Unusual Building Material Idea

[Ninn]

I just realized this morning that I have a practically unending supply of building materials in my house. The question I have is this: What can you build with beer cans? And how would you go about getting started? I'm serious! I googled it and all i get is sites where you can recycle them for money that goes to habitat for humanity. I want to use the cans like bricks and build a shed. If that works, I am gonna try to build a house out of recycled cans. (i have a friend who owns a bar-i can get tons of them.) Any suggestions on where to look? Thanx.

[AngieM2]

I've seen on HGTV a house built out of drink bottles. They laid them from inside to outside, like logs with muddy compound in between. Basically a cord wood house, but bottles where the cords would be. could you fill the cans with dirt and do the same?

Angie

[Ninn]

i was actually thinking of having dh switch to beer in bottles for just that reason. even filled with dirt, the mortar will still crush the centers, i guess. i am gonna try it both ways and see what comes of it.

[NWoods_Hippie]

Would the aluminum eventually breakdown, that would be my concern.

I have found cans out by the road when picking up trash that have only been there a few months and they have holes in them where they have, for lack of a better word, rotted.

Margie

[Meg Z]

here...check these two sites out....

http://folklore.uh.edu/art/beer.html

http://www.eco-artware.com/newslette...er_05_04.shtml

Meg

[texican]

You need to research earthships. They utilized tin cans and bottles in walls quite a bit.

As a general rule, if you have lots of time (sweat equity), alternative building is the way to go. If you have to pay someone to do the work, you're pretty much better off going with standard materials, as few know all of the intricacies of alternative building.

If you're building with cans, you're gonna be using cement. Lots of it. Look into getting a portable cement mixer. I got one last year, and have gotten my money out of it, several times over.

[Ninn]

Texican~ how much should i expect to pay for one? I am going to start researching the idea this weekend-trying different ideas and such. The plan is to have the basic idea worked out and bug free before we buy any land.

[DenverGirlie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_can_wall

Also a second vote for looking at earthships

In fact here is a photo tutorial for building internior walls out of cans in an earthship.
http://www.bluerockstation.com/canwall.html

[ilovetodig]

I sw where someone had built a solar collector out of beer cans. Don't remember where I saw it, though. They had (I think) cut them in half and lined them up side by side with the shiny side towards the sun. That's about all I remember about it.

[Suemo]

I saw somewhere (Save The Earth Day?), beer cans crushed and made into about 8x8x18 blocks. You would need a mold and a tamper for something like this .It would be very solid and probably put together with concrete.
Suemo

[Farmerwilly2]

I might be tempted to cut the tops and bottoms off, slit down the side and turn it into an aluminum 'shingle'. They could then be used as a roofing or siding material. Save the tops and bottoms for scrap.

[diamondtim]

With scrap prices at $.80 - $1.00 per pound, why not scrap them and build with conventional materials? Unless you want to build with them for aesthetic purposes. Good Luck with whatever way you go.

[Dahc]

Stick 'em together in a 6 pack with liquid nail and shoot a squirt of spray foam in each one. They might make pretty decent insulation blocks.

Liquid nail is cheap and sticks pretty good.

[ericjeeper]

Have him stop wasting money on beer. Then you would have money to buy land with.
Not meaning to be rude.. Just being honest about how to save money to get out of the court.

[texican]

I got one of the 3.5cubic foot electric mixers from Lowes for 189 last spring. Previously I could mix maybe three wheelbarrows without giving out. After getting the mixer, I could do 8 batches, but lifting heavy stones for my rock wall was wearing me out more than shovelling sand gravel and cement.

You can mix a batch of mortar in just a wheelbarrow, or not having one, in a wooden mixing box.... basically a sheet of plywood, framed out around the edges with 2x6 or whatever you have available.

If you're interested, buy a bag of mortar mix, and start mixing mud (a little stiff). Lay a layer of 'mud' the width of your cans. Lay a layer of cans. More mud on top, squished in so you don't have any airpockets. Don't go but several layers high till you get the feel for it, otherwise the wall will shift on you. Also, straight walls will be weaker than curved ones. Before you get all gung ho on a huge project... do a small one to see if it's your cup of tea.

Have fun, and realize you're building this for yourself... Let your inner voice guide you... and don't worry what others are thinking....

[PyroDon]

I once glued Dr pepper cans together and made non supporting walls to divide a studio apartment when I was foolish enough to live in a city .
the same technic is used to make a workable solar collector .

[Cornhusker]

Originally Posted by ericjeeper

Have him stop wasting money on beer. Then you would have money to buy land with.
Not meaning to be rude.. Just being honest about how to save money to get out of the court.

I was thinking the same thing.
What does a can of beer cost?
What does a cement block cost?
Stop and get a 6 pack of blocks on the way home every day, in a year, you'd have enough blocks to build quite a house/barn/shop.
If the beer absolutely has to be, switch to bottles and build with them.

[Dahc]

Originally Posted by Cornhusker

I was thinking the same thing.
What does a can of beer cost?
What does a cement block cost?
Stop and get a 6 pack of blocks on the way home every day, in a year, you'd have enough blocks to build quite a house/barn/shop.
If the beer absolutely has to be, switch to bottles and build with them.

Hmmm. Ericjeeper and Cornhusker have quite an idea here. Put your hubby on the wagon and fill it full of block.

[crobar]

I believe aluminum reacts with concrete, I think even when it's dry. For instance when it rains. Need to research it before you build with it.

[DenverGirlie]

Originally Posted by Dahc

Hmmm. Ericjeeper and Cornhusker have quite an idea here. Put your hubby on the wagon and fill it full of block.

You guys totally missed the point in the OP's post that said her friend owned a bar and that is where the beer cans would come from.


However, i would be cashing those cans in myself for the simple fact that it was .77 a pound last Saturday at the scrap yard, paid for our take out Thai food the next night.