listed barn repair and conversion
2011 / 2012 Oxfordshire
natural materials consultant | contractor
I never get tired of looking at this beautiful building.
The historic daub panels had been replaced with cement render over steel mesh in the 60’s. In its 50 years with cement render the building probably suffered more damage to its structure than in the preceding 300 years.
The cement on steel lath was completely stripped out. I designed a solution for installing the hempcrete and tested different binders to see which shrunk away from the timbers the least.
Since the timbers are exposed internally and externally this would be very important in reducing air leakage.
I found that Vicat Prompt shrunk the least, in fact it practically doesn’t shrink. Hempcrete shrinks as the volume of water leaves the material. Vicat Prompt sets so quickly that it is set before the water leaves the material and is therefore strong enough to resist the tendency to shrink.
Of course now with spray machines the material could be sprayed into position with any of the binders. Since sprayed hempcrete will stick to the timbers and the adhesion will resist the tendency to shrink.
