How is hempcrete made? What are the advantages of using it in construction?

Hempcrete is a new construction material material made out of hydraulic lime, water and industrial hemp. It is basically an insulation material whose important component is hemp fibre, which is the desirable part of the hemp plant. This fibre is mixed with a lime-based binder such as calcium carbonate and water.

Advantages of Hempcrete:

• One of the major advantage of hempcrete is it has negative carbon footprint.
• It provides excellent acoustics. It is light weighted and moreover, it is environmental friendly too.
• Hempcrete is almost 7 to 8 times lighter than concrete. Hence, hempcrete blocks are fairly lightweight which can drastically reduce the energy and to a certain extent expense used to transport the blocks.
• Hempcrete building is an insulating material and hence less energy is required to maintain the temperature. The heating energy is stored by the walls and reflected back inwards, thereby not allowing it to escape outwards. This will lead to an energy saving of over 50% to 70% on the heating bill.
• Hempcrete is not as brittle as concrete which means no expansion joints are required.

For more details on hempcrete, you may refer to the following article: