Hempcrete Australia Pty Ltd is an Australian company that provides a complete and professional solution to building with hempcrete. As well as distributing and selling INSULIME binder and specially prepared hemp shiv in the Australasian region, Hempcrete Australia Pty Ltd also provides professional and building services to make the hempcrete experience smooth for designers, builders and clients.
INSULIME binder and specially prepared hemp shiv are combined to make Hempcrete a proprietary product that has been developed and tested for Code approval.
What is Hempcrete?
Hempcrete is a generic term for an old basic recipe of lime, hemp & water that has been used for decades in Europe for the restoration of old wattle & daub or cob construction. A good reference source is "Tom Woolley - Hemp lime construction. A guide to building with hemp lime composites" or "Steve Allin (second edition) - Building with Hemp" for sale at our store for Au $ 40 + postage - please email us.
Hempcrete has been used by the Romans and in Japan centuries ago. These structures are still standing!
Unlike concrete or masonry, hempcrete does not crack severely under movement. Hence its suitability to be used in earthquake area's. It is also about the seventh of the weight of concrete. Lime is weak under tension and develops micro cracks under movement that seal when moisture comes into contact with free lime. Concrete or masonary will let go suddenly under movement which is why you get big noticeable cracks.
Hemp in Hempcrete
Hempcrete consists of hemp shiv, a short length hemp stalk by-product, and lime-based binder. Industrial hemp with a THC content less than 1% is grown and used for fibre growth. Hemp is an excellent growth crop with many farming and environmental benefits:
- A hemp crop produces nearly 4 (four) times as much raw fibre as an equivalent sized tree plantation.
- Trees take approximately 20 years to mature… Hemp takes 14 weeks.
- Hemp needs no pesticides because it is unpalatable to insects
- Hemp needs no herbicides because it grows too quickly for any weed to compete
- Hemp can grow in virtually any climate and soil condition, and is excellent for reclaiming otherwise unusable land. Hemp crops rejuvenate poor soils.
- Between 1.7 – 1.9 tonnes of CO2 is absorbed from the atmosphere for each tonne of hemp cellulose produced (typically 10 tonnes of hemp straw per hectare is grown)
Carbon Sequestration
Hempcrete is a carbon sink. With 80-90% of its composition as hemp shiv, the majority of CO2 is sequestered by hempcrete is in the hemp growth with the remainder absorbed in the process of “carbotitation”. This is the process where the lime-based binder absorbs carbon from the air continuously over time, petrifying the hemp shiv. Each tonne of lime-based hempcrete is estimated to absorb and sequester 249 kg of CO2 over a 100 year lifecycle. Generally, hempcrete is estimated to sequester 110kg per cubic metre which will change depending transportation use.
What is Hempcrete?
Hempcrete's 'INSULIME' is a proprietary binder to form HLC (Hemp Lime Composite) or Hempcrete (a mixture of an approved lime-based binder and 'INSULCORE' our Australian industrial hemp shiv), developed and tested by Cesa in France for commercial application. Hempcrete Australia Pty. Ltd. is the Australian supplier of St Astier's 'Batichanvre', re-packed as 'INSULIME' with special quality control for the Australian and New Zealand market and beyond.
Hempcrete Australia's product INSULIME is the ingredient to form hempcrete for the Australian building industry.
Insulime is a recognized premier ecological building material in France and has gained Approval for building certification. It is composed from natural Hydrated and Hydraulic limes. Insulime has excellent strenght, thermal, energy saving and ecologically sustainable properties :
- naturally termite, pest and mould resistant
- durable (weather-resistant)
- low thermal conductivity (R value = 4.2 for 300mm thick wall)
- solid mass construction giving good airtightness (you don’t lose heat or cool through air gaps)
- hygroscopic thereby buffering fluctuating temperature and humidity
- low carbon footprint (~100kg of CO2 lockup per cubic metre used)
- fully recyclable and reusable without huge energy requirements to break it down
Go to Downloads for Technical Information