Mason
man's building block seeking a market
07/31/2005 12:00
AM CDT
State District Judge Sam
A former third-world homebuilder turned
A Home and Garden Television junkie, Medina thought he had seen every kind
of new-age alternative building material when an acquaintance of his son, who
had heard of his interest in building, started talking about a block he was
developing that was made from cement and paper pulp.
"I thought, 'Nah, one more person with the magic block,'"
The young man, Zach Rabon, 30, brought him a lumpy gray block he had
trademarked as Eco-EZ Blox. His fledgling company was Mason Green Star.
That was a year ago. Since then,
"Since 1992, I had never invited them to come see anything,"
Cement and paper blocks, known among aficionados as "papercrete,"
have been around for decades. A score of small companies, mainly in the
Southwest, have been experimenting with them, but a lack of official testing
data has kept the products from getting to market.
The day
"I took a sledgehammer to it,"
The blocks are designed to make 10-inch-thick walls that, left without a
stucco finish, saturate with rainwater to one inch, then dry out unharmed. Its
rated thermal value shows it insulates two to three times better than
fiberglass.
"I asked to see his utility bills,"
Rabon, a Texas Tech alumnus with a degree in ecology and conservation, left
The young Rabon watched trucks bring trash, lamented on how his life wasn't
following his university career plan and wondered how he might do something to
lighten the load on those dump trucks.
It was about this time that the younger Rabon was introduced to papercrete
by his father, Kent. During a vacation trip to Marathon, the elder Rabon met
Clyde T. Curry, the operator of Eve's Garden Organic Bed & Breakfast and
Curry, 52, a tradesman from
Curry and the Rabon, 64, both builders, became friends. Rabon took one of
Curry's blocks to his son, tossed it on his desk and suggested he make
something with it.
For more than two years, Zach Rabon turned his ready-mix plant into a
laboratory. When he was ready to start building, Rabon claimed to have a block
that dried faster, shrunk less and kept a sharper edge once cured than anything
his competitors were making.
Barry Fuller, who directs the government-funded research on papercrete
through the Arizona State University Fulton School of Engineering Research, was
impressed with Rabon's block
Fuller, who is developing his own block, has tested the compressive strength
of Rabon's block. He described it as, "Superman strong, stronger than any
other we tested."
The odd thing about papercrete blocks is that when put under pressure they
tend not to crack like concrete, nor do they splinter and disintegrate like
wood. When the cellulose fiber — the refuse of recycled newspapers, lottery
tickets and phone books — is reconstituted into a block form, it takes on the
strength characteristics of both base materials, but acts like a very hard
sponge. It shrinks slightly under extreme pressure.
It flexes when pushed. That makes it an ideal candidate for use in
earthquake-prone zones, Fuller said.
Papercrete lacks approval from the International Code Council, which has
stymied its use in urban areas where building codes are stricter. Fuller is
head of a subcommittee for the American Society for Testing and Materials to
set standards.
Beyond establishing its structural standards, papercrete will have to
overcome a bias among builders and the public. Fuller can appreciate their
reluctance.
"When I first saw this," Fuller recalled, "I didn't take it
real seriously. I was wondering how anything could be built that way. It seemed
so primitive."
Like adobe mud bricks, papercrete mix is poured into forms that dry in the sun.
When it dries, its shape is jagged and porous. Fuller realized that bumpy shape
added to its strength because blocks joined with a mortar of the same mix
adhered to each other better than other buildings materials.
There is no stucco wire required for the finish coat. Because the wall is
monolithic and self-insulating, there is no need for drywall, wood studs,
insulation or vapor barriers.
Rabon estimates he can build houses for 20 percent below the market rate
cost of a wood frame house. Fuller goes further, estimating the savings at up
to 30 percent.
Considered on the fringe of alternative building materials, Colley said
people have- been experimenting with the formula for years.
"It didn't hold up very well," Colley said. "It tended to
fall apart. I'm not privy to the formula Zach uses, but it has some additives
that seem to have solved a lot of those problems."
Rabon is conducting various tests through two private laboratories in
The Eco-EZ Block seems to be holding up well now as an infill material in
the houses where it's been used, Colley said, explaining that these are the
nonload-bearing portions of walls. Using it as a load-bearing material is not
outside the realm of possibilities, he said, adding, "I just want to see
the tests first. As an architect, my liability is on the line."
Tradesmen who have used the block like it for another reason: It is light,
weighing 8 pounds for a block whose size is comparable to a 30-pound adobe
block or a 40-pound compressed earth block.
"The guys love working with it," Rabon said. "It's so
lightweight, it doesn't strain your back."
Its weight lowers shipping costs, too. Trucks reach maximum load on volume
long before they reach their weight limits, Rabon said.
Fuller will join Curry in
Meanwhile, Judge Medina is reconsidering a venture in
"It's always been in my heart to want to do more of that building, to
improve this world and do it in such a way that you can stay in business,"