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all-weather alternative to papier mâché
Saturday, June 11 2011
Gretchen would be staffing a table today at the Stone Ridge Library Fair, an annual warm-weather event that today would have to somehow cope with rain. Despite all the rain that had fallen, the 55 gallon water tank collecting from the twelve by seven foot woodshed roof had yet to completely fill. It was did cross the 50% mark at some point, and when I tried the tap, I was disappointed by the meager flow it produced. It was looking like I was going to need a bigger diameter tap, perhaps one featuring a ball valve.
The rainy weather made for ideal conditions for applying thin veneers of cement to surfaces, so I went down to the greenhouse to fix the inside lower paneling of the door. When building that door, I'd picked the worst possible material for that paneling: Durock. The problem with Durock is that it is comprised of compressed layers of silica fibers, and these have a tendency to delaminate from each other at inopportune times, particularly when it gets wet and freezes. A cement-and-mesh material such as Wonderboard does not appear to have this problem. The past winter had been the first winter for my homemade door, and the only problem it had experienced had been in the inside paneling, which had delaminated near the bottom corners, where exterior cold had been sufficient to cause condensation and freezing. (The outside of the door, though much colder, had stayed dry and survived the winter without apparent damage.)
To fix the door, I removed it from its hinges and then removed the old rotten Durock. I didn't have any Wonderboard handy, so made my own using layers of fibreglass mesh and cement. Mesh and cement are a great all-weather alternative to papier mâché and could be used to make sculptures or curved exterior walls.
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