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@@UndecidedMF yes that's part of the problem. The second part for me is that i live in area were police regularly confiscate hemp from growers even tho growing hemp for Non recreational use is perfectly legal.
Thank you for presenting such interesting topics. Really enjoy your channel. As the son of a builder and an ex navy Seabee I have seen many construction methods around the world. At 70 years old I still enjoy learning.
This material appears to behave more like a rigid insulator rather than a true structural material. For example, a hempcrete slab doesn't seem like it can function the same way that a concrete slab would. My guess is that this *can* be achieved with hempcrete, but is not necessarily its main purpose. That said, I would guess, it should still find many uses as a building material.
I grew the first hemp fiber trials in California in 2021. We grew 26' tall plants and yielded >8T an acre in dry stalk biomass. The plant and its potential is insane. My partners on the project have converted a cotton gin to process hemp. the process to watch is adding hemp and lime to spray-in insulation machines. It's a complete game changer.
That sounds like it was amazing to be a part of! The growth numbers are always insane to me and then eventually someone comes along and says, “yea, it’s a weed…” …I guess today I’m that person haha
i'm curious to know if the hemp being used for fibers for this sort of building material can also be used to yield hemp seed. I have tried roasted salted hemp seed and it is actually really good and I imagine the seed aswell would be great food for livestock.
@@daemenoth the flowering and seed production process tends to degrade some of the qualities of the bast fiber, which makes it less usable for Textile applications but is not a big deal for building materials. That said, the main trade off to producing seed is that time spent making seed is time not spent growing more stalk. Flowering and seed production takes 40-60 days depending on variety. If that time was spent growing instead you could have a larger plant. It's the difference between having 15 foot tall plants (or two crops of 6' tall plants) and 6 foot tall plants with seed on them. Farmers will optimize around it based on available genetics and their offtakes from the supply chain.
A wheat farmer near my grandfather's farm use the wheat straw from his own fields to build his new house. To prevent insects from living in the straw he built a hopper that sat above the feedshoot of his baler that held borax powder and sprinkled a light dusting of borax on the straw as it come into the baler. This diffused the borax throughout the bale. It not only eliminated any possible insect issue, but borax is a natural fire retardant. When he had completed his house I went over with my Dad (who was an architect and main instigator of the visit) and grandfather to take a look. It was a very normal looking house built up on a slight mound (to make sure water ran away from the house and never had a chance to pond next to the walls) and had an extra thick insulated concrete slab (which was not covered inside, but instead was just stained and polished, and which had water pipes running through it for heating in the cold Oklahoma winters). The only real give away was that the walls were about 2 1/2 to 3 feet thick. I remember the day we visited was a standard hot Oklahoma summer day, yet the inside of the house was cool without the air conditioner running. I can remember my grandfather asking about this since in his older farm house the AC ran all the time. The answer was that they open up the house in the evening and night and get everything inside the house cool, especially the thick floor slab. Then in the morning they close the windows and drew the curtains to limit the heat gain. The farmer pointed out the circular duct in one corner of the room that ran from floor to ceiling with a fan. During the day the fan would pull warm air from the ceiling and blow it across the concrete floor. With the large amount of thermal mass in the floor the house didn't start to get overly warm until around sunset when they opened the windows back up and turn on the whole house fan in the ceiling that drew air through the house. And if the night was still too warm or humid, they would just run their relatively tiny AC unit at night when the temperature difference was lower and it took less energy to cool the house down. BTW, I am an engineer, and some of the above is me backfilling technical details that I understand now. But when we visited I was in high school and already knew I was going to be an engineer, so I actually did understand a lot of what the farmer (who was also an engineer who came back to take over his own father's farm) was saying. And my Dad was so impressed that he did something similar (at least from a thermal mass point of view) when he built his new house in Arizona. Instead of straw he used concrete block with every cell poured full of concrete to create the huge amount of thermal mass and then put 6 inch thick aircrete panels on the outside to insulate it. Nights in Arizona are often too hot to fling the windows open, but the amount of power required to run the AC was much lower at night and with time of day pricing, much much cheaper as well. Well thanks for the chance to remanence.
This is essentially the same as old stone houses built around the mediterranian. Lots of thermal mass, ability to close/open for the day or night. Hope we can get back to these principles to build more effective housings.
Yeah, the open the windows at night trick depends on humidity levels. If you're in a well insulated structure in the shade, the air can get less comfortable at night, as humidity rises
Hempcrete is "mold resistant" in that it doesn't mold as much as papercrete, but it still molds really easily. I went to college in the desert southwest where there was a lot of interest in hempcrete and everything I saw built with it soaked up water during the monsoon season and sat wet and moldy all winter. It can't be in contact with the ground, or in contact with concrete that is in contact with the ground, and it needs a roof over it that is water tight and has broad overhangs.
This is why they put a lime plaster on the outside walls. As far as life expectancy goes, as long as you keep the water out or at least allow the walls to dry out, it will outlast a wooden building - centuries.
@@iancormie9916 But it's hygroscopic and porous so the amount of work that you have to put into keeping it dry is way higher than what you have to do for a wooden building. Mesa Verde has wood still in place that's 800 years old, it's not like we have to worry about the longevity of wood, but there are hempcrete structures with good roofs over top of them that become unsafe to live in because of air quality issues from mold in the very first year.
I started using hempcrete about 10 years ago, the comfort it brought to the house is amazing, it's easy to mix with a concrete mixer once you know how to mix it.
I now have a list of things to get: A large plot of land in the middle of nowhere A truckload of mycelium making fungi samples A really tall, netted area for growth bamboo, And a hemp fiber farm. Build all the things
@@CigaretteCrayon One of the first attempts to make synthetic fibers quote : " Rayon is a fiber from regenerated cellulose, generally derived from wood pulp. Rayon is usually made from eucalyptus trees, but any plant can be used (such as bamboo, soy, cotton, etc). To produce the fiber, the plant cellulose goes through a process involving a lot of chemicals, energy and water. "
Only because weed has negative stigma around it. It's actually some bullshit weed is probably one of the least dangerous drugs with the fact it's bi products can be used to make anything. Imagine of weed wasn't criminalized to shit to arest people of color and first Nations people, the hemp industry would be booming right now.
It's because regular textile manufacturers know how much more efficient hemp is, but don't want it to overshoot their industries. So of course they spun it as this whole thing of "oh this will encourage unlawful marijuana growth." People have known about Hemp and its uses for more than decades.
@@EzraM5 we would live a in a much better world if hemp was use just as much as oil or concrete. We probably wouldn't be pushing for EVS this heavey if gas production wasn't dependant only oil but booth hemp and oil. Plastics could be replaced by hemp but we don't. 🙃
@@EzraM5 And plastics so Mr big shot oil baron does not want that stuff anywhere near the marketplace. The amount of stuff it can make would not put a dent in their sales, it would ruin them.
Matt in addition to newer products , hemp provided great products in the past as you point out . Would like to mention that using Hemp for paper and in place of cotton would drastically help the environment including carbon capture which is not the way I am hinting at. Great video Matt I have seen this information b4 but your platform will bring this information to more of us
@@pbilk so are you saying to turn hemp into paper doesn't take as much water? and what are the qualities of hemp paper as our use of paper needs a variety various types depending on the printing processes used.
I'm well-retired now, but even as a teenager, it was often discussed by adults around me , how Dupont was behind the legislation banning Hemp. As the patent-holders of artificial fibers, their only real competition was Hemp, which they could never compete with or replace, due to its world-wide use . And the rest, as they say, is History . It is amazing how greedy influential people , can alter the course of history .
@@floriangrob3910 reefer madness, the stupidest movie next to 'an inconvenient truth' from that hypocritical nutjob Al Gorey. The yanks certainly come up with some dross when they want to smear and Gorey is a great candidate for the nuthouse
Actually there was another player in all that. Warehouser had just developed an acid process to make paper from wood pulp, this process is greatly inferior to hemp paper, but would allow the company to make huge profits from deforesting the United States! The two companies lobbied in congress to the tune of several million dollars (huge money back then) and finally got the Marijuana Tax Act passed, effectively making all hemp products illegal in the US.
It's crazy how unbelievably versatile hemp is.. It's sadly really difficult to produce hemp products as most farmers are hesitant to farm it, at least where I live. You hear of new uses for it every other year, wondering when people will start to increase production.
Hemp can also be used to replace cotton and wood as a source for paper production. These are two major resource that put pressure on the ecosystem. I read that hemp hardly needs any fertilizer and uses a fraction of the water that cotton uses.
Another unmentioned advantage of making paper with hemp is the chemical process to turn wood into paper is extremely harsh! The process to make paper from hemp is SO much easier!
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Chemical Use Program, Hemp uses only 2.123 L of water to grow 1kg of fiber, while cotton needs 9.758 L of water to grow 1 kg of fiber (4-5 times more). Hemp requires little if any pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers and can grow in a wide variety of soil types from the Arctic Circle to the Equator.
Interesting approach. Companies in Austria use hemp as insulation material for wood-frame houses, and have actually done so for quite a while. Nice to see that this is growing to other options.
@Undecided, Matt, you explain everything with such calm and cool notes that it makes the video easy to follow and understand. Along with Practical Engineering, your videos keep me entertained while I learn something new. Thank you for that. Keep it up.
@@ebaziuk Vertical hydroponic and aeroponic farming is an incredibly efficient way to grow food without pesticides, herbicides, etc and uses much less land and water. This could help feed the world's growing population and relieve stress on our environment and allow for some new land uses such as hemp harvesting for more sustainable building materials. Trees take decades to mature and hemp can mature in as little as two months. Imagine being able to harvest building materials 5-6 times a year instead of once every 20-30 years.
@@ebaziuk You seem to worry a lot about farmland with your other similar comment. There is still huge amounts of land that can be turned into farmland. The increased cost of your food in the stores is NOT related to lack of farmland. It is related to government spending too much money causing this inflation by diluting the money supply. It's just another way government steals the value of your money, which is different from income tax, property taxes, or sales taxes, etc., but still another form of government theft.
I saw Hempcrete at the PA farm show about 15 years ago. I think they had a special license for it or something but it was really cool to see back then. Glad to see it being talked about again.
By groaning using this plant for everything we can we will systematically be improving upon and maintaining the quality of our air, water, landscapes, foods, working living environments in full production 500 million clean high-paying jobs globally.
@@ebaziuk - NOPE!!! Do some research. Hempcrete/Cococrete .. have this amazing ability to absorb moisture without molding, and then expel moisture when it's drier. It is an amazing building material.
@@ebaziuk - Funny how stupid people always resort to this response. I not only encouraged them to do research, I also gave them the GD answer. I LITERALLY have contractor friends building these homes not only in the mountainous regions of the state of Mexico and in the Distrito Federal, they are building them in the states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo. Bugger off, wanker.
I remember using this in a lot of my projects during uni back in 2009 and 10. My teachers laughed at me each time i used it and tried to persuade me to use more familiar materials.
think the winning sales pitch is that it can be used as a power source in the way of hemp bio fossil fuel. Or compressed Hamp lumber and building material high source of nutrition medical aid clothing fabric so forth and so on etc. etc. because it makes over 20,000 different things. And by using it for everything we can ingrown it everywhere we may we will be naturally systematically almost effortlessly improving upon maintaining the quality of our air water foods landscapes working living environment from coast-to-coast globally. Because the rain forest prior to it being chopped down absorb almost 80% of air pollution Hamp can do that if not better at the same time creating hundreds of millions of jobs that would be classified as clean high paying ones. Versus dirty low-paying jobs which are a major part in global pollution having a diminished the quality of life for all.
Like most everything that comes out, it's usually more expensive at first, but as it become more widely used, the price will go down. Interesting video.
Sounds like a far better insulation than a Concrete which leaves you needing to use both materials one for internal strength and hempcrete for exterior insulation
45 years ago I was in eastern Nebraska and the farmer shown me a tree that the Federal Government sprays did not affect it. It was over 45 feet tall, and it was over 5 years old. He jokingly asked me if I knew what the tree was called, I went to the tree and made a discovery! It was not a tree! It was hemp!
I'd like to see someone try the same with bamboo. I've worked with bamboo composite lumber. It's heavy as hell, but more than matches traditional pine. I suspect that the bamboo fiber would perform as well as, if not better than shredded hemp. Bamboo is just as renewable as hemp, but grows much quicker.
I've been interested in bamboo ever since I randomly came across terra preta. It is a dark soil in the Amazon that is a combination of biochar (a type of charcoal), dirt, composts, and various waste products. It is supposed to be excellent soil for farming. To tie this into bamboo, I was looking for fast growing plants to make the charcoal out of, and bamboo and duckweed kept showing up at the top of the list. Not sure if they would actually work for making biochar, but they both have other interesting uses as well.
I remember going to Hong Kong decades ago and first seeing the bamboo scaffolding. I thought it was crazy, but yes, there is another great alternative to wood for construction and other uses.
@@artboymoy now imagine that bamboo scaffold but instead of just using raw bamboo, you cut into quarters and laminated together to make a 2x4. It's unbelievably strong, rot resistant and in a few months you'll have another crop after you cut it off the root system. And there are species of bamboo that will grow in temperate to tropical climates.
@@Babarudra I'll have to look up to see the comparison between bamboo and pine construction. YOu would think uniformity would have something to do with it. Or maybe we don't want all of our houses looking like Gilligans Island. :)
Mould is a common issue in homes and a significant health risk. I would think that a good question would be what are the risks of hemp building materials harbouring mould. Especially given it can absorb and hold moisture.
I'd honestly live in a small barn thing made of this. give it a couple solar panels and a tank to collect water for the garden. I'd be happy to live there.
I’ve seen some videos about hempcrete homes before. It’s a great idea and we need to take it mainstream. Hempcrete is not only fire resistant and pest resistant, it’s also mold resistant, too! With black mold being such an issue in the US, hempcrete could be the solution alternative building material that solves that problem.
Look up hempcrete mold resistant and it will tell you that hemp is mold resistant it’s entire life ded or not and the other component is lime which is also mold resistant. So it’s mold tesistant
Nearly perfect building material in most cases. Should have never been outlawed or been forced out of use decades ago. Just imagine how much further we as a species could have advanced if we weren’t so easily corrupted.
Why does this not surprise me. 25 to 30 years ago when we were farming I seriously looked into growing hemp for its fibre value but due to issues that you have mentioned it was unviable to pursue as the Government at the time had so many restrictions on growing it they made it unfeasible (like building a 6' secure fence around our whole farm) Can you imagine where we would be today if we were able to make a go of it back then?? The total lack of foresight by the Government of the day made sure we would fail in farming as we knew we had to diversify to be able to make ends meet. Very sad really as the fibre from hemp has so many uses yet we've been so blindsided because of it's cousin 😞
Another thing to consider is that concrete uses a specific type of sand that needs to be quarried and processed, before getting shipped across the world. This has an environmental impact that is hard to offset.
funniest thing ive heard in a long time " concrete uses a specific type of sand that has to be shipped all around the world " you dont know much about concrete do you? stop spreading lies
@@UndecidedMF We have a surface mine up here in north Vancouver island that scrapes large hills down to sea level that destroys the habitat for bears eagles cougars and hundreds of other birds and animals ,all for the rock and sand that is shipped thousands of miles by ship tot he coast of California and Hawaii.It is used for specialty concrete .this is one of the last accessible place to get this sharp sand and rock .This shows we are running out of this resource,We need to use it more wisely and start using more sustainable renewable products locally ,Good video thanks
Definitely great stuff! Hemp and bamboo my friend. I'm excited to see if we can make these two materials move to the top of the building materials pyramid.
The problem with all these building alternatives is that local governments always get in the way because the people that work for local governments don't do their research about the new building alternatives that are available. All they care about is getting a paycheck so their always stuck in the past with their rules and regulations.
then the market needs to have a well known Engineering firm to produce some videos explaining the process, the pros and cons, cost benefits for the products and where it can be used to offset carbon/green positives/negatives. That would carry some weight - also some interactive/Q&A zoom calls for various municipalities around the world to be videoed and provided free of charge for other municipalities/cities etc. EDUCATION is key right now to allay the fears, educate ignorance by answering pertinent questions most people/communities have.
Thanks for the video. I looked into building my house with hempcrete but in the end I decided on timber frame/straw bale. I also used earthen plaster on the inside and out. Looks of good eco options these days.
I seem to need to come to this channel to hear about the innovation that Australia is achieving in some respects. I live here and you just don't hear about it in the normal course. I'd love to build a small off grid building as a get away, makes sense so little need for heating/cooling given the clime in my area.
If you can get straw bales, that might be a good alternative for a small building. Lots of good info on straw bale buildings, and they need less wood for framing. Can be a do-it-yourself project too.
That's because the authoritarian nanny state that is Australia makes these kinds of initiative extremely difficult to undertake due to excessive laws and regulations, as well as vacuous media merely being a complicit unquestioning mouthpiece for the government's agenda.
@@anonanon7278 Not sure what you're talking about, an Australian company makes/sell these products? It is a very niche market as it's more expensive that traditional materials. I'd think these would be very good for a small bespoke build where site access is restrictive/remote areas.
I've had my eye on hemp in construction for a while. In my experience, one of the best places it could be commercially applied in the current landscape would be as spray on insulation. Existing spray on foam insulation is rather expensive, so i would imagine it could be priced competitively as well.
My thought as well. In addition, spray-on foam is toxic not only during application but throughout its life, particularly to chemically sensitive people (which are increasing in number in our increasingly chemical-based western world).
@@watsontcbc Good point, i used it on a project and could smell the outgassing months after application. I'd venture a guess that microscopic particles would also slowly make their way in the surrounding area as well, particularly with degradation over the years.
@Gabriel Arthofer That should possibly be addressed with a good formulation, but you raise a good point, compaction should play an inverse factor for insulating properties, yet increase fire retardation. Formulation and application protocol should standardize these factors if its application becomes industrialized.
An excellent overview of Hemp. As a Mass construction manager, future video content should include acceptance by International & US building codes, acceptance from local building & fire officials, interior and exterior finishing techniques & costs, US manufacturers & distributors, skill training for tradesmen, wiring & plumbing integration during construction.
I have watched so many videos and some of them, by now, are years old. This has been SO slow to production which makes me wonder if it will ever be widely used. I would use hemp blocks in a heart beat if I was building a custom home.
The idea of building a structure is to last as long as possible and not have it disinigrate after a period of time... Just build houses out of stone and mortar like we do in Greece and Italy and you will be fine...
@@upgames1313 It takes a long time to heat stone up. It takes a long time for stone to cool down. It is a great matterial for insulation. Thats why northen European castles and mansions where made out of stone with wood and carpet lining the interior.
It may have potential of replacing Concrete Bricks/Blocks, but it cant replace concrete. The vast majority of concrete use is structural Reinforced Concrete (RC)
CEB (Compressed Earth Blocks) especially those stabilized with minuscule amounts of lime or cement (7-10 %) are a much better option. With strength close to or equal to concrete, vapor permeability, thermal mass, and completely fireproof. Compressed earth blocks can be manufactured almost anywhere in the world from local resources. They are dirt cheap because they're literally made out of dirt. The only expense is the initial cost of the machine used to manufacture them. CEB's overcome almost ALL of the disadvantages seen in adobe or other earthen structures. They can even be used in extreme climates if you use a double wall design with an insulation cavity in the middle. It is the single greenest most environmentally friendly construction option on the planet! They can even be used in the construction of multiple story structures.
@@sydneymokgoatsane9751 I posted other information and websites but they were deleted. AECT earth block and colorado earth are two great places to start.
Amazing. Seems like a lost custom that's finding its way back. It also looks very light-weight, based on the construction worker carrying a block that looked about 10x10x16. That would be pretty heavy for concrete. Also, with blocks that big, laying one block at a time goes a lot quicker. Awesome Matt 👍
From what i am hearing, hemp could be used on the side walls while having a concrete core in tall buildings. you use the core to hold the sides up while the hemp walls keeps the core from getting any weather so its in the optimal environment so cracks and such are on lower chance. other than that you could use it for normal houses as you dont build that tall.
I saw another video that made moee sense to me, which is that the construction of a building emits the most co2. We should then be building homes and buildings that will never deteriorate, and are beautiful, so that we will never want to tear them down.
I am doing a partial renovation of an old building. I discovered these blocks under the concrete floors used as an underlayment then covered with tar paper ans 2 inches of concrete. Guessing the building was built in the 1940s. Located in southern Utah.
Thorium Liquid Molten Salt Reactors and now Hempcrete?! You are hitting the nails on the head Matt! Keep it up brother! Next you'll probably talking about the therapeutic effects of mushrooms and other psychedelics this rate.
11:50 ; it is not an incredibly versatile product, it is an incredibly versatile plant that can be extracted to create said products. nature is our given, we must remember that it comes before us because we are nature itself. a product is something that is artificially valued.
Should replace all Soy fields (without pesticides and fertilizer) on earth and be used as food, textile, paper, concrete etc. Hemp + Algea might produce fibers with better and more versatile properties.
why compare hemp with concrete? the hempcrete is a substitute for clay bricks or autoclaved aerated concrete - the stuff the walls are made, not reinforced concrete.
Love this vid - I personaly combined hemp with mycelium and came up with an insulating material that is fire resistant and has a better R value than polystyren and mineral insulation
Let us know when one can install electrical/plumbing/heating/ac/communications CHEAPLY in said Hempcrete. Those systems cost FAR more than any structure of the home which in comparison is free. Far cheaper to add rockwool to outside of house and double thickness all interior walls and then insulate said walls. Hempcrete is NOT our future. Unless everyone goes to Post and Beam construction. Maybe then Hempcrete could work. Same reason no one likes concrete block installation or block concrete forms until the advent of ICF where one can easily route electrical/plumbing/HVAC in the insulation of said forms quickly.
@@abowden556 What insanity are you living on? Hemp is 3X the cost. And no, there is no hemp spray insulation and even if there was, you would still need a foaming agent and a binding agent which fits whatever wacked out world you live on.
I honestly wish we kept using hemp for construction and textiles. I live around pine tree blocks. And while the forests are cool. I don't really approve of the clear cut, mono culture approach. The land always looks dead afterwards. I think hemp would help to keep things far greener in many ways- no pun intended.
yes and no Justin, nature burns forests to allow for new growth (Re-gen) that brings back deer and small animals that couldn't eat anything in mature forests, cyclic and for a very good reason. But I understand (I am a pilot and live in BC Canada) I have seen allot of Clearcut on the mountainsides - it's rape basically. But in the old days when they used horses to pull out the logs (not skidders) they used to take 20-50% of the trees and leave the rest - and move on. No more.
With all the swindle there have been in the carbon credit sistem i think letting the marked regulate itself maby would be better in the long run.... I also think it's regulation and the fear of new materials that's maby the biggest problem here.. But with firtilicer shortege hemp would defently be a verry good opertunerty for many farmers right now. Seeds for oil the soft material for animal food and the stems for fiber..
This sounds like a wonderful product that when used with traditional support systems could be of major benefit to the construction and energy consumption needs of single family dwellings. It's definitely a product to keep an eye on for the future (and today).
Interesting using "plants" in construction, I went to visit southern Egypt, visited a Pharaonic temple that had brick walls that had straw in them and the walls were still standing in good shape for thousand of years. In another area, they had another wall that was severely corroded from rain and it had no straw in it.
nowadays we put iron in the concrete and it holds well,. I do frequently still see horsehair plaster walls in old houses, although this is considered a negative and decreases the value of the house
hemp jeans will last at least 10x longer than cotton jeans...that's why hemp was pushed off the stage. Remember when a chevy used to last 20-30 yrs? same reasoning. Same reason for Apple Phones that stop working after 5 yrs or less and the batteries cannot be replaced by you or me..
Dark history of underhanded moves and greedy motives. Hemp is SO , SO disruptive to SO many industries, it had to be stopped or we wouldn't have oil companies, drug companies, or Drug Wars and you know how some people really profited from those. The best book is The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer. It's one of the best resources.
would love to see a estimated comparising between 2 houses, 1 concrete 1 hempcrete. Listing: buildingcosts, energy bills, repairs on a timespan of 10, 25 & 50 years
One aspect about hempcrete I love is that it doesn't appear to need sand. Sand is a diminishing resource that could be lessened by increased use of hempcrete in a variety of construction applications.
Thanks Matt. What about hemp mixing concrete? I also think a video containing all of these alternative construction materials and comparing them against each other would be cool.
Easy: What consumes all the $$$ in a modern home, House structure(foundation/walls/insulation), or installation of electrical, plumbing, HVAC, communications? Obviously not the structure. Structure costs half what the systems cost for installation. If one wants far superior insulation, slap rockwool or spray foam on outside of normal building methods and insulate internal walls and floors. As for a direct comparison, you will not get one as no one builds with Hemp other than one off random projects where a lot of $$$ is just learning how to use said product. Last I knew, someone on YT said 2X-->3X Rockwool and normal construction.
If we changed your question to mRNA vaccines, you’d find Google would remove the postings and label it as disinformation or “conspiracy theory”. When lobbies reach a critical mass and can yield vast amounts of power and control, nothing is beyond their scope. Hopefully hemp can break through it all with enough people becoming aware.
Maybe long fibers from the length of the plant can be used with a hempcrete matrix to make sheets similar to plywood (more like wattle and daub) or beams.
people are way ahead of you, not just hemp plywood... proper hemp lumber, any way you want it. MUCH cheaper to grow and make and process than wood, but better and more tunable and consistent material properties.
This might be able to replace down insulation in jackets/blankets, I don't know whether it would be washable or as soft as down but it could be an interesting idea.
Blankets sure, but not coats, unless you lived somewhere very dry; hemp is moisture-absorbing while down (and in fact all feathers) are naturally water-repelling, as their molecular structure is more like that of hair. That said, if you could give it a coat of a hydrophobic substance (run it through a tumbler-mister that sprays it with such a coating, preferably something like a silica gel coat which is rather safe to use) and you could likely replace it just fine in meant-for-outside uses as well, such as in jackets.
As someone who lives in a 200 year old house you lost me at “lasts 100 years.” Sure it would not be my problem but part of net zero home (especially load bearing walls) should be sustainable for generations.
Permanent housing isn't sustainable. There needs to be an attitude change towards how we view and use architecture as we advance as a species. Net zero homes don't need to last forever since they have already had no negative environmental effects over their lifespan and, when their time comes to an end, they can be replace with the newest technology. While the blocks themselves may only have a lifespan of 100 years and your house is 200 years old, look around your house, is everything in it 200 years old or has it been continually updated over 200 years to keep it functional?
@@aaronwebb7090 sure interior components have been updated. That holds true for homes that are only 30+ years old as well. A home is an average person’s largest investment and I just cannot see a future where they eventually become landfill and the only value is the property on which it sits.
@@aaronwebb7090 If you think that countries with important cultural heritage such as Wales with farmhouses as old as 500 years (such as my family home) are going to tear it down, think again pal.
In each and every instance you cited the hemp has been shredded. I can't help but think that the the directional strength that aligned fibers offer has been overlooked. I cite the difference between conventional plywood, which maintains the directional strength of the original wood vs. composite fiberboard, which has no directional strength, absorbs moisture at a high rate and deteriorates quickly. Why not employ the tensile strength of the original plant with some binding agent under pressure ( as has been done with great effectiveness with bamboo) to add extra strength and durability to the product?
I don't think this could be done in the block format he is talking about in this video. And I think hemp plywood would be no better and probably worse than actual plywood.
*I will tell you this! Hemp-Crete blocks with over 65% fiber are as bullet proof as the best body armor. I shot a Hemp-crete block made with 65% fine chopped hemp fiber, 25% Portland cement and 10% sand measuring - 12" X 14" X 24" and the punishment it took was AMAZING! I shot the block with both 30-06 and 50 caliber ammo and I could never get a bullet to go through it or even split it after 80 shots to the center mass. It just seemed to get tougher since at some point the new bullets were being stopped by a wall of brass and lead building up in the blocks center mass! AMAZING EFFECT!*
Matt, How does Hemp Block compare with ICF construction? Are there any thoughts of combining operations- Hemp with a fill of concrete for rigidity? ICF seems to have some great value in the discussion. Thanks!
I have seen people use grasses or weeds when compressing red bricks for building, i wonder if hempcrete could be used instead to make a stronger more insulated air dryed redbrick
I plan on starting my hemp house this year. I'll be documenting the entire process. Starting from seed, to plant, to hurd. While the plants are growing, I'll be falling trees on the property and milling them into lumber on site.
Yep. I'm guilty of immediately thinking of Marijuana at the mention of hemp but I also know there is a difference. I know a long time ago it was common to find paper and clothing made of hemp. This video shows that there are many other uses I haven't even thought about... YET.
My question is regarding post construction. Is there any data as to how a homeowner would mount things to the walls once built? I wonder if it's as load bearing for typical household hanging things as concrete. I gather most would be happy in this type of constructed home, but the question of drilling and hanging things to make the space feel lived in would be an interesting experiment.
There's always an option of using engineered wood (OSB, plywood), gypsum board, or a thick layer of plaster. I highly doubt the hemp blocks / hemp-crete would be left as-is without some surface finish. Same for the outside - I doubt the hemp would be left exposed.
I think because you have to use wood construction to give it some solidness, you could mount off the wood. If you made it like a regular home with studs X amount apart you would have a mounting surface. I mean in a regular home you can't mount off the walls without using the studs. Wallboard has no weight value.
I bet a motivated contractor could learn to build w hemp in about 3 days I took a 5 day strawbale course before building my home, was the easiest part of the build.
@@UndecidedMF it is a very attractive, quiet and comfortable house. Very few problems related to strawbale. High efficiency walls, greater than r40. We heat with annualized geo solar system and a small wood stove when -10c or colder Running cost is less than gas, which we never connected. This is our forever home, but would love to build like this again using lessons learned. Hemp crete looks neat!
One day in the early 90's my grandfather gave me his old ww2 era sewing kit (to darn my socks lol) the teenaged me marveled at the old relic that was his kit (especially because the longer i kept him talking the more likely he would forget to teach me how to darn socks) and he told me that it was made of hemp. This then prompted a conversation between him and my grandmother about how "everything" used to be made out of hemp and how it was better then plastic etc. I really only wanted to get off the hook about learning how to darn socks but i still remember them discussing this and shaking their heads at the stupidity of "progress" and modernity that swept away the use of hemp and replaced it with fake leather and plastic etc. I hope Hemp comes back in a big way.
My only concerns are about its wind resistance, shock absorption (can jump up and down on a floor of it without issue, like in a gym or workout room?) and those blocks with the internal structure better not be using freaking plastic. Otherwise, I'm gonna be looking at this when I go to move into another home. If all goes well, I'm planning to build a home!
It would be interesting to know how its sound insulation and/or sound isolation properties compare with concrete. In a family home better sound insulation could be a great benefit.
Taking VERY conservative estimates, from the low end of compressive strength to the high end of density, you could have a hemp block wall 10 feet high and still have over half its compressive strength left. Knowing that that is possible without any kind of support armature within the wall, that means that approximately every two square inches of wall top can support a square foot of roof (structure plus live load allowance). Add in framing, of course, and the sky is the limit. And if you want to rely on the hemp for structural support, a denser, thicker wall will support more weight. "Oh no! MORE carbon sequestration whatever will we dooooo?" What kind of tensile strength are we talking about here? Concrete is essentially zero without rebar; hempcrete naturally has a lot of fiber running through it every which way. This is likely why it stands up against earthquake-type stresses, some actual tensile resistance. For greater durability, plaster. Okay, it's not carbon friendly but if it makes the wall last 200 years instead of only 100 years, that sounds like a solid win; it's still only a fraction of the cementitious product a concrete wall would require. And it makes the wall a lot more resistant to moisture and critters that might gnaw through the softer, gentler hemp wall. It seems to me like this is a good way forward. It costs more on the first day and a bit less every day after that.
One of the best starter Hempcrete courses in UK is a 2 day course provided by Brighton Permaculture, tutored by Alex Sparrow at Stanmer, near Brighton, Sussex.
You know what helps alot? MONOLITHIC DOMES! seriously the shape of the house can make a huge difference in heating and cooling cost, now if we build some houses out of a good material you essentially get the best result possible.
Would the fibers of most agricultural waste fibre products be similar if mixed in a hempcrete method? There seems to be some real opportunities in this market. I would love to build with the blocks one day, even just a small hut just to learn the techniques.
people have made cob houses since we have had houses which is basically grass/straw and mud. Basically any fibrous material can be used in home construction and has been used for thousands and thousands of years. I am sure some are better than others as you dont want insects/mice digging into your home to eat whatever your house is made of...
@@bodhisfattva7462 I was more thinking of their application in this material. The inclusion of ingredients other than mud would make it different than traditional cobb-style walls, also negating the rodent and insect issue. I guess it would have a lot to do with the cell structure and fiber length and strength.
I'm curious as to how effective hemp wool (or other hemp products) in terms of acoustical insulation? I'm interested in knowing how this would compare with RockWool in db reduction.
From what I’ve heard it’s great interior insulated firewall that’s insulated … sounds awesome. Wonder how much it dampens sound… or would be awesome with a steel stud home and use it as walls . Would def make a great combo for cheap building materials that are strong
This is why I voted to legalize weed in my state even though I don’t smoke it! I’m so excited to see it used in industries where it can cut down our emissions like textiles and construction!
same for me - 67 and stopped smoking it 2 yrs after I started - haven't had any in 48 yrs. but it has so many health and engineering and clothing benefits - it should be mainstream (its the cotton growers and clothing manufacturers that stop it mostly...hemp jeans will last 10 x longer than cotton = lower sales = not good for cotton growers)
@@stevemyers2092 yup. It sucks that we miss out on something that could benefit all citizens just because a handful wanted to protect their profits. Still, doesn’t mean that we can’t fix it now at least.
In a thinktank project I designed a building material. Mycelium sheets. Compressed and reinforced with hempfibers, with an outer layer of hempfiber. Looks like an combination of plywood and drywall. And does the work of both. One positive bonus was that the mycelium in our process is a natural repellant of black mold. Reducing the risks of mold caused health issues. An enormous issue here in sweden due to our climate. The project was focused to develope any possible hemp materials as buildingmaterial. We made our own hempcrete, insulation material of hemp- cellulose. We tried everything. Both already prooven stuff. Aswell as creating and making our own materials. My focus landed at mycelium, grown on hemp fibers and/or cellulose as a substrate. Hemp IS one of the ecological supermaterial our civilization needs. Bamboo is another. Cheers 🤟😎🤙
I worked in hemp derived CBD company, and hempcret was one of my selling points. Because I believe in it. In Loveland CO, we are working on a community of 10 all hemp homes and I think it is going to just get bigger from here😀 your channel and info is only going to make this better thank you
What do you think of using hemp in construction like this? Go to curiositystream.com/Undecided to get Curiosity Stream for only $14.99 for the whole year!
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I think it's good. I was trying to find someone who could build me tiny house made from hemp but i couldn't find anyone.☹️
Sadly, that's not too surprising. There's not a lot of people or companies familiar with working with hemp yet.
@@UndecidedMF yes that's part of the problem. The second part for me is that i live in area were police regularly confiscate hemp from growers even tho growing hemp for Non recreational use is perfectly legal.
Thank you for presenting such interesting topics. Really enjoy your channel. As the son of a builder and an ex navy Seabee I have seen many construction methods around the world. At 70 years old I still enjoy learning.
This material appears to behave more like a rigid insulator rather than a true structural material. For example, a hempcrete slab doesn't seem like it can function the same way that a concrete slab would. My guess is that this *can* be achieved with hempcrete, but is not necessarily its main purpose. That said, I would guess, it should still find many uses as a building material.
I grew the first hemp fiber trials in California in 2021. We grew 26' tall plants and yielded >8T an acre in dry stalk biomass. The plant and its potential is insane. My partners on the project have converted a cotton gin to process hemp. the process to watch is adding hemp and lime to spray-in insulation machines. It's a complete game changer.
That sounds like it was amazing to be a part of! The growth numbers are always insane to me and then eventually someone comes along and says, “yea, it’s a weed…”
…I guess today I’m that person haha
@@SaveMoneySavethePlanet this video was from late June, when the plants were only about 12' tall. ua-cam.com/video/EnOcHFHndyw/v-deo.html
i'm curious to know if the hemp being used for fibers for this sort of building material can also be used to yield hemp seed. I have tried roasted salted hemp seed and it is actually really good and I imagine the seed aswell would be great food for livestock.
The thing is those were skinner than a regular tree yet you could hang a semi off the side of it lmao with it maybe bending but not snapping
@@daemenoth the flowering and seed production process tends to degrade some of the qualities of the bast fiber, which makes it less usable for Textile applications but is not a big deal for building materials. That said, the main trade off to producing seed is that time spent making seed is time not spent growing more stalk. Flowering and seed production takes 40-60 days depending on variety. If that time was spent growing instead you could have a larger plant. It's the difference between having 15 foot tall plants (or two crops of 6' tall plants) and 6 foot tall plants with seed on them. Farmers will optimize around it based on available genetics and their offtakes from the supply chain.
A wheat farmer near my grandfather's farm use the wheat straw from his own fields to build his new house. To prevent insects from living in the straw he built a hopper that sat above the feedshoot of his baler that held borax powder and sprinkled a light dusting of borax on the straw as it come into the baler. This diffused the borax throughout the bale. It not only eliminated any possible insect issue, but borax is a natural fire retardant. When he had completed his house I went over with my Dad (who was an architect and main instigator of the visit) and grandfather to take a look. It was a very normal looking house built up on a slight mound (to make sure water ran away from the house and never had a chance to pond next to the walls) and had an extra thick insulated concrete slab (which was not covered inside, but instead was just stained and polished, and which had water pipes running through it for heating in the cold Oklahoma winters). The only real give away was that the walls were about 2 1/2 to 3 feet thick.
I remember the day we visited was a standard hot Oklahoma summer day, yet the inside of the house was cool without the air conditioner running. I can remember my grandfather asking about this since in his older farm house the AC ran all the time. The answer was that they open up the house in the evening and night and get everything inside the house cool, especially the thick floor slab. Then in the morning they close the windows and drew the curtains to limit the heat gain. The farmer pointed out the circular duct in one corner of the room that ran from floor to ceiling with a fan. During the day the fan would pull warm air from the ceiling and blow it across the concrete floor. With the large amount of thermal mass in the floor the house didn't start to get overly warm until around sunset when they opened the windows back up and turn on the whole house fan in the ceiling that drew air through the house. And if the night was still too warm or humid, they would just run their relatively tiny AC unit at night when the temperature difference was lower and it took less energy to cool the house down.
BTW, I am an engineer, and some of the above is me backfilling technical details that I understand now. But when we visited I was in high school and already knew I was going to be an engineer, so I actually did understand a lot of what the farmer (who was also an engineer who came back to take over his own father's farm) was saying. And my Dad was so impressed that he did something similar (at least from a thermal mass point of view) when he built his new house in Arizona. Instead of straw he used concrete block with every cell poured full of concrete to create the huge amount of thermal mass and then put 6 inch thick aircrete panels on the outside to insulate it. Nights in Arizona are often too hot to fling the windows open, but the amount of power required to run the AC was much lower at night and with time of day pricing, much much cheaper as well.
Well thanks for the chance to remanence.
That's an awesome house. The world needs more houses like it.
Reminds me of houses in India
Would love to see them both I live in AZ and know how expensive AC in the summer can be and would love to build to offset that !
This is essentially the same as old stone houses built around the mediterranian. Lots of thermal mass, ability to close/open for the day or night. Hope we can get back to these principles to build more effective housings.
Yeah, the open the windows at night trick depends on humidity levels. If you're in a well insulated structure in the shade, the air can get less comfortable at night, as humidity rises
Hempcrete is "mold resistant" in that it doesn't mold as much as papercrete, but it still molds really easily. I went to college in the desert southwest where there was a lot of interest in hempcrete and everything I saw built with it soaked up water during the monsoon season and sat wet and moldy all winter. It can't be in contact with the ground, or in contact with concrete that is in contact with the ground, and it needs a roof over it that is water tight and has broad overhangs.
Exactly, if something is bio degradable, it will eventually add up to costs and carbon footprint if you have to do it again and again.
This is why they put a lime plaster on the outside walls. As far as life expectancy goes, as long as you keep the water out or at least allow the walls to dry out, it will outlast a wooden building - centuries.
@@iancormie9916 But it's hygroscopic and porous so the amount of work that you have to put into keeping it dry is way higher than what you have to do for a wooden building. Mesa Verde has wood still in place that's 800 years old, it's not like we have to worry about the longevity of wood, but there are hempcrete structures with good roofs over top of them that become unsafe to live in because of air quality issues from mold in the very first year.
I started using hempcrete about 10 years ago, the comfort it brought to the house is amazing, it's easy to mix with a concrete mixer once you know how to mix it.
I now have a list of things to get:
A large plot of land in the middle of nowhere
A truckload of mycelium making fungi samples
A really tall, netted area for growth bamboo,
And a hemp fiber farm.
Build all the things
Matt - a video covering the replacement of cotton and wood by hemp fider would be very welcome.
👍 Thanks for the suggestion
Go discover Hibiscus Cannabinus
Bamboo can make fibers, I believe Rayon is a brand named bamboo cloth.
@@CigaretteCrayon One of the first attempts to make synthetic fibers quote : " Rayon is a fiber from regenerated cellulose, generally derived from wood pulp. Rayon is usually made from eucalyptus trees, but any plant can be used (such as bamboo, soy, cotton, etc). To produce the fiber, the plant cellulose goes through a process involving a lot of chemicals, energy and water. "
Useful for so many things, the fact that we don't make use of it is incredible.
Only because weed has negative stigma around it. It's actually some bullshit weed is probably one of the least dangerous drugs with the fact it's bi products can be used to make anything. Imagine of weed wasn't criminalized to shit to arest people of color and first Nations people, the hemp industry would be booming right now.
It's because regular textile manufacturers know how much more efficient hemp is, but don't want it to overshoot their industries. So of course they spun it as this whole thing of "oh this will encourage unlawful marijuana growth."
People have known about Hemp and its uses for more than decades.
@@EzraM5 we would live a in a much better world if hemp was use just as much as oil or concrete. We probably wouldn't be pushing for EVS this heavey if gas production wasn't dependant only oil but booth hemp and oil. Plastics could be replaced by hemp but we don't. 🙃
Oil conglomerates stopped it. Hemp can make plastics and Mr Oil baron does not like that.
@@EzraM5 And plastics so Mr big shot oil baron does not want that stuff anywhere near the marketplace. The amount of stuff it can make would not put a dent in their sales, it would ruin them.
Matt in addition to newer products , hemp provided great products in the past as you point out . Would like to mention that using Hemp for paper and in place of cotton would drastically help the environment including carbon capture which is not the way I am hinting at. Great video Matt I have seen this information b4 but your platform will bring this information to more of us
Thanks for sharing, Tom! Great call out.
Hibiscus Cannabinus...
Cotton is horrible. It takes so much water to produce. Hemp could be a great replacement for it.
@@pbilk That was one reason it was banned,besides the paper and oil. Once they learned they could make polyesters from the oil Hemp was shut down.
@@pbilk so are you saying to turn hemp into paper doesn't take as much water? and what are the qualities of hemp paper as our use of paper needs a variety various types depending on the printing processes used.
I'm well-retired now, but even as a teenager, it was often discussed by adults around me , how Dupont was behind the legislation banning Hemp. As the patent-holders of artificial fibers, their only real competition was Hemp, which they could never compete with or replace, due to its world-wide use . And the rest, as they say, is History . It is amazing how greedy influential people , can alter the course of history .
the name of the guy who was responsible is Harry Jacob Anslinger
Common capitalist moment
Are we speaking of Harry Anslinger and William Hearst by any chance?
@@floriangrob3910 reefer madness, the stupidest movie next to 'an inconvenient truth' from that hypocritical nutjob Al Gorey. The yanks certainly come up with some dross when they want to smear and Gorey is a great candidate for the nuthouse
Actually there was another player in all that. Warehouser had just developed an acid process to make paper from wood pulp, this process is greatly inferior to hemp paper, but would allow the company to make huge profits from deforesting the United States! The two companies lobbied in congress to the tune of several million dollars (huge money back then) and finally got the Marijuana Tax Act passed, effectively making all hemp products illegal in the US.
It's crazy how unbelievably versatile hemp is.. It's sadly really difficult to produce hemp products as most farmers are hesitant to farm it, at least where I live.
You hear of new uses for it every other year, wondering when people will start to increase production.
Hemp can also be used to replace cotton and wood as a source for paper production. These are two major resource that put pressure on the ecosystem. I read that hemp hardly needs any fertilizer and uses a fraction of the water that cotton uses.
Another unmentioned advantage of making paper with hemp is the chemical process to turn wood into paper is extremely harsh! The process to make paper from hemp is SO much easier!
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Chemical Use Program, Hemp uses only 2.123 L of water to grow 1kg of fiber, while cotton needs 9.758 L of water to grow 1 kg of fiber (4-5 times more). Hemp requires little if any pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers and can grow in a wide variety of soil types from the Arctic Circle to the Equator.
Interesting approach. Companies in Austria use hemp as insulation material for wood-frame houses, and have actually done so for quite a while. Nice to see that this is growing to other options.
You should wonder why Australia has not been using Hibiscus Cannabinus, it's always been free
@Undecided, Matt, you explain everything with such calm and cool notes that it makes the video easy to follow and understand. Along with Practical Engineering, your videos keep me entertained while I learn something new. Thank you for that. Keep it up.
And they are very "Punny"...
That means a lot, Nuno. Thanks!
Sometimes too punny.
@@UndecidedMF never!
A complete, unemotional explanation of the pros and cons of using hemp in construction. Enjoyed it very much.
@@ebaziuk Vertical hydroponic and aeroponic farming is an incredibly efficient way to grow food without pesticides, herbicides, etc and uses much less land and water. This could help feed the world's growing population and relieve stress on our environment and allow for some new land uses such as hemp harvesting for more sustainable building materials. Trees take decades to mature and hemp can mature in as little as two months. Imagine being able to harvest building materials 5-6 times a year instead of once every 20-30 years.
@@ebaziuk You seem to worry a lot about farmland with your other similar comment. There is still huge amounts of land that can be turned into farmland. The increased cost of your food in the stores is NOT related to lack of farmland. It is related to government spending too much money causing this inflation by diluting the money supply. It's just another way government steals the value of your money, which is different from income tax, property taxes, or sales taxes, etc., but still another form of government theft.
I saw Hempcrete at the PA farm show about 15 years ago. I think they had a special license for it or something but it was really cool to see back then. Glad to see it being talked about again.
By groaning using this plant for everything we can we will systematically be improving upon and maintaining the quality of our air, water, landscapes, foods, working living environments in full production 500 million clean high-paying jobs globally.
I have friends building hemp homes in Mexico. This video has all the data that I have been wanting to know. Thanks, Matt.
@@ebaziuk - NOPE!!! Do some research. Hempcrete/Cococrete .. have this amazing ability to absorb moisture without molding, and then expel moisture when it's drier. It is an amazing building material.
@@ebaziuk - Funny how stupid people always resort to this response. I not only encouraged them to do research, I also gave them the GD answer.
I LITERALLY have contractor friends building these homes not only in the mountainous regions of the state of Mexico and in the Distrito Federal, they are building them in the states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo.
Bugger off, wanker.
I remember using this in a lot of my projects during uni back in 2009 and 10. My teachers laughed at me each time i used it and tried to persuade me to use more familiar materials.
Rooting for Hempire since 2015! It’s amazing how light hempcrete is - you can hold 3ft piece in your hands easily )
think the winning sales pitch is that it can be used as a power source in the way of hemp bio fossil fuel. Or compressed Hamp lumber and building material high source of nutrition medical aid clothing fabric so forth and so on etc. etc. because it makes over 20,000 different things. And by using it for everything we can ingrown it everywhere we may we will be naturally systematically almost effortlessly improving upon maintaining the quality of our air water foods landscapes working living environment from coast-to-coast globally. Because the rain forest prior to it being chopped down absorb almost 80% of air pollution Hamp can do that if not better at the same time creating hundreds of millions of jobs that would be classified as clean high paying ones. Versus dirty low-paying jobs which are a major part in global pollution having a diminished the quality of life for all.
Like most everything that comes out, it's usually more expensive at first, but as it become more widely used, the price will go down. Interesting video.
Sounds like a far better insulation than a Concrete which leaves you needing to use both materials one for internal strength and hempcrete for exterior insulation
45 years ago I was in eastern Nebraska and the farmer shown me a tree that the Federal Government sprays did not affect it. It was over 45 feet tall, and it was over 5 years old. He jokingly asked me if I knew what the tree was called, I went to the tree and made a discovery! It was not a tree! It was hemp!
I'd like to see someone try the same with bamboo. I've worked with bamboo composite lumber. It's heavy as hell, but more than matches traditional pine. I suspect that the bamboo fiber would perform as well as, if not better than shredded hemp. Bamboo is just as renewable as hemp, but grows much quicker.
Bamboo is an incredible wood alternative. Adding it to my list for possible videos down the road.
I've been interested in bamboo ever since I randomly came across terra preta. It is a dark soil in the Amazon that is a combination of biochar (a type of charcoal), dirt, composts, and various waste products. It is supposed to be excellent soil for farming. To tie this into bamboo, I was looking for fast growing plants to make the charcoal out of, and bamboo and duckweed kept showing up at the top of the list. Not sure if they would actually work for making biochar, but they both have other interesting uses as well.
I remember going to Hong Kong decades ago and first seeing the bamboo scaffolding. I thought it was crazy, but yes, there is another great alternative to wood for construction and other uses.
@@artboymoy now imagine that bamboo scaffold but instead of just using raw bamboo, you cut into quarters and laminated together to make a 2x4. It's unbelievably strong, rot resistant and in a few months you'll have another crop after you cut it off the root system. And there are species of bamboo that will grow in temperate to tropical climates.
@@Babarudra I'll have to look up to see the comparison between bamboo and pine construction. YOu would think uniformity would have something to do with it. Or maybe we don't want all of our houses looking like Gilligans Island. :)
Mould is a common issue in homes and a significant health risk. I would think that a good question would be what are the risks of hemp building materials harbouring mould. Especially given it can absorb and hold moisture.
hemp is mold resistant and it resists pests as well as rot
I'd honestly live in a small barn thing made of this. give it a couple solar panels and a tank to collect water for the garden. I'd be happy to live there.
I’ve seen some videos about hempcrete homes before. It’s a great idea and we need to take it mainstream. Hempcrete is not only fire resistant and pest resistant, it’s also mold resistant, too! With black mold being such an issue in the US, hempcrete could be the solution alternative building material that solves that problem.
It sounds good, but nobody can just decide to build with it. There are building codes which need to be followed in every town and state in the USA
Who told you it was mold resistant.. i grow,its not at all, son.. lol
@@dertythegrower exactly
@@dertythegrower maybe hempcrete itself is? but I'd like to see the source for that claim
Look up hempcrete mold resistant and it will tell you that hemp is mold resistant it’s entire life ded or not and the other component is lime which is also mold resistant. So it’s mold tesistant
Nearly perfect building material in most cases. Should have never been outlawed or been forced out of use decades ago. Just imagine how much further we as a species could have advanced if we weren’t so easily corrupted.
Why not mix both hemp fibers with concrete. We already mix Perlite with it to get a lighter weight concrete so why not Hemp fiber?
Maybe the hemp fiber is heavier...
Why does this not surprise me. 25 to 30 years ago when we were farming I seriously looked into growing hemp for its fibre value but due to issues that you have mentioned it was unviable to pursue as the Government at the time had so many restrictions on growing it they made it unfeasible (like building a 6' secure fence around our whole farm) Can you imagine where we would be today if we were able to make a go of it back then?? The total lack of foresight by the Government of the day made sure we would fail in farming as we knew we had to diversify to be able to make ends meet. Very sad really as the fibre from hemp has so many uses yet we've been so blindsided because of it's cousin 😞
I always appreciate your well rounded research and production...Thanks Bob
What about Bugs and rodents? I did not hear any information. I was surprised to see this subject left out of what was a great video.
he did mention they mix it so it's not pure hemp fiber
It's not pure hemp fiber, so bugs and rodents aren't an issue. I should have touched on it though in the video. Appreciate the feedback.
Another thing to consider is that concrete uses a specific type of sand that needs to be quarried and processed, before getting shipped across the world.
This has an environmental impact that is hard to offset.
Good call out. The supply chain and production pipeline plays a big role here as well.
funniest thing ive heard in a long time " concrete uses a specific type of sand that has to be shipped all around the world " you dont know much about concrete do you? stop spreading lies
@@cordellej You think you know. Do you know Saudi Arabia and other sand-desert regions have to import a lot of sand to make concrete?
@@UndecidedMF We have a surface mine up here in north Vancouver island that scrapes large hills down to sea level that destroys the habitat for bears eagles cougars and hundreds of other birds and animals ,all for the rock and sand that is shipped thousands of miles by ship tot he coast of California and Hawaii.It is used for specialty concrete .this is one of the last accessible place to get this sharp sand and rock .This shows we are running out of this resource,We need to use it more wisely and start using more sustainable renewable products locally ,Good video thanks
@@cordellej Look it up then before you accuse someone of lying. It has to be a very fine grained sand to work well or the concrete becomes brittle
Since it has a potential as a building material, it would be interesting to know what a hemp GMO could be capable of
Since concrete is used in so many industries, being able to have alternatives in a shortage etc is great
Definitely great stuff! Hemp and bamboo my friend. I'm excited to see if we can make these two materials move to the top of the building materials pyramid.
Both versatile! Appreciate it 👍
The problem with all these building alternatives is that local governments always get in the way because the people that work for local governments don't do their research about the new building alternatives that are available. All they care about is getting a paycheck so their always stuck in the past with their rules and regulations.
then the market needs to have a well known Engineering firm to produce some videos explaining the process, the pros and cons, cost benefits for the products and where it can be used to offset carbon/green positives/negatives. That would carry some weight - also some interactive/Q&A zoom calls for various municipalities around the world to be videoed and provided free of charge for other municipalities/cities etc. EDUCATION is key right now to allay the fears, educate ignorance by answering pertinent questions most people/communities have.
Thanks for the video. I looked into building my house with hempcrete but in the end I decided on timber frame/straw bale. I also used earthen plaster on the inside and out. Looks of good eco options these days.
I love the content you provide, keep up the great work Matt.
I seem to need to come to this channel to hear about the innovation that Australia is achieving in some respects. I live here and you just don't hear about it in the normal course. I'd love to build a small off grid building as a get away, makes sense so little need for heating/cooling given the clime in my area.
If you can get straw bales, that might be a good alternative for a small building. Lots of good info on straw bale buildings, and they need less wood for framing. Can be a do-it-yourself project too.
That's because the authoritarian nanny state that is Australia makes these kinds of initiative extremely difficult to undertake due to excessive laws and regulations, as well as vacuous media merely being a complicit unquestioning mouthpiece for the government's agenda.
@@anonanon7278 Not sure what you're talking about, an Australian company makes/sell these products? It is a very niche market as it's more expensive that traditional materials. I'd think these would be very good for a small bespoke build where site access is restrictive/remote areas.
@@Damascus_404 I'm sure the regulatory and compliance hurdles would have been a walk in the park.
I've had my eye on hemp in construction for a while. In my experience, one of the best places it could be commercially applied in the current landscape would be as spray on insulation. Existing spray on foam insulation is rather expensive, so i would imagine it could be priced competitively as well.
My thought as well. In addition, spray-on foam is toxic not only during application but throughout its life, particularly to chemically sensitive people (which are increasing in number in our increasingly chemical-based western world).
@@watsontcbc true that. spray foam can be nasty stuff
Făină de cereale, ipsoz, borax, apă, zer( din lapte),argilă.
@@watsontcbc Good point, i used it on a project and could smell the outgassing months after application. I'd venture a guess that microscopic particles would also slowly make their way in the surrounding area as well, particularly with degradation over the years.
@Gabriel Arthofer That should possibly be addressed with a good formulation, but you raise a good point, compaction should play an inverse factor for insulating properties, yet increase fire retardation. Formulation and application protocol should standardize these factors if its application becomes industrialized.
An excellent overview of Hemp. As a Mass construction manager, future video content should include acceptance by International & US building codes, acceptance from local building & fire officials, interior and exterior finishing techniques & costs, US manufacturers & distributors, skill training for tradesmen, wiring & plumbing integration during construction.
I have watched so many videos and some of them, by now, are years old. This has been SO slow to production which makes me wonder if it will ever be widely used. I would use hemp blocks in a heart beat if I was building a custom home.
The idea of building a structure is to last as long as possible and not have it disinigrate after a period of time...
Just build houses out of stone and mortar like we do in Greece and Italy and you will be fine...
@@PAIP_Studio I mean it gets to -20C here so I can only imagine how hard that would be to keep warm during winter
@@upgames1313 It takes a long time to heat stone up. It takes a long time for stone to cool down. It is a great matterial for insulation. Thats why northen European castles and mansions where made out of stone with wood and carpet lining the interior.
It may have potential of replacing Concrete Bricks/Blocks, but it cant replace concrete. The vast majority of concrete use is structural Reinforced Concrete (RC)
I'm genuinely ignorant, isn't the only difference between those two the structural rebar?
@@Jetfast619 different materials, production methods and application
@@teoengchin super interesting. Is there any way to get it to that strength with additional research or is it a flaw in the material
@@Jetfast619 it's just not what the material is designed to do. Like trying to go camping in the woods with a Ferrari
@@teoengchin Good analogy, definitely gonna steal it. Been trying to explain how the human brain is maladapted to the modern world.
CEB (Compressed Earth Blocks) especially those stabilized with minuscule amounts of lime or cement (7-10 %) are a much better option. With strength close to or equal to concrete, vapor permeability, thermal mass, and completely fireproof. Compressed earth blocks can be manufactured almost anywhere in the world from local resources. They are dirt cheap because they're literally made out of dirt. The only expense is the initial cost of the machine used to manufacture them. CEB's overcome almost ALL of the disadvantages seen in adobe or other earthen structures. They can even be used in extreme climates if you use a double wall design with an insulation cavity in the middle. It is the single greenest most environmentally friendly construction option on the planet! They can even be used in the construction of multiple story structures.
Please supply contacts for CEB Materials
@@sydneymokgoatsane9751 ua-cam.com/video/IuQB3x4ZNeA/v-deo.html
@@sydneymokgoatsane9751 I posted other information and websites but they were deleted. AECT earth block and colorado earth are two great places to start.
Love your videos and Podcast Matt, keep up the great work my friend… 😀
Thanks so much!
Amazing. Seems like a lost custom that's finding its way back. It also looks very light-weight, based on the construction worker carrying a block that looked about 10x10x16. That would be pretty heavy for concrete. Also, with blocks that big, laying one block at a time goes a lot quicker. Awesome Matt 👍
Good point. So the transportation emissions is probably fairly low.
From what i am hearing, hemp could be used on the side walls while having a concrete core in tall buildings. you use the core to hold the sides up while the hemp walls keeps the core from getting any weather so its in the optimal environment so cracks and such are on lower chance. other than that you could use it for normal houses as you dont build that tall.
I saw another video that made moee sense to me, which is that the construction of a building emits the most co2. We should then be building homes and buildings that will never deteriorate, and are beautiful, so that we will never want to tear them down.
I am doing a partial renovation of an old building. I discovered these blocks under the concrete floors used as an underlayment then covered with tar paper ans 2 inches of concrete. Guessing the building was built in the 1940s. Located in southern Utah.
Thorium Liquid Molten Salt Reactors and now Hempcrete?! You are hitting the nails on the head Matt! Keep it up brother! Next you'll probably talking about the therapeutic effects of mushrooms and other psychedelics this rate.
Ha! Or building homes with them.
@@UndecidedMF cut scene to children licking the walls of their bedrooms when the parents have gone to bed...
@@UndecidedMF Or building thorium Liquid Molten Salt Reactors out of Hempcrete and nails whilst off your tree on Mushrooms. At home.
11:50 ; it is not an incredibly versatile product, it is an incredibly versatile plant that can be extracted to create said products. nature is our given, we must remember that it comes before us because we are nature itself. a product is something that is artificially valued.
There are also several companies making hemp into plywoodlike panels for construction as well.
Should replace all Soy fields (without pesticides and fertilizer) on earth and be used as food, textile, paper, concrete etc. Hemp + Algea might produce fibers with better and more versatile properties.
why compare hemp with concrete? the hempcrete is a substitute for clay bricks or autoclaved aerated concrete - the stuff the walls are made, not reinforced concrete.
Because it's a different material used to reinforce concrete rather than using rebar.
Love this vid - I personaly combined hemp with mycelium and came up with an insulating material that is fire resistant and has a better R value than polystyren and mineral insulation
Sounds interesting. Maybe you should send Matt the info!
I think is just GREAT, also so is your presntation!!
Spreading the word on sucg Great alternative. Thank you.
Yes! Finally, someone has began spreading the news! Hempcrete is our future!
I think so too. 🙂
Let us know when one can install electrical/plumbing/heating/ac/communications CHEAPLY in said Hempcrete. Those systems cost FAR more than any structure of the home which in comparison is free. Far cheaper to add rockwool to outside of house and double thickness all interior walls and then insulate said walls.
Hempcrete is NOT our future. Unless everyone goes to Post and Beam construction. Maybe then Hempcrete could work. Same reason no one likes concrete block installation or block concrete forms until the advent of ICF where one can easily route electrical/plumbing/HVAC in the insulation of said forms quickly.
Hibiscus Cannabinus... Don't keep getting left behind
don't forget hemp based foam bats, hemp based wood (much better and cheaper) and hemp based spray insulation. hempcrete ain't the only option.
@@abowden556 What insanity are you living on? Hemp is 3X the cost. And no, there is no hemp spray insulation and even if there was, you would still need a foaming agent and a binding agent which fits whatever wacked out world you live on.
I honestly wish we kept using hemp for construction and textiles. I live around pine tree blocks. And while the forests are cool. I don't really approve of the clear cut, mono culture approach. The land always looks dead afterwards.
I think hemp would help to keep things far greener in many ways- no pun intended.
yes and no Justin, nature burns forests to allow for new growth (Re-gen) that brings back deer and small animals that couldn't eat anything in mature forests, cyclic and for a very good reason. But I understand (I am a pilot and live in BC Canada) I have seen allot of Clearcut on the mountainsides - it's rape basically. But in the old days when they used horses to pull out the logs (not skidders) they used to take 20-50% of the trees and leave the rest - and move on. No more.
It would be awesome to be able to invest in hemp farms as a carbon offset option, helping to alleviate our carbon and housing issues.
With all the swindle there have been in the carbon credit sistem i think letting the marked regulate itself maby would be better in the long run.... I also think it's regulation and the fear of new materials that's maby the biggest problem here.. But with firtilicer shortege hemp would defently be a verry good opertunerty for many farmers right now. Seeds for oil the soft material for animal food and the stems for fiber..
I've actually made a bowstring out of hemp. It worked really well.
This sounds like a wonderful product that when used with traditional support systems could be of major benefit to the construction and energy consumption needs of single family dwellings. It's definitely a product to keep an eye on for the future (and today).
Interesting using "plants" in construction, I went to visit southern Egypt, visited a Pharaonic temple that had brick walls that had straw in them and the walls were still standing in good shape for thousand of years. In another area, they had another wall that was severely corroded from rain and it had no straw in it.
Straw/mud construction is a bit popular among the 'hippies' here in Australia...
Straw adds tensile strength. It doesn't protect a wall from water damage.
nowadays we put iron in the concrete and it holds well,. I do frequently still see horsehair plaster walls in old houses, although this is considered a negative and decreases the value of the house
@@jamesmurphyrealtor1277 that is because capitalism is stupid. Horse hair plaster is well known to reduce cracking in your walls.
@@y0nd3r it is the government regulations that dictate the building code. Not capitalism
There is a history of cotton and hemp industry and why it was banned back then.
hemp jeans will last at least 10x longer than cotton jeans...that's why hemp was pushed off the stage. Remember when a chevy used to last 20-30 yrs? same reasoning. Same reason for Apple Phones that stop working after 5 yrs or less and the batteries cannot be replaced by you or me..
Dark history of underhanded moves and greedy motives. Hemp is SO , SO disruptive to SO many industries, it had to be stopped or we wouldn't have oil companies, drug companies, or Drug Wars and you know how some people really profited from those. The best book is The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer. It's one of the best resources.
would love to see a estimated comparising between 2 houses, 1 concrete 1 hempcrete. Listing: buildingcosts, energy bills, repairs on a timespan of 10, 25 & 50 years
One aspect about hempcrete I love is that it doesn't appear to need sand. Sand is a diminishing resource that could be lessened by increased use of hempcrete in a variety of construction applications.
Thanks Matt.
What about hemp mixing concrete?
I also think a video containing all of these alternative construction materials and comparing them against each other would be cool.
Easy: What consumes all the $$$ in a modern home, House structure(foundation/walls/insulation), or installation of electrical, plumbing, HVAC, communications? Obviously not the structure. Structure costs half what the systems cost for installation. If one wants far superior insulation, slap rockwool or spray foam on outside of normal building methods and insulate internal walls and floors.
As for a direct comparison, you will not get one as no one builds with Hemp other than one off random projects where a lot of $$$ is just learning how to use said product. Last I knew, someone on YT said 2X-->3X Rockwool and normal construction.
How long are we going to keep talking about how great hemp can be?
This needs to happen now
There are people who believe that it is Hemp's competition with various existing products that is the true reason it was outlawed.
EXACTLY!
Not a belief son. Fact.
If we changed your question to mRNA vaccines, you’d find Google would remove the postings and label it as disinformation or “conspiracy theory”. When lobbies reach a critical mass and can yield vast amounts of power and control, nothing is beyond their scope. Hopefully hemp can break through it all with enough people becoming aware.
The more I see about using hemp not only for building materials but many other things as well and considering how fast hemp grows the better it looks.
Maybe long fibers from the length of the plant can be used with a hempcrete matrix to make sheets similar to plywood (more like wattle and daub) or beams.
I think there are already people making hemp lumber. I think Hemp Earth is doing some of it.
people are way ahead of you, not just hemp plywood... proper hemp lumber, any way you want it. MUCH cheaper to grow and make and process than wood, but better and more tunable and consistent material properties.
This might be able to replace down insulation in jackets/blankets, I don't know whether it would be washable or as soft as down but it could be an interesting idea.
Would it smell like grass?
Blankets sure, but not coats, unless you lived somewhere very dry; hemp is moisture-absorbing while down (and in fact all feathers) are naturally water-repelling, as their molecular structure is more like that of hair. That said, if you could give it a coat of a hydrophobic substance (run it through a tumbler-mister that sprays it with such a coating, preferably something like a silica gel coat which is rather safe to use) and you could likely replace it just fine in meant-for-outside uses as well, such as in jackets.
I would love to have a hemp hous. It sounds so cozy like a nice warm blanket wrapped around me.
As someone who lives in a 200 year old house you lost me at “lasts 100 years.” Sure it would not be my problem but part of net zero home (especially load bearing walls) should be sustainable for generations.
Permanent housing isn't sustainable. There needs to be an attitude change towards how we view and use architecture as we advance as a species. Net zero homes don't need to last forever since they have already had no negative environmental effects over their lifespan and, when their time comes to an end, they can be replace with the newest technology.
While the blocks themselves may only have a lifespan of 100 years and your house is 200 years old, look around your house, is everything in it 200 years old or has it been continually updated over 200 years to keep it functional?
@@aaronwebb7090 sure interior components have been updated. That holds true for homes that are only 30+ years old as well. A home is an average person’s largest investment and I just cannot see a future where they eventually become landfill and the only value is the property on which it sits.
@@aaronwebb7090 If you think that countries with important cultural heritage such as Wales with farmhouses as old as 500 years (such as my family home) are going to tear it down, think again pal.
@@andrewjones-productions When did I say anything about tearing down houses? We are talking about a building material for new houses.
@@aaronwebb7090 Wouldn't the most sustainable houses be ones that last longer? It takes time/money and building something again wastes energy.
In each and every instance you cited the hemp has been shredded. I can't help but think that the the directional strength that aligned fibers offer has been overlooked. I cite the difference between conventional plywood, which maintains the directional strength of the original wood vs. composite fiberboard, which has no directional strength, absorbs moisture at a high rate and deteriorates quickly. Why not employ the tensile strength of the original plant with some binding agent under pressure ( as has been done with great effectiveness with bamboo) to add extra strength and durability to the product?
Hemp rope has long been known for high strength. Was once considered a national strategic resource.
I don't think this could be done in the block format he is talking about in this video. And I think hemp plywood would be no better and probably worse than actual plywood.
Great watching this video and hearing the "It's 4:20 somewhere" on April 20th . . .
*I will tell you this! Hemp-Crete blocks with over 65% fiber are as bullet proof as the best body armor. I shot a Hemp-crete block made with 65% fine chopped hemp fiber, 25% Portland cement and 10% sand measuring - 12" X 14" X 24" and the punishment it took was AMAZING! I shot the block with both 30-06 and 50 caliber ammo and I could never get a bullet to go through it or even split it after 80 shots to the center mass. It just seemed to get tougher since at some point the new bullets were being stopped by a wall of brass and lead building up in the blocks center mass! AMAZING EFFECT!*
Koreans made armor out of Layers of HEMP.
@@conspiracytherapist2473 Yep it was the number one rope fiber for the US Navy from 1787 to 1880s
Matt, How does Hemp Block compare with ICF construction? Are there any thoughts of combining operations- Hemp with a fill of concrete for rigidity? ICF seems to have some great value in the discussion. Thanks!
I have seen people use grasses or weeds when compressing red bricks for building, i wonder if hempcrete could be used instead to make a stronger more insulated air dryed redbrick
I plan on starting my hemp house this year. I'll be documenting the entire process. Starting from seed, to plant, to hurd.
While the plants are growing, I'll be falling trees on the property and milling them into lumber on site.
Yep. I'm guilty of immediately thinking of Marijuana at the mention of hemp but I also know there is a difference. I know a long time ago it was common to find paper and clothing made of hemp. This video shows that there are many other uses I haven't even thought about... YET.
My question is regarding post construction. Is there any data as to how a homeowner would mount things to the walls once built? I wonder if it's as load bearing for typical household hanging things as concrete. I gather most would be happy in this type of constructed home, but the question of drilling and hanging things to make the space feel lived in would be an interesting experiment.
Drilling is no problem ... the problem is that the wall obviously dosn.t hold that much .... a picture is no problem but a shelf you can forget
There's always an option of using engineered wood (OSB, plywood), gypsum board, or a thick layer of plaster. I highly doubt the hemp blocks / hemp-crete would be left as-is without some surface finish. Same for the outside - I doubt the hemp would be left exposed.
I think because you have to use wood construction to give it some solidness, you could mount off the wood. If you made it like a regular home with studs X amount apart you would have a mounting surface. I mean in a regular home you can't mount off the walls without using the studs. Wallboard has no weight value.
this junk isn't load bearing at all. it's
@@michaellind3653 it is still better theb murican papermache houses
I bet a motivated contractor could learn to build w hemp in about 3 days
I took a 5 day strawbale course before building my home, was the easiest part of the build.
You might be right! Thanks for sharing. Very cool that you built your house using strawbale. Happy with the final result?
@@UndecidedMF it is a very attractive, quiet and comfortable house. Very few problems related to strawbale.
High efficiency walls, greater than r40.
We heat with annualized geo solar system and a small wood stove when -10c or colder
Running cost is less than gas, which we never connected.
This is our forever home, but would love to build like this again using lessons learned. Hemp crete looks neat!
One day in the early 90's my grandfather gave me his old ww2 era sewing kit (to darn my socks lol) the teenaged me marveled at the old relic that was his kit (especially because the longer i kept him talking the more likely he would forget to teach me how to darn socks) and he told me that it was made of hemp. This then prompted a conversation between him and my grandmother about how "everything" used to be made out of hemp and how it was better then plastic etc. I really only wanted to get off the hook about learning how to darn socks but i still remember them discussing this and shaking their heads at the stupidity of "progress" and modernity that swept away the use of hemp and replaced it with fake leather and plastic etc.
I hope Hemp comes back in a big way.
I love the idea but I wonder if it is resistant against termites?
My only concerns are about its wind resistance, shock absorption (can jump up and down on a floor of it without issue, like in a gym or workout room?) and those blocks with the internal structure better not be using freaking plastic.
Otherwise, I'm gonna be looking at this when I go to move into another home. If all goes well, I'm planning to build a home!
"...those blocks with the internal structure better not be using freaking plastic."
Yup, freaking recycled plastic.
You gots a problem with that?
G'day Mate.
Great video as always.
I think this is an amazing product that we will be using more and more.
It would be interesting to know how its sound insulation and/or sound isolation properties compare with concrete. In a family home better sound insulation could be a great benefit.
It has great sound insulation, from what I've read.
I've been preparing to build with hempcrete for a while and have sourced several suppliers here in Canada.
Thanks for highlighting this interesting product
Taking VERY conservative estimates, from the low end of compressive strength to the high end of density, you could have a hemp block wall 10 feet high and still have over half its compressive strength left.
Knowing that that is possible without any kind of support armature within the wall, that means that approximately every two square inches of wall top can support a square foot of roof (structure plus live load allowance). Add in framing, of course, and the sky is the limit. And if you want to rely on the hemp for structural support, a denser, thicker wall will support more weight. "Oh no! MORE carbon sequestration whatever will we dooooo?"
What kind of tensile strength are we talking about here? Concrete is essentially zero without rebar; hempcrete naturally has a lot of fiber running through it every which way. This is likely why it stands up against earthquake-type stresses, some actual tensile resistance.
For greater durability, plaster. Okay, it's not carbon friendly but if it makes the wall last 200 years instead of only 100 years, that sounds like a solid win; it's still only a fraction of the cementitious product a concrete wall would require. And it makes the wall a lot more resistant to moisture and critters that might gnaw through the softer, gentler hemp wall.
It seems to me like this is a good way forward. It costs more on the first day and a bit less every day after that.
Fascinating. I'm in earthquake territory. We also have massive humidity in the summer. Does it stand up to moisture?
You can always use traditional lime plaster: closer to carbon neutrality, looks great and helps to maintain healthy air quality inside!
Those differences in R-value are mind boggling
One of the best starter Hempcrete courses in UK is a 2 day course provided by Brighton Permaculture, tutored by Alex Sparrow at Stanmer, near Brighton, Sussex.
You know what helps alot? MONOLITHIC DOMES! seriously the shape of the house can make a huge difference in heating and cooling cost, now if we build some houses out of a good material you essentially get the best result possible.
Same with simply building townhomes more often so less walls are exposed to the elements and can allow heat to escape.
I went to their workshop 20 years ago
Would the fibers of most agricultural waste fibre products be similar if mixed in a hempcrete method? There seems to be some real opportunities in this market.
I would love to build with the blocks one day, even just a small hut just to learn the techniques.
people have made cob houses since we have had houses which is basically grass/straw and mud. Basically any fibrous material can be used in home construction and has been used for thousands and thousands of years. I am sure some are better than others as you dont want insects/mice digging into your home to eat whatever your house is made of...
@@bodhisfattva7462 I was more thinking of their application in this material. The inclusion of ingredients other than mud would make it different than traditional cobb-style walls, also negating the rodent and insect issue. I guess it would have a lot to do with the cell structure and fiber length and strength.
I'm curious as to how effective hemp wool (or other hemp products) in terms of acoustical insulation? I'm interested in knowing how this would compare with RockWool in db reduction.
Better, I imagine. It's more lossy.
From what I’ve heard it’s great interior insulated firewall that’s insulated … sounds awesome. Wonder how much it dampens sound… or would be awesome with a steel stud home and use it as walls . Would def make a great combo for cheap building materials that are strong
Don't forget one of Henry Ford's earliest cars was made out of hemp plastic and used hemp for fuel.
This is why I voted to legalize weed in my state even though I don’t smoke it! I’m so excited to see it used in industries where it can cut down our emissions like textiles and construction!
🤔Perhaps we can use pornography as a building material also? Oh and high proof alcohol as a refrigerant.
@@robertthompson3447 spunkcrete?
same for me - 67 and stopped smoking it 2 yrs after I started - haven't had any in 48 yrs. but it has so many health and engineering and clothing benefits - it should be mainstream (its the cotton growers and clothing manufacturers that stop it mostly...hemp jeans will last 10 x longer than cotton = lower sales = not good for cotton growers)
@@stevemyers2092 yup. It sucks that we miss out on something that could benefit all citizens just because a handful wanted to protect their profits.
Still, doesn’t mean that we can’t fix it now at least.
Never needed any progressive legislation. We had Hibiscus Cannabinus the whole time. Hempsters pulled the biggest fraud ever...
In a thinktank project I designed a building material.
Mycelium sheets. Compressed and reinforced with hempfibers, with an outer layer of hempfiber. Looks like an combination of plywood and drywall. And does the work of both. One positive bonus was that the mycelium in our process is a natural repellant of black mold. Reducing the risks of mold caused health issues. An enormous issue here in sweden due to our climate.
The project was focused to develope any possible hemp materials as buildingmaterial.
We made our own hempcrete, insulation material of hemp- cellulose. We tried everything.
Both already prooven stuff. Aswell as creating and making our own materials.
My focus landed at mycelium, grown on hemp fibers and/or cellulose as a substrate.
Hemp IS one of the ecological supermaterial our civilization needs. Bamboo is another.
Cheers 🤟😎🤙
I worked in hemp derived CBD company, and hempcret was one of my selling points. Because I believe in it. In Loveland CO, we are working on a community of 10 all hemp homes and I think it is going to just get bigger from here😀 your channel and info is only going to make this better thank you