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I've heard of several people in Alaska building with papercrete, the trick is to have covered porches around the house, and keeping any snow that blows in cleared before it melts. The biggest mistake I see people doing with papercrete is trying to seal it with plastics, or thinking paint or OPC will keep water out. All exterior walls should be stuccoed with a lime/sand plaster, and colored with natural pigment whitewash. And other than desert environments, the roof should always have plenty of overhang.
Dome homes are cool, but tend to have roof leak issues.
I do plan on finishing with some sort of lime blend plaster. and a metal roof with an overhang is also planned. Maybe get a little fancy with a pattern decoration and/or color schemed wash. who knows what i'll feel like when i get to that stage. just that papercrete won't work for me since papercrete doesn't work well in damp/humid conditions, and just about anywhere I'm living in AK is damp, not just melting snow, especially if i go back to Southeast, that's a rain forest.
If its too wet for papercrete I'd think it would be too wet for earthbags too? I just don't see earthbags working well in a cold environment, maybe I'm wrong. I have a great summer home in the mountains, walls are 2 ft thick limecrete, it stays cool enough that most folks think I have AC. Once temps drop below freezing it just becomes an icebox, you can throw heat into it 24/7 and barely notice a difference, I'm thinking an earthbag home in alaska would be about the same.
papercrete has paper in it, which makes it susceptible to mold in damp climates, and also does not do well in places like the bottom of windows and archways. here's a link for that: Earthbag Building: Plastering with Papercrete. otherwise, sand/mix inside poly bags inside plaster blends can hold up to the elements well, especially with a roof overhang the appropriate size. earthbags have thermal mass. they do need insulation to hold heat. this can be accomplished by either adding foam (spray or rigid) to the outer wall before plaster, or by using something like scoria in the bags themselves. i've thought of using the linseed dirt floors with radiant heating in the bedrooms, and wood flooring the rest of the house, but i may end up using wood flooring throughout to save time. i'm also considering using a round shape with a courtyard in the middle for a garden. i've seen some pics where they half bury the house. others have solar panels. what flooring do you have? Tamped Earth Floors is a great link for tamped earth floors, and High Performing Thermal Mass in New Mexico — Larry Speck for a really cool looking house in NM, i can't find my link for the radiant flooring right now, but it's not difficult.
There is a pretty cool place in southern California that has a variety of earthbag built buildings along with one earthbag built model home. If you are near Victorville/Hesperia, they have a lot of information regarding the r value and such. I think they have internships, too, so that you can learn how to build. If you go on a Saturday, they do a lunch and an interesting talk about the founder.
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Papercrete used as an exterior plaster then left unprotected for a year. This is clearly the WRONG application for papercrete, considering this earthbag builder advocates using it this way, I'd be skeptical of all his advice.
I think I'll leave this thread with my latest mantra "You can lead a person to knowledge, but you can't make them think"
If time is an issue, you may think of yurt, wall tent, shipping container, trailer/rv, or framing out a conventional 12x16 cabin out of 2x6's. Any alternative building method is going to be very labor intensive and take a long time.
Have you considered building a cordwood cabin? If your wood is 100% dry they are pretty user friendly for an owner builder to tackle. I have seen a few up here. Just throwing out ideas, good luck to you.
I was going to suggest a couple of surplus shipping containers set on some sort of foundation and covered with spray on insulation and stuccoed with a cement/lime/sand plaster.
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. This is clearly the WRONG application for papercrete, considering this earthbag builder advocates using it this way, I'd be skeptical of all his advice.
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