Could you give the ratio of the components used? How many parts lime, hemp, water? Did you use hydraulic lime or lime mixed with a bit cement? Best regards
Thanks. We used a premixed hydraulic lime that came in 25kg bags. The mix we used was 90 litres of Hemp, 1 bag of lime and about 30 L of water (2 buckets). We hired the mixer from Graham at Hemplimespray.co.uk and he is the one that told us that mix ratio based on his experience. It can change depending on the lime binder used and weather conditions, in hot climate it would probably need a bit more water. The Hempcrete book by William Stanwix and Alex Sparrow is a very good resource and covers a lot of this info. In there they suggest a 4:1:1 (hemp : lime : water) but state it is very dependent on the type of binder used. We are going to be doing some internal walls in the next couple of months so will try and get exact weights and will show that in a future episode. We won't have a mixer for that so will be mixing on a board on the floor. Thanks again for watching, hope you're enjoying the series 🍻
@@thelowcarbonprojectI am fascinated by this. I can convert the measurements but when you mix the ratios you desribe how man square feet/meters etc of wall does one batch like that make? I just did a quick search for hemp fiber and found a place selling for like $400 for 400lbs of material. Just trying to get a rough idea for materials. Thanks.
@johnmcgraw3568 Hi, so we have done some calculations. The bails of hemp were £9.50 and a bag of lime binder was £10.50. We needed 2 bags of lime to one bag of hemp. 5 hemp and 10 lime makes 1 cubic metre of wall. So, thickness of walls determines the square meterage. For 330mm walls, you can get 3 square metres for about £150. The walls on this house were 360mm so we got slightly less sq metres. A rough estimate is about £8000 of materials for the whole house. Way cheaper than bricks and mortar 🙂 We only needed to tamp/compress one side of the walls so that can also make a difference to how far it goes. Hope that helps 🍻
Привет, известь, которую мы использовали в стенах, - это гидравлическая известь. Известь, которую мы используем при рендеринге, - это гашеная известь. Privet, izvest', kotoruyu my ispol'zovali v stenakh, - eto gidravlicheskaya izvest'. Izvest', kotoruyu my ispol'zuyem pri renderinge, - eto gashenaya izvest'. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_lime en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_hydroxide
Hi, we had to protect the very top of it from rain as we were building the walls up but the sides aren't really effected by the rain. As for hot sun, that would really just benefit the drying times.
Hi, I am planning on using hempcrete for walls, what lime did you use in the mix, NHL 5? Also what lime render did you use, seemed to me that you just mixed it straight out of the bag, no sand added? I am also guessing that you used either stainless steel or galvanized fixings? Very interesting and very well built structure, even slightly over engineered, a lot of thought went into this, well done!
Hi, thanks very much. You're not the first person to say it's over engineered, it really just came down to the structural engineers request but only took us 7 days to do so would probably do it again now that we've done it this way before. The lime we used is linked below. It's ready mixed with a binder and made specifically for hand placing the hempcrete, and yes, the fixings are all galvanised and buried into the timber a bit. Cheers for watching 🍻 www.celticsustainables.co.uk/lime-green-hempcrete-binder-20kg/
Yeah, I really liked the way you built the house, extremely strong construction and very well organized! Thank you for the link, I will be looking into their products. I think you will have the most comfortable and nicest looking house in the street!
Yeah, I really liked the way you built the house, extremely strong construction and very well organized! Thank you for the link, I will be looking into their products. I think you will have the most comfortable and nicest looking house in the street!
Yeah, I really liked the way you built the house, extremely strong construction and very well organized! Thank you for the link, I will be looking into their products. I think you will have the most comfortable and nicest looking house in the street!
Yeah, I really liked the way you built the house, extremely strong construction and very well organized! Thank you for the link, I will be looking into their products. I think you will have the most comfortable and nicest looking house in the street!
Hello,really interested in your project as I'm building similar later this and next year. You're using an ordinary cement mixer ,than than a bespoke hempcrete one . Did you find this mixed consistently well ? Why did you decide against a hempcrete mixer please ? Thank you
Hi, sorry for the late reply, youtube thought it was spam and put it into a different folder for review and I've only just seen it. There isn't really a "hempcrete mixer" most are just modified or custom built by people. A pan mixer would have been good for us if we had more people working with us but as it was only the 2 of us the bell mixer worked well and was plenty big enough. We hired that off of one of the experts in the UK (he also supplied the shuttering and sourced materials for us). That mixer did have an extension on it just so it could hold more and we rigged a little counter weight to stop it over tipping. The mix was pretty consistent, we had the ratios worked out from the start. Sometimes the mix did start balling up, which was usually because we left the mixer turned on for too long. It really only needed a couple of minutes, if that.
Hi, we're not sure what brand we used but they are very similar to these www.geoplastglobal.com/en/blog/geopanel-geoplast-plastic-panel-walls/ We hired ours from the guy who soured our materials
Well done. Thanks! Do you have a specific recipe for you mix? Gallons/Liters water -- Lbs/Kg of hemp -- Lbs/Kg of Lime, etc? Thanks again. Just sane... :^) Saint
Hi, we used Half a bail of hemp, 20KG bag of lime binder and 2 full buckets of water. The hempcrete book says the ratio to use is 4:1:1 (hemp:binder:water) The mix we used was recommended by the person who sourced the materials and hired us the mixer and shuttering.
Hi we hired the boards so not sure what brand they were but they are designed for concrete formwork. These that I found online look very similar (may be the same) www.geoplastglobal.com/en/products/formworks/geopanel/
@@thelowcarbonproject Hey man thanks so much. Can I ask what kind of binder you all used? We are building a 1600sq/ft structure in the USA and I've been taking notes on your videos
@@OneShot_WOLF Hi, we used a premixed bag which we purchased from a company here in the UK. This is the one we used but they have all different types depending on how its being applied. This is designed for hand casting. Good luck with your project. www.celticsustainables.co.uk/lime-green-hempcrete-binder-for-hand-casting/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw4_K0BhBsEiwAfVVZ_zBD6pML9BZb5uRhYkk82eR2Qo4Wr4Jz2EYU8L8g5JnrRQBokTn4RRoCCXUQAvD_BwE
Hi, it took us about 5 weeks to complete but that was because of bad weather days. Actual days was 16 with 2 of us, so it could be done a lot quicker with a team of people
Hi, not really, it looks like the bedding is just chopped up stalk of the plant aswell. I might expect the quality to not be as good in the bedding, e.g it may have more fibres (from the skin of the stalk) than is acceptable for using in hempcrete.
Not a criticism just an helpful observation, for the sake of those using headphones try to even out the volume of the music to the same as your voice it's a bit of a shock when the music starts.
Hi, no not a daft question, I've been wondering how we could incorporate hemp into an earthship aswell, I love their design. Not sure if in the tyres would be the best use for it though, it has a cost, whereas rammed earth is free and usually right next to where it's needed. I also wonder if the tyres would degrade over time and lose shape, I think it would be quite hard to compact it well enough and it doesn't have much load bearing strength. On top of that, one of the main benefits of hempcrete is it's breathability and inside the tyres, you wouldn't get that. Maybe using hempcrete blocks for the back (tyre) wall could be a way to go 🤔 I would definitely use it for all of the internal walls though. It would be interesting to see how it dealt with the humidity in the greenhouse side too.
I thought earthships were designed for older dry climates and one of the main features are the tires filled with dirt are a heat sink that warms during the day by the sun and the walls radiate heat at night to heat the home. Think dirt in the tires would be best for that.
Hi, there are quite a few benefits. The materials are cheaper than bricks and mortar. It is very good for self builders as anyone can do it. The walls provide better insulation than brick walls, are breathable and regulate the internal humidity. The material is damp, rot and mould proof. It's better for the environment, this house is a carbon negative build, meaning the hemp has absorbed more carbon than we have produced while building. The walls are also a thermal mass which stores heat (e.g from the sun) and releases it back into the building over night. As it is a natural product and requires natural paint internally there is no off gassing of chemical materials. The house has no smell unless you really sniff the walls, they smell like oat cookies. Cheers for watching
are you in control of Material Cost & Supply for Hemp Bales? Seems U.S.Sugar in SW FL, USA is going into Hemp-farming, so this way of building "might" be suitable for Florida. Buddies...that sure looks like ALOT of work, though, for all the staging & forms. Cool idea! Having a study supply of Hemps seems the "key". Thanks! subbed/liked ohhh, forgot...how would this survive a 160mph/258kph, as sometimes happens here in Florida? Can't imagine what my Structural Engineer would say about his favorite subject...ROOF/FLOOR BEARING. great video. Interesting how you formed the wood top plate members vertically & spaced. Without leaping to the next video, is the wood structure the actually Bearing frame, and the Hemp exterior merely a near-structural exterior insulation...to be Stucco-ed after the drying? cool system!
Hi thanks for following along. We got our materials through a third party who has built a few places here in the UK and also does spray application of the hemp. Our hemp came from Scotland and was only about £9 per bail, the lime was the most expensive part. We have silly rules in this country around hemp and think there are only 6 or so farm licensed to grow it. Not sure about hurricane proof, do they build with timber in Florida? I did a quick search and came across this house that was being built in 2012 and the blog goes into some of that hurricane proofing info... hempcretehouse.coffeecup.com/ would be interesting to know if it has survived your weather. The hempcrete itself provides all the insulation needed, and the internal breathable boards used, provide a permanent shuttering that will be plastered with lime. The exterior is lime rendered (doing that at time of writing this) so no stucco board required. The hemp and boards provide a bit of racking strength but the timber frame is designed to take all load bearing. The raft foundation is a steel reinforced concrete slab, you can see that in episode 2. Thanks again, nice to have you here. Cheers
@@thelowcarbonproject 9 quid a bail, thats v lucrative for what is/was essentially the waste product. I was shipping it out at 1000 euros per tonne not so long ago :)
Hi, we're not sure what the brand was but is basically these. It's same stuff others use for concrete formwork www.geoplastglobal.com/en/products/formworks/
I (i'm not Matt) hadn't really built anything before this project, my job proper job is a broadcast engineer. I think if you find someone, like Matt, who knows their stuff, you'll be able to learn anything
Hi, not sure what the nes we used were called but it's basically the same as these www.geoplastglobal.com/en/products/formworks/ Same type that's used for concrete formwork.
Not sure vibrating it would be any benefit, the insulation comes from the air in the wall. When it's dense it loses insulation properties but would improve sound proofing. Apart from a bit of racking strength, it won't have enough structural strength for building regs. I think someone is making structural blocks but they have reinforcement in them.
Good question, we´ve had a quick look through the Hempcrete book but seen no mention of it. We have seen some youtube videos mentioning it but need to do some more research into that. The book mainly mentions lime and or clay as a plaster / render
If I'm not mistaken, "hemp plaster" is just lime plaster with hemp fiber added as the reinforcement instead of fiberglass or polymer fibers. Chopped basalt fiber is also a good choice for lime plaster (and as reinforcement for mortar). Either hemp or basalt will be a good choice. Can't really go wrong with either one.
@HickoryDickory86 we've just started rendering today, and the lime we have comes with a small bag of what looks like synthetic fibers, that we're adding to the mix. The hemp shiv we have would be too big to replace this. We'll show all this in the next episode.
Hi James, we hired this from the guy that got us the hemp and lime but have just done a search and it seems to be called Geopanel, I found this site that stock them and looks exactly the same. www.geoplastglobal.com/en/products/formworks/geopanel/ I think they are originally designed for concrete formwork but did the job for us. Alibaba seem to have similar things aswell
Привет, пытаюсь перевести. Мы использовали 20 кг извести, полмешка конопли (180 литров) и около 30 литров воды. Количество воды может варьироваться и больше зависит от получения хорошей смеси. Privet, pytayus' perevesti. My ispol'zovali 20 kg izvesti, polmeshka konopli (180 litrov) i okolo 30 litrov vody. Kolichestvo vody mozhet var'irovat'sya i bol'she zavisit ot polucheniya khoroshey smesi. We used 20kg Lime, half bag of hemp (180 litre bag) and about 30 litres of water. Water amount can vary and is more about getting a good mix.
The walls are gettting 20mm of lime render and a silicate breathable paint for protection. That should last at least 10 years before maybe needing another coat of paint. We've heard someone has tested it with 72 hours of water spray and it was fine.
I think the best building material so far is Autoclaved Cellular Concrete blocks such as YTONG. Eco friendly, very easy and quick to build with, great thermal properties and load bearing capacity which is huge advantage over hemp-crete blocks. While it is not popular material in the UK, it is one of the most popular material in eastern europe with climate much harsher than here.
It has it's uses but wouldn't say it's the best. They claim eco friendly but that's just when compared to other products, it still uses cement to make, just less than normal concrete and you still need mortar to build with it. Cement is responsible for 8% of CO2 emissions, hempcrete has sequestered up to 3.5 kg of CO2 per kg of shiv and also continues to absorb CO2 while the lime cures. It also provides a much healthier air quality within the house (natural air-conditioning, is rot, damp and antifungal. Some companies have made structural hempcrete blocks available although I think they do use plastic so not quite as eco friendly as standard hempcrete. www.core77.com/posts/91260/Eco-Friendly-Construction-Breakthrough-Lego-like-Hempcrete-Blocks-That-Dont-Require-Framing
@@thelowcarbonproject I wouldn't go too crazy with calculations of CO2 emmision The whole human activities account for less than 1% emission so I don't really buy this green agenda. I think it is more a green lobby and huge money behind rather than taking care of planet. I am always curious of new materials and was checking hempcrete, but I cannot see the point of using it. IT is more expensive, more labour intense, and doesn't have load bearing capacity. Perhaps if you build a bungalow you can get away with some smaller frame for the roofing and your walls wouldn't need to bear any loading, but for 2-3 floor building i like to have a stiff structure with concrete slab. There is nothing bad with cement/steel/plastic when they are used responsibly.
@@mateo_dequ We are called The LOW carbon project and this is our first project so we will obviously be calculating the embodied carbon of this build. We are also not going to be discussing conspiracy theories here. Thanks for watching though 🍻
Ha, that is very tempting but we still have quite a lot of work ahead of us. We were just sating yesterday, that we wouldn't mind doing the hemp bits, for / with other self builders though 😊 When are you planning to start?
@@staeyou1806 Yeah that's a little soon for us but happy to help and answer any questions you may have. You can get in touch with us on thelcpchannel@gmail.com
Yeah, that's not true. We hired the mixer from Graham at hemplimespray.co.uk/ and he knows his stuff. The mixer had an extender on it, so it was slightly deeper than normal. A pan mixer would be good if we had a team of 4 or 5 people (can make more in one go), but it was only 2 of us for the majority of the time. We'll be doing some internal walls and will be hand mixing on the floor for those.
Hi, we don't know of any in the US but if you send me an email to thelcpchannel@gmail.com I can send you some websites from the book we have that has a list of US companies working with hemp. Cheers 🍻
Not in this mix. But yeah I have also seen others do that. Probably cheaper than lime and easier to get in some parts. The lime we used is manufactured for hand placing hemp.
Ha yeah, we are still a pretty new channel and it apparently takes a bit of time for UA-cam to find our audience, but we're getting a pretty good organic growth considering we only have 11 full eps out now
It's not so unconventional any more, hemp has been in use since the mid 80s as a building material and lime has been used for centuries. It was a bit difficult to find a building control company willing to say yes but we found one that had worked with it before and gave us the OK. Hopefully more awareness around the product will come soon.
Hemp removes double the amount of carbon than trees so if every country just used hemp to build new homes we could stop climate change and rising sea levels.
@@elliemay7839 "In case of giant tropical bamboo, one newly planted bamboo plant can sequester 2 tons of carbon dioxide in just 7 years. In comparison, a typical hardwood tree will sequester 1 ton of carbon dioxide in 40 years. When compared to pine, bamboo can absorb up to 5 times more CO2." We should be using bamboo to strengthen hempcrete walls.
We're not sure of those numbers yet and will be doing all that testing later into the build. The hemp walls have a U-Value of about 0.17 which is very good and we expect the whole house performance to be very high :-)
lime in your eyes is just as bad if not worse than on your skin or inhaled . . . . curious how that is rated for a range of building applications and it seems that everyone using this stuff ends up building twice what they need frame wise to accommodate this stuff? so how does it break down cost wise versus a tradition stick build? i see lots of things going on with this stuff but have had zero luck finding it here in the states, everyone i find that has a site and reach out to never gets back, pretty frustrating considering the initial reports i'd heard about it made it seem like it was set to be a better building material at a much better price point with a large range of capabilities all undergoing proper scrutiny and testing. . . but i tend to see a lot of monkeys on parade instead. . . or a bunch of 'not there' sources . . . then YT throws this in my rec and in the first two minutes you make a big deal about lime put on a mask and elbow gloves then proceed to make a big ass dust clown while wearing ZERO eye protection >< see my issue with this whole "industry" and the people using it at the moment.
Not sure how different this timber frame is to how you do it in the states but this is what was designed by our structural engineer. Timber frames aren't used very much in the UK, it is normally always brick and block built so for this build the cost of materials is not much different. It's also a self build so no need for additional contractors to pump up the price. The extended scaffold hire has added a bit but that cost has been saved elsewhere. As for PPE we used safety goggles but that actually caused more of a problem. We got a couple of burns when wet hempcrete got in between clothing / gloves and skin which reacted with our sweat, this was even more apparent around the eyes when wearing goggles. in the clip you're referring to you can see Matt is standing up wind of the mixer and was pouring the lime after the water had gone in, which also reduced the amount of dust escaping the mixer. The hempcrete book we have used for reference, has a lot of websites for the US, here are some: americanhempllc.com americanlimetechnology.com hemp-solutions.org hemp-technologies.com ncaindhemp.org nationalhempassociation.org
So smart. Let's build hemp houses.
Yep, all houses should be made this way
Good to see this happening in the UK. IMHO all new builds should use hemp. Best book on the subject (so far): The Hempcrete Book: Designing and building with hemp-lime. William Stanwix and Alex Sparrow
Yep, great book and pretty much tells you everything you need to know. We have 2 copies between us now.
@@thelowcarbonproject two copies? Fetish! Just subscribed, a great series to date, thanks.
Thr Reggae Rhythm in the background is an honour to the Rastafarian fratenity for using their weed to make bricks😆
Hahahahahahaha!
Great build and great video series. Thanks for sharing. I hope more people see this.
Thanks for following along 😊
One of the best hempcrete videos, thank you.
Awesome. Thank you for watching 😊
It does not look easy that’s for sure
Excellent tea will luzzzzz forever and ever 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Great video thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it
Awesome job! One day, I'll build my own on some land.
Thanks and good luck with your project 🍻
This is rather cool
So happy to see this in the uk! Thanks for the great videos, and explanations, and a banging soundtrack!
Glad you've been enjoying them, always nice to hear. Thanks for watching :-)
WoW, great, It is very advanced.👏👏👏👏👏👍😍
Glad I can across this, planning a garden office in the spring, precisely the way I want to go. Thanks!
Awesome, if you have any questions drop them here, we will be doing more hemp for some internal walls soon so if there is anything you'd like to see a bit more detail of, let us know. We are also recording a Q&A in a few weeks to try and answer all the questions we've been getting.
Thanks for watching.
"Ill huff and ill puff and ill smoke your house down" that wolf guy
Ummm, hemp is not mj
Only a moron would think that was a funny...
Very useful. Thanks
You're welcome 😊
Great video mate. We built a 10*12 building to learn about the material. We got wiped out by wildfires in California hills, so fireproof attributes are a win for hempcrete. It’s interesting to see the building perform from keeping cool and warm with zero AC, it also avg out the humidity. We cannot get NHl in the USA at a feasible cost so had to figure out a pozzalon to mix with the hydrated lime, Metakaolin seems to work great and is available close by.
Thanks. Yeah we are quite lucky to have good supplies of lime, France is just over the channel and is a big producer. Has your building encountered a wild fire yet? We have a block we made that we are going to test in a fire and see how it holds up. Will also be doing tests of how the house performs with temperature, we'll be starting the under floor heating install soon and already have the sensors gathering data. Cheers for watching :-)
@@thelowcarbonproject No we built it after the 2020 fires over here. I have tested it and it'll just blacken the surface few mil. There is no flame spread or smoke, I think scored 0(best) out of 450. It's very cool that once we have the house built we then get to experiment of how the house performs. Look forward to more vids. Cheers!
@@thelowcarbonproject shame we dont have a good alternative to the lime itself, particularly when some has been found to contain arsenic in small dosesa nd Calcium Oxide is on the hazardous substance list of course :) Arent the white cliffs of dover limestome? funny to have to ship if from abroad haha
This building method seems quite complicated. Def not a diy thing. The more I see all of these alternative methods the more I go back to stick frame actually making a lot of sense.
@@nofurtherwest3474idk, I've seen some other videos where people were doing this for smaller houses and the people didn't look as professional but I think its doable as dying if someone learns and prepares enough. 1 couple made a nice modest house and took them a week with their friends to make the walls.
Good way to build .
It sure is
... you didnt mention that monolithic building has the advantage of thermal bridges ....
Great work, i love it
Ty 4 the video
You're welcome 🍻 Did you mean "less thermal bridges"? We will be covering all that sort of stuff in later episodes when it comes to heating, power and efficiency testing. Thanks for watching
@@thelowcarbonproject yes, that is what i had in mind.
Again, thanks for the video
Молодцы, желаю вам дальнейших успехов!
Буду с нетерпением ждать следующих выпусков.
Я из России, из Московской области.
Очень хочу построить себе дом по подобной теххнологии, с применением костры конопли. Но у нас очень много вариантов технологии построек на основе костры конопли, сложно выбрать.
Я, как архитектор-проектировщик частных домов изучаю методику и особенности построения и проектирования домов из костры конопли со связующими. Информации немного.
Гидравлическую известь купить у нас можно, но очень дорого, есть варианты составов с гашеной известью и метакаолином.
Изучаю дальше.
У нас есть фирма, смешивает костру конопли с цементом и изготавливает блоки.
Но подобно вашему вариант мне больше нравится.
Подписалась на вас и желаю вам дальнейших успехов и здоровья!
Ольга.
W underrated
Im looking at options right now but this seems like i need wood, plastic and the hemp concrete and lots of work. It feels like I would be better to build a 'prefab' and use hemp insulation and then a sustainable cladding. I was the biggest producer of hemp in Spain for a few years but the government stopped us processing it in any form at all :*
It's quite a lot of work but very satisfying. We have hardly any plastic apart from a bit of conduit, if your referring to the shuttering that can be replaced with wooden boards. That's interesting about Spain, did you produce for CBD or industrial hemp? Is it just the processing of hemp that's an issue there or growing as well. We have a big interest in spanish rules for future projects.
@@thelowcarbonproject Was initially growing for cbd, we were the first company in Europe to have legal products on shelves about 7 or 8 years ago . grew to over 60 hectares and was going to create a very large central processing hub to be able to seperate all the consituent parts, you know, shiv , flower, etc so that we could supply the animal and building companies the product ready to use. Big investment secured for it.. But yes, first we had covid, then Spain simply stopped us doing 'any' processing at all. so we could grow it and chop it, about it. thererby killing what 'shoul;d' have been the leading hemp country in many ways (obviously the free sun making it very efficient. So, yeah basically 12 years of hard work down the drain for me personally :) Now Im moving to Portugal , somewhat related and now probabaly a better place to set up
what reason did they give for banning Hemp production ?
Did the WEF discourage them until they can work out a way to make % from it ? lol
Cheers mate🍻
Good looking carbon catcher You got!
I'm from Finland and curious to know how is Your outside temps at winter and since that material is breathing as well it's isolating, i wonder how You'll solve the outside surface?
Keep up the good work👍
Hi, thanks for watching. We're in SE England so temperature rarely drops below -5 degrees C, we occasionally get cold snaps but they don't tend to last too long. The walls will be coated in 20mm of hydraulic lime render and a silicate based paint on top which will provide plenty of protection. That work is starting early September. The hemp walls will have had plenty of time to fully dry out by then.
We will be setting up temperature sensors and logging how the building performs throughout winter, and will be showing that in future episodes. We have heard from multiple sources that these buildings maintain a temperature of between 18 and 20 degrees (without heating) so will be interesting to see how well this one performs.
Cheers
Literally looks so fast to build! What r those moulds? Specially made for compaction? Where to getem? What's shuttering?
Yeah it was pretty quick considering there was only 2 of us. By moulds, do you mean the black boards? they are shuttering that is usually used for concrete forming. We used them on the outside and have a breathable "permanent shuttering" on the inside. We hired the temporary ones from Graham at www.hemplimespray.co.uk
I'm looking for into buolding a house using "larsen trusses" this eliminateds (almost) all thermal bridges. For intelnal and external i'll use pavatex isolaor multi 40mm wood fiber board. This can be renderd with a lime render on the outside and clay plasyer on the inside. For insulattion, the wall wil be blown in with cellulose insuation. All the "bouwknopen" will be seald with airthigdt tape. The clay render is also seen as airthight but vapor open.
Came in for the usual share of the hemp jokes, but I seem to be the first visitor here. Ok, here we go. This is a high rise building.
Good job, fellas, I like it. If I wear a pair of the sugar cane jeans, I can totally see myself living in such an eco-friendly house too...
HIGH rise 😅 that's an original one. Thanks for the comment. It was hard work making this one but really enjoyed it and would definitely do it again. Great thing about this material is, anyone can do it. That and the fact it's made this build carbon negative already, still working on the numbers but will try and get an episode on that out in the near future
it is great, can we use this material as HCB and BRICK material for high rise buildings
It's not structural, so high rise would be difficult. There is one recently completed, which was 12 floors and reinforced with concrete blocks in Cape Town. It would be good to use as insulation on pretty much any building as well.
Does anyone know if this could be done with a steel frame? 🤔
I can't see why it couldn't. I am glad to see the hemp industry growing here in Aus. Hopefully, prices come down for hemp soon.
We've not seen it used before, if it was used it would need to be coated in something as the hemp lime is corrosive. It actually ends up petrifying the timber over time, making it even stronger. How much is hemp there? It is £9 per 180 litres here. Total spend was 11k including the lime.
Wow, beautiful walls! Your house is truly amazing...
May I ask what the "permanent shuttering" you used is? Did you purchase that (from what company?) or make it yourselves? If it's a product you purchased would you mind adding a link to the company you purchased it from? Many thanks!
Hi, it's called Celenit wood wool board, we got ours from here www.lime.org.uk/products/boards-backgrounds-insulation/wood-wool-boards.html
@@thelowcarbonproject what is the brand name for the temporary shutters?
@@davefrofisher The brand we used was CEWOOD but there are others available. Search for wood wool board and that should show what's available in your country.
We got these from here - www.lime.org.uk/products/boards-backgrounds-insulation/wood-wool-boards.html
Knauf do them aswell - www.knaufinsulation.com/what-we-do/our-solutions/heraklith-wood-wool-solutions
@@thelowcarbonproject cheers for getting back to me, actually meant the interlocking formwork brand name? But thanks for the links to the wood wool boards too. Would you do it the same way with the wood wool boards if you did it again?
@@davefrofisher Ahh sorry, we hired the panels from another hempcrete guy, not sure what brand they were but these that i've found look very similar.
www.geoplastglobal.com/en/products/formworks/geopanel/
We probably wouldn't bother with the permanent shuttering again but there are benefits to doing it. There is less tamping so over a whole building, uses less hemp and is maybe a tiny bit more insulative. Also less shuttering to move when pouring. But there is also additional cost to using the boards and the hempcrete probably takes a bit longer to dry. The permanent boards would be useful if we were wanting to plaster and finish indoors before the hempcrete has dried properly.
Really great and informative videos. May I ask why you did not choose for a double stud wall with permanent shuttering at each side? In such system you would not have to tamper any side, resulting in a better insulated wall. Is that correct? Waiting to see the next episode.....ciao from Italy
Hi, there are a couple of reasons for that.
The frame is located on the inside edge of the walls so we wouldn't actually have anything to fix a permanent shuttering to and would mean a lot of messing about with spacers adding time and they also wouldn't be held in place very well.
Cost is another reason, there wouldn't be too much additional insulation added with another layer of shuttering on the outside so saved quite a bit.
If by a double stud wall, you mean another frame on the outside edge to attach to, that again would cost more money, make it a lot harder to place the hempcrete and possibly create thermal bridging which is something we want as little as possible.
Nice gloves.. i need those.. long ones... recently i bought ones at home depo. Yesterday unpacked at home and turns out they are not so long as i was expecting..😂 hadn't time to improvise and now i have sour right arm.. 😅 need to think of some solution for today... it's not so easy to find long gloves, at least at my location.. 😅
Have you tried amazon? Just did a search for long work gloves and they had some (UK though). Alternatively, you could try a long sleeved shirt and maybe gaffer tape the top of the gloves. We didn't get any burns until the last couple of days when it got really hot here, we found the sweat mixed with the lime and burnt where the gloves contacted the skin.
@@thelowcarbonproject yesterday i used painters suit, but turns out it don't hold the water.. it let it through, together with lime.. thats why i got burnt.. now i'm at the start of my project (kitchen at home), and can't wait for order to ship from amazon.. need fast solution.. i think i'll go with the same painters suit and the same gloves, but this time i'll wrap my hands till elbow joints with something... food film or duck tape or both.. :)
If you're still looking... maybe try a farm supplies store where they have long sleeved gloves for dairy work.
With rammed earth, the walls are thicker, I think to make up for the lack of air gaps or for structural integrity, maybe
The hemp Crete has more insulation qualities. Rammed earth is beautiful but depending on where in the world you build it may need 4" of insulation embedded into the outside walls.
If you were to mix in an oxide (like those used in cement rendering) with the hempcrete mix, colour a hempcrete wall?
Yeah you can get pigments to add to the lime aswell the hempcrete mix. We hope to experiment with those type of things in the future.
I wasn’t aware we could do this in the UK. How much does a hempcrete house cost?
Yeah quite a few been built here, there was a Kevin McCloud show called the street and someone built one, he also built a place called the Triangle which had multiple houses.
We haven't got a final cost yet but will be going into that, once Matts worked it out fully. A rough estimate for Hemp, lime and timber for the frame was about £10K. It's a self build so not included labour in that cost yet. Stay tuned for a proper cost break down episode. Cheers 🍻
What are the doses, the recipe in volume between lime and hemp?
When we did that, we used 2 buckets of water, 1 bag of lime and half of 180 litre hemp bale. We recently mixed by hand for an internal wall and used 1 whole bag and doubled the rest, worked really well and gave nice mixes. New video coming very soon on that.
Can I combine hempcrete with stone? Is it "strong enough"? I really like stone houses for their look and it keeps cool temperature inside house during summer
Hi, you could spray hempcrete onto the internal side of the stone to provide better insulation but the morter used in stone walls would have to be breathable. You could also use precast hempcrete blocks internally. There are structural blocks available, but mostly, hempcrete needs a frame if it is a structural wall.
The mistakes are good, but good idea, is the cost verses previous ways good?
Hi, we will be comparing costs to a brick build in an upcoming Q&A episode
How do you get the moisture out of it and also the wood structure gets very damp. Any thoughts about this?
It dries naturally, we had to wait about 6 weeks (we actually gave it a lot more) before rendering. Each mix only had about 25/30 litres of water and the hempcrete actually petrifies the wood inside, so it gets stronger as time goes on. It's also mould and rot proof.
great video, good explanations. Thank you.
Could you give the ratio of the components used? How many parts lime, hemp, water? Did you use hydraulic lime or lime mixed with a bit cement?
Best regards
Thanks.
We used a premixed hydraulic lime that came in 25kg bags. The mix we used was 90 litres of Hemp, 1 bag of lime and about 30 L of water (2 buckets). We hired the mixer from Graham at Hemplimespray.co.uk and he is the one that told us that mix ratio based on his experience. It can change depending on the lime binder used and weather conditions, in hot climate it would probably need a bit more water.
The Hempcrete book by William Stanwix and Alex Sparrow is a very good resource and covers a lot of this info. In there they suggest a 4:1:1 (hemp : lime : water) but state it is very dependent on the type of binder used.
We are going to be doing some internal walls in the next couple of months so will try and get exact weights and will show that in a future episode. We won't have a mixer for that so will be mixing on a board on the floor.
Thanks again for watching, hope you're enjoying the series 🍻
@@thelowcarbonprojectI am fascinated by this. I can convert the measurements but when you mix the ratios you desribe how man square feet/meters etc of wall does one batch like that make? I just did a quick search for hemp fiber and found a place selling for like $400 for 400lbs of material. Just trying to get a rough idea for materials. Thanks.
@johnmcgraw3568 Hi, so we have done some calculations. The bails of hemp were £9.50 and a bag of lime binder was £10.50. We needed 2 bags of lime to one bag of hemp. 5 hemp and 10 lime makes 1 cubic metre of wall. So, thickness of walls determines the square meterage. For 330mm walls, you can get 3 square metres for about £150. The walls on this house were 360mm so we got slightly less sq metres. A rough estimate is about £8000 of materials for the whole house. Way cheaper than bricks and mortar 🙂
We only needed to tamp/compress one side of the walls so that can also make a difference to how far it goes. Hope that helps 🍻
@thelowcarbonproject thank you so much. Can't wait to find some land.
@johnmcgraw3568 Ha, tou are welcome, we know that feeling, we are hoping the next one will be in Spain on some land of our own
Спасибо,вы молодцы,а известь гашёную используете.?
Привет, известь, которую мы использовали в стенах, - это гидравлическая известь. Известь, которую мы используем при рендеринге, - это гашеная известь.
Privet, izvest', kotoruyu my ispol'zovali v stenakh, - eto gidravlicheskaya izvest'. Izvest', kotoruyu my ispol'zuyem pri renderinge, - eto gashenaya izvest'.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_lime
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_hydroxide
Is the build vulnerable to rain or hot sun before the exterior plaster is applied??
Hi, we had to protect the very top of it from rain as we were building the walls up but the sides aren't really effected by the rain. As for hot sun, that would really just benefit the drying times.
Hi, I am planning on using hempcrete for walls, what lime did you use in the mix, NHL 5? Also what lime render did you use, seemed to me that you just mixed it straight out of the bag, no sand added? I am also guessing that you used either stainless steel or galvanized fixings? Very interesting and very well built structure, even slightly over engineered, a lot of thought went into this, well done!
Hi, thanks very much. You're not the first person to say it's over engineered, it really just came down to the structural engineers request but only took us 7 days to do so would probably do it again now that we've done it this way before.
The lime we used is linked below. It's ready mixed with a binder and made specifically for hand placing the hempcrete, and yes, the fixings are all galvanised and buried into the timber a bit. Cheers for watching 🍻
www.celticsustainables.co.uk/lime-green-hempcrete-binder-20kg/
Yeah, I really liked the way you built the house, extremely strong construction and very well organized! Thank you for the link, I will be looking into their products. I think you will have the most comfortable and nicest looking house in the street!
Yeah, I really liked the way you built the house, extremely strong construction and very well organized! Thank you for the link, I will be looking into their products. I think you will have the most comfortable and nicest looking house in the street!
Yeah, I really liked the way you built the house, extremely strong construction and very well organized! Thank you for the link, I will be looking into their products. I think you will have the most comfortable and nicest looking house in the street!
Yeah, I really liked the way you built the house, extremely strong construction and very well organized! Thank you for the link, I will be looking into their products. I think you will have the most comfortable and nicest looking house in the street!
👍
Hello,really interested in your project as I'm building similar later this and next year. You're using an ordinary cement mixer ,than than a bespoke hempcrete one . Did you find this mixed consistently well ? Why did you decide against a hempcrete mixer please ? Thank you
Hi, sorry for the late reply, youtube thought it was spam and put it into a different folder for review and I've only just seen it.
There isn't really a "hempcrete mixer" most are just modified or custom built by people. A pan mixer would have been good for us if we had more people working with us but as it was only the 2 of us the bell mixer worked well and was plenty big enough. We hired that off of one of the experts in the UK (he also supplied the shuttering and sourced materials for us). That mixer did have an extension on it just so it could hold more and we rigged a little counter weight to stop it over tipping.
The mix was pretty consistent, we had the ratios worked out from the start. Sometimes the mix did start balling up, which was usually because we left the mixer turned on for too long. It really only needed a couple of minutes, if that.
how much did you save on materials by pouring/forming on-site compared to pre-made hempcrete blocks?
That's a good question, we will see if we can get a rough estimate and get back to you. Is it ok with you if we use that in an upcoming Q&A aswell?
@@thelowcarbonprojectYes, please use my question. I'm looking forward to your answer. Thanks!
It’s really fucking sad how many people are unaware of this. But not surprising
Sure is. We're hoping we can get a bit more awareness out there with this channel
Can I smoke the insulation in times of need?
Please reefer to our fireproof test Short ;-P
Great progress, are you going to use hempcrete to insulate the roof as well?
Hi, no it will be a cold loft but likely to be using hemp rolls to insulate it.
Are you able to share the brand of those forms ?
Hi, we're not sure what brand we used but they are very similar to these www.geoplastglobal.com/en/blog/geopanel-geoplast-plastic-panel-walls/
We hired ours from the guy who soured our materials
Well done. Thanks! Do you have a specific recipe for you mix? Gallons/Liters water -- Lbs/Kg of hemp -- Lbs/Kg of Lime, etc?
Thanks again.
Just sane... :^) Saint
Hi, we used Half a bail of hemp, 20KG bag of lime binder and 2 full buckets of water.
The hempcrete book says the ratio to use is 4:1:1 (hemp:binder:water)
The mix we used was recommended by the person who sourced the materials and hired us the mixer and shuttering.
@@thelowcarbonproject Thanks very much. How much is in a bale of hemp? Saint
They're 180 litre bales. 5 of those, does about 1 cubic metre. Not 100% on the weight but we think about 20 kgs (ish)
@@thelowcarbonproject Thanks again. Cheers from South Florida, USA. Saint
Where can I get my hands on that shuttering system? I'm building a large shed soon and want to try this
Hi we hired the boards so not sure what brand they were but they are designed for concrete formwork. These that I found online look very similar (may be the same)
www.geoplastglobal.com/en/products/formworks/geopanel/
@@thelowcarbonproject Hey man thanks so much. Can I ask what kind of binder you all used? We are building a 1600sq/ft structure in the USA and I've been taking notes on your videos
@@OneShot_WOLF Hi, we used a premixed bag which we purchased from a company here in the UK. This is the one we used but they have all different types depending on how its being applied. This is designed for hand casting. Good luck with your project.
www.celticsustainables.co.uk/lime-green-hempcrete-binder-for-hand-casting/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw4_K0BhBsEiwAfVVZ_zBD6pML9BZb5uRhYkk82eR2Qo4Wr4Jz2EYU8L8g5JnrRQBokTn4RRoCCXUQAvD_BwE
Wondering how long the hempcrete stage of the build took
Hi, it took us about 5 weeks to complete but that was because of bad weather days. Actual days was 16 with 2 of us, so it could be done a lot quicker with a team of people
Question is there a difference between that hemp and animal bedding hemp?
Hi, not really, it looks like the bedding is just chopped up stalk of the plant aswell. I might expect the quality to not be as good in the bedding, e.g it may have more fibres (from the skin of the stalk) than is acceptable for using in hempcrete.
Not a criticism just an helpful observation, for the sake of those using headphones try to even out the volume of the music to the same as your voice it's a bit of a shock when the music starts.
Noted thanks, I will start using headphones when doing the edit.
Might be a daft question. But would hempcrete be any good for earthship. Like the filling an compacting of tires for mass?
Hi, no not a daft question, I've been wondering how we could incorporate hemp into an earthship aswell, I love their design.
Not sure if in the tyres would be the best use for it though, it has a cost, whereas rammed earth is free and usually right next to where it's needed. I also wonder if the tyres would degrade over time and lose shape, I think it would be quite hard to compact it well enough and it doesn't have much load bearing strength. On top of that, one of the main benefits of hempcrete is it's breathability and inside the tyres, you wouldn't get that. Maybe using hempcrete blocks for the back (tyre) wall could be a way to go 🤔
I would definitely use it for all of the internal walls though. It would be interesting to see how it dealt with the humidity in the greenhouse side too.
I thought earthships were designed for older dry climates and one of the main features are the tires filled with dirt are a heat sink that warms during the day by the sun and the walls radiate heat at night to heat the home. Think dirt in the tires would be best for that.
Can someone explain the main benefits if you still have to build a heavy wood frame??? I don't get it?
Hi, there are quite a few benefits.
The materials are cheaper than bricks and mortar.
It is very good for self builders as anyone can do it.
The walls provide better insulation than brick walls, are breathable and regulate the internal humidity.
The material is damp, rot and mould proof.
It's better for the environment, this house is a carbon negative build, meaning the hemp has absorbed more carbon than we have produced while building.
The walls are also a thermal mass which stores heat (e.g from the sun) and releases it back into the building over night.
As it is a natural product and requires natural paint internally there is no off gassing of chemical materials. The house has no smell unless you really sniff the walls, they smell like oat cookies.
Cheers for watching
are you in control of Material Cost & Supply for Hemp Bales? Seems U.S.Sugar in SW FL, USA is going into Hemp-farming, so this way of building "might" be suitable for Florida. Buddies...that sure looks like ALOT of work, though, for all the staging & forms. Cool idea! Having a study supply of Hemps seems the "key". Thanks! subbed/liked
ohhh, forgot...how would this survive a 160mph/258kph, as sometimes happens here in Florida? Can't imagine what my Structural Engineer would say about his favorite subject...ROOF/FLOOR BEARING. great video.
Interesting how you formed the wood top plate members vertically & spaced. Without leaping to the next video, is the wood structure the actually Bearing frame, and the Hemp exterior merely a near-structural exterior insulation...to be Stucco-ed after the drying? cool system!
Hi thanks for following along. We got our materials through a third party who has built a few places here in the UK and also does spray application of the hemp. Our hemp came from Scotland and was only about £9 per bail, the lime was the most expensive part. We have silly rules in this country around hemp and think there are only 6 or so farm licensed to grow it.
Not sure about hurricane proof, do they build with timber in Florida? I did a quick search and came across this house that was being built in 2012 and the blog goes into some of that hurricane proofing info...
hempcretehouse.coffeecup.com/
would be interesting to know if it has survived your weather.
The hempcrete itself provides all the insulation needed, and the internal breathable boards used, provide a permanent shuttering that will be plastered with lime. The exterior is lime rendered (doing that at time of writing this) so no stucco board required. The hemp and boards provide a bit of racking strength but the timber frame is designed to take all load bearing. The raft foundation is a steel reinforced concrete slab, you can see that in episode 2.
Thanks again, nice to have you here. Cheers
@@thelowcarbonproject 9 quid a bail, thats v lucrative for what is/was essentially the waste product. I was shipping it out at 1000 euros per tonne not so long ago :)
What is the name of the panel system you are using to form your walls?
Hi, we're not sure what the brand was but is basically these. It's same stuff others use for concrete formwork
www.geoplastglobal.com/en/products/formworks/
If you don't mind, can I ask you how long it will last ?
Hi, it can last hundreds of years providing it's maintained well. It'll probably need a new coat of paint every 8 years or so.
Thanks, mate.👍
I wish I knew how to build something, I’m useless. I don’t know anything about anything. Even though I worked on construction sites 😩
I (i'm not Matt) hadn't really built anything before this project, my job proper job is a broadcast engineer. I think if you find someone, like Matt, who knows their stuff, you'll be able to learn anything
what make are those slidable forms? In cant find them anywhere.
Hi, not sure what the nes we used were called but it's basically the same as these www.geoplastglobal.com/en/products/formworks/
Same type that's used for concrete formwork.
Does vibrating hempcrete work the same as concrete to make it more dense and strong?
Not sure vibrating it would be any benefit, the insulation comes from the air in the wall. When it's dense it loses insulation properties but would improve sound proofing. Apart from a bit of racking strength, it won't have enough structural strength for building regs. I think someone is making structural blocks but they have reinforcement in them.
@@thelowcarbonproject Thanks. I'd like to see someone build a hempcrete skatepark and see how it holds up.
How many tons of hempcrete did you use for that build?
Hi, with hemp and lime, it was about 16 tons
@@thelowcarbonproject Thanks for the reply. Great job!
What kind of lime did you use?
Hi we used this product. Recommended and sourced by one of the experts in the UK
www.celticsustainables.co.uk/lime-green-hempcrete-binder-20kg/
Great video! Come and check our hemp related series.
Thanks, have given you a follow :-)
Can Hemp plaster go on hempcrete walls? Everyone uses lime but I'm aware hemp plaster exists but don't hear much talk of it.
Good question, we´ve had a quick look through the Hempcrete book but seen no mention of it. We have seen some youtube videos mentioning it but need to do some more research into that. The book mainly mentions lime and or clay as a plaster / render
If I'm not mistaken, "hemp plaster" is just lime plaster with hemp fiber added as the reinforcement instead of fiberglass or polymer fibers.
Chopped basalt fiber is also a good choice for lime plaster (and as reinforcement for mortar). Either hemp or basalt will be a good choice. Can't really go wrong with either one.
@HickoryDickory86 we've just started rendering today, and the lime we have comes with a small bag of what looks like synthetic fibers, that we're adding to the mix. The hemp shiv we have would be too big to replace this. We'll show all this in the next episode.
@@thelowcarbonproject Looking forward to watching!
Think of how much bio mass is being trapped in each building for the life of the building.
Can you link the form system that you used?
Hi James, we hired this from the guy that got us the hemp and lime but have just done a search and it seems to be called Geopanel, I found this site that stock them and looks exactly the same.
www.geoplastglobal.com/en/products/formworks/geopanel/
I think they are originally designed for concrete formwork but did the job for us.
Alibaba seem to have similar things aswell
Здравствуйте,отлично,можно уточнить дозировку раствора?
Привет, пытаюсь перевести.
Мы использовали 20 кг извести, полмешка конопли (180 литров) и около 30 литров воды. Количество воды может варьироваться и больше зависит от получения хорошей смеси.
Privet, pytayus' perevesti.
My ispol'zovali 20 kg izvesti, polmeshka konopli (180 litrov) i okolo 30 litrov vody. Kolichestvo vody mozhet var'irovat'sya i bol'she zavisit ot polucheniya khoroshey smesi.
We used 20kg Lime, half bag of hemp (180 litre bag) and about 30 litres of water. Water amount can vary and is more about getting a good mix.
Спасибо большое,❤❤❤
Известь гашёная ?
What will fall first the wool or the wall
There is no wool, there is wood wool board. Is that what you meant?
what happens to the wall if it gets wet? 1-2 years after the building is done
The walls are gettting 20mm of lime render and a silicate breathable paint for protection. That should last at least 10 years before maybe needing another coat of paint. We've heard someone has tested it with 72 hours of water spray and it was fine.
Better make sure you allow for the movement of that material. Find out how.
There's actually very little movement in it. The top of each lift hardly dropped and it's now set like stone
Hemp has been around longer then religion
I think the best building material so far is Autoclaved Cellular Concrete blocks such as YTONG. Eco friendly, very easy and quick to build with, great thermal properties and load bearing capacity which is huge advantage over hemp-crete blocks. While it is not popular material in the UK, it is one of the most popular material in eastern europe with climate much harsher than here.
It has it's uses but wouldn't say it's the best. They claim eco friendly but that's just when compared to other products, it still uses cement to make, just less than normal concrete and you still need mortar to build with it. Cement is responsible for 8% of CO2 emissions, hempcrete has sequestered up to 3.5 kg of CO2 per kg of shiv and also continues to absorb CO2 while the lime cures.
It also provides a much healthier air quality within the house (natural air-conditioning, is rot, damp and antifungal. Some companies have made structural hempcrete blocks available although I think they do use plastic so not quite as eco friendly as standard hempcrete.
www.core77.com/posts/91260/Eco-Friendly-Construction-Breakthrough-Lego-like-Hempcrete-Blocks-That-Dont-Require-Framing
@@thelowcarbonproject I wouldn't go too crazy with calculations of CO2 emmision The whole human activities account for less than 1% emission so I don't really buy this green agenda. I think it is more a green lobby and huge money behind rather than taking care of planet.
I am always curious of new materials and was checking hempcrete, but I cannot see the point of using it. IT is more expensive, more labour intense, and doesn't have load bearing capacity. Perhaps if you build a bungalow you can get away with some smaller frame for the roofing and your walls wouldn't need to bear any loading, but for 2-3 floor building i like to have a stiff structure with concrete slab.
There is nothing bad with cement/steel/plastic when they are used responsibly.
@@mateo_dequ We are called The LOW carbon project and this is our first project so we will obviously be calculating the embodied carbon of this build. We are also not going to be discussing conspiracy theories here.
Thanks for watching though 🍻
Can I pay you to come to USA to build 3000 sf hemp home?
Ha, that is very tempting but we still have quite a lot of work ahead of us. We were just sating yesterday, that we wouldn't mind doing the hemp bits, for / with other self builders though 😊 When are you planning to start?
@@thelowcarbonproject Next month sometime. How do I contact you?
@@staeyou1806 Yeah that's a little soon for us but happy to help and answer any questions you may have. You can get in touch with us on thelcpchannel@gmail.com
Are you guys in th UK or Canada or Australia
We're in the UK. South East.
What sort of premixed lime are you using? Is it a standard NHL?
Hi it's a called Lime green, mixed with a binder for hand placing hemprete. Here's a link
www.lime-green.co.uk/products/lime-systems/hemp-lime-binder
Dont smoke it all up.
I was told you MUST use a pan mixer for hempcrete. Cleary some #misinformation.
Yeah, that's not true. We hired the mixer from Graham at hemplimespray.co.uk/ and he knows his stuff. The mixer had an extender on it, so it was slightly deeper than normal.
A pan mixer would be good if we had a team of 4 or 5 people (can make more in one go), but it was only 2 of us for the majority of the time.
We'll be doing some internal walls and will be hand mixing on the floor for those.
Thank you! I appreciate the response. It's just me working on my house alllllll byyyy myseeelf. So ill use a drum mixer
@@thelowcarbonproject
Could any of you nice people recommend where to get training on how to build a hempcrete house in the United States?
Hi, we don't know of any in the US but if you send me an email to thelcpchannel@gmail.com I can send you some websites from the book we have that has a list of US companies working with hemp. Cheers 🍻
But everyoje is still adding cement anyways in thr mixture
Not in this mix. But yeah I have also seen others do that. Probably cheaper than lime and easier to get in some parts. The lime we used is manufactured for hand placing hemp.
So much labor
It wasn't too bad but would have been less of we had a pan mixer and a few more people
Wtf? Why are there not more views on your channel?! I thought people were interested in eco houses...
Ha yeah, we are still a pretty new channel and it apparently takes a bit of time for UA-cam to find our audience, but we're getting a pretty good organic growth considering we only have 11 full eps out now
I am surprised they let you use those Unconventional materials.
It's not so unconventional any more, hemp has been in use since the mid 80s as a building material and lime has been used for centuries. It was a bit difficult to find a building control company willing to say yes but we found one that had worked with it before and gave us the OK. Hopefully more awareness around the product will come soon.
10q
Hemp removes double the amount of carbon than trees so if every country just used hemp to build new homes we could stop climate change and rising sea levels.
Yep, not to mention the countless other uses, most of which are found on the parts of the plant not used for house building
How not to cast a hemp Crete block with dry clumps by rush pounding it at medium speed
@@elliemay7839 "In case of giant tropical bamboo, one newly planted bamboo plant can sequester 2 tons of carbon dioxide in just 7 years. In comparison, a typical hardwood tree will sequester 1 ton of carbon dioxide in 40 years. When compared to pine, bamboo can absorb up to 5 times more CO2." We should be using bamboo to strengthen hempcrete walls.
@@elliemay7839 Not sure what you mean here, their are no hempcrete blocks
Just smoke the leaves and you won’t care about carbon footprint or anything except something to eat 😂
Just don't light any type of fire within 400 feet of the house. OMG this will be such a fire
Ha, no, it's very fireproof ua-cam.com/users/shortsezxMAh0erTc?si=0lOYykMKQ-Lqhafi
Completely incorrect
What an absolute joke 😂😂😂. Who TF is going to use that to build there house....seriously!!!!
Plenty of people have and are thanks.
People who want a healthy, breathable and long-lasting house.
Io credo che questa casa ja un coefficiente di idolamento A, What is the insulation coefficient of the house, I believe A
We're not sure of those numbers yet and will be doing all that testing later into the build. The hemp walls have a U-Value of about 0.17 which is very good and we expect the whole house performance to be very high :-)
lime in your eyes is just as bad if not worse than on your skin or inhaled . . . . curious how that is rated for a range of building applications and it seems that everyone using this stuff ends up building twice what they need frame wise to accommodate this stuff? so how does it break down cost wise versus a tradition stick build? i see lots of things going on with this stuff but have had zero luck finding it here in the states, everyone i find that has a site and reach out to never gets back, pretty frustrating considering the initial reports i'd heard about it made it seem like it was set to be a better building material at a much better price point with a large range of capabilities all undergoing proper scrutiny and testing. . . but i tend to see a lot of monkeys on parade instead. . . or a bunch of 'not there' sources . . . then YT throws this in my rec and in the first two minutes you make a big deal about lime put on a mask and elbow gloves then proceed to make a big ass dust clown while wearing ZERO eye protection >< see my issue with this whole "industry" and the people using it at the moment.
Not sure how different this timber frame is to how you do it in the states but this is what was designed by our structural engineer. Timber frames aren't used very much in the UK, it is normally always brick and block built so for this build the cost of materials is not much different. It's also a self build so no need for additional contractors to pump up the price. The extended scaffold hire has added a bit but that cost has been saved elsewhere.
As for PPE we used safety goggles but that actually caused more of a problem. We got a couple of burns when wet hempcrete got in between clothing / gloves and skin which reacted with our sweat, this was even more apparent around the eyes when wearing goggles. in the clip you're referring to you can see Matt is standing up wind of the mixer and was pouring the lime after the water had gone in, which also reduced the amount of dust escaping the mixer.
The hempcrete book we have used for reference, has a lot of websites for the US, here are some:
americanhempllc.com
americanlimetechnology.com
hemp-solutions.org
hemp-technologies.com
ncaindhemp.org
nationalhempassociation.org
@@thelowcarbonproject Also add Hempitecture in Idaho to the list.