[Greenbuilding] Where to Find Hempcrete

[Peter Kidd]

Prof Kris Dick at the University of Manitoba is working on hempcrete so
must be sourcing its components (umanitoba.ca). Hemp is grown and
processed in the Canadian Prairies, but I am not sure all the other
components of hempcrete are easily found in North America. I think there
is a company in North Carolina developing and marketing hempcrete, they
too may be bringing in some product (the particular lime perhaps) from
the UK. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Collette <stephen at yourhealthyhouse.ca>
Reply-to: Green Building <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
To: greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Greenbuilding] Where to Find Hempcrete
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 09:07:34 -0400

Hello Jason and all,


So I poked around in my old straw bale connections and the guy I used to
buy hemp hurds from, which we added to the plaster mix to reduce
cracking, is no longer around. Moved out west. So that's a dead end
unfortunately. I do however remember someone having hemp blocks at
Greenbuild when it was in Toronto, but for the life of me, I can't find
the company propaganda anywhere in my office. I googled and couldn't
find it either. I did find a hemp insulation company. I have one of
their sample batts, lovely stuff, nice and stiff and
pleasant. http://www.memvegetal.com  The website is all in French, so
you might need to run it through the translator, but neat stuff. 


There was talk of trying to get Durisol to use hemp, but I don't know
where that went. Also Hebel would be another to consider as they use
natural materials too. 


I suspect that the majority of any of these items, if available, would
be difficult to ship to the US, especially the raw material due to your
laws. I don't know though.


I did work on one straw bale house where we built with hemp bales. If
anyone is considering it, I would strongly advise against it, simply
because those stalks are very strong. For those who have played with
bales, know you cut it open, and retie to make a smaller bale by
separating the "flakes". This doesn't work with hemp, as the stalks are
8+ feet long, and so you drag and try to cut (very hard to cut) and
curse and make a general mess. Never again.


Sorry I couldn't be more help.


Stephen


Stephen Collette BBEC, LEED AP, BSSO
Your Healthy House - Indoor Environmental Testing & Building Consulting
http://www.yourhealthyhouse.ca
stephen at yourhealthyhouse.ca
705.652.5159




http://www.memvegetal.com








On 2013-10-21, at 2:00 PM,
greenbuilding-request at lists.bioenergylists.org wrote:


> Message: 4
> Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 21:37:48 -0400
> From: Jason Holstine <jason at amicusgreen.com>
> To: Greenbuilding Listserv <Greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Where to find Hempcrete
> Message-ID: <CE89FDAC.33F3B%jason at amicusgreen.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> 
> Hi Stephen,
> 
> Most likely looking for blocks to be stacked. But if there are leads
> on raw
> hulls and formulas for making the blocks, it could be very useful,
> too.
> Thanks.
> 


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