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Hemp Building Materials and What it's Used For!Learn how Hemp Building Materials are used and why! Hemp has had a bad reputation for sometime now. People hear “hemp” and immediately flash to marijuana. Yes – marijuana is the leafy part of a plant, but the rest is hemp, a fibrous and strong plant that is used to make anything from paper and clothing to bags and even houses. It grows naturally and is probably the most versatile plant in the world, being able to grow virtually anywhere without the use of herbicides or insecticides and with that, it can produce up to 4 tons of hemp per year on an acre.
Hemp is a very versatile fiber that can be manufactured into a variety of products that resemble wood including fiberboard, wallboard, roofing tiles, insulation, paneling and bricks can even be made from the compressed hurds. The fibers then can also be used like straw in bale construction paired with mud for an old-style cob building. You can even make foundations from the compressed hurds. You fill a hemp plywood frame with hemp hurds, lime, sand, plaster and stone cement along with enough water to dampen the materials. It will set in a day and dry in a week. Some have coined this “hempcrete”. Cited as being half as light, seven times stronger and three times more pliable this superiority in strength and flexibility makes “hempcrete” and ideal building material in earthquake prone zones. Besides all of this, “hempcrete” is resistant to rot and pesky animals likes rodents and insects, fireproof, waterproof, weather resistant and self-insulating. Homes can be made nearly 100% out of hemp materials. Pipes can be fabricated out of “hempcrete” making them incredibly strong, flexible and resist cracking. Hemp can be mixed with lime in order to create a strong and long lasting insulating plaster that can be cast around wooden frames or sprayed against wood or stone forms. Hemp has even been used to created hemp-based paints. These paints have proven to be superior than any other pain brands in their affective coating ability as well as durability. The cost of hemp oil is expensive and thusly will not be mass marketed until the cost is lowered and the politics surrounding it has died down. Building homes out of hemp may cost slightly more than traditional materials but the outcome will be well worth the added costs. Your paint will coat and protect your walls. Your foundation will be fire and water proof as well as insect and rodent free as will your walls. You will save countless pennies on electricity as well as insurance premiums by having a house that can literally withstand very high winds. It is a safe bet that you would be the talk of the town when you build q home made from hemp. There is so much that you can do with hemp these days and the uses keep growing. Paying a premium now will save you thousands of dollars later on down the road. It is evident by the demo homes currently found in Canada and France. There is hope of making hemp home construction more affordable and thusly more widely available.
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