Hempcrete has proven to be more cost effective & overall a better material for housing that will last for 100s of years. Why aren’t low income communities taking advantage of it?

7 comments

1. Hempcrete is more expensive than concrete. If you’re poor and building a house, do you want a house that will last hundreds of years* or one that will be cheaper to build?

   Also, according to Wikipedia, hempcrete has a compressive strength on the order of 50 psi, compared to 4000-6000 psi for concrete. So I don’t think it would be a complete replacement for concrete.

   *I am skeptical about the lifetime of a structure built out of hempcrete as well. Nails will last centuries if they are kept dry, doesn’t mean the structure will be usable for that long unless major work is done to keep it maintained.

2. I think this is a science/engineering question? Why isn’t it being used worldwide instead of a handful of places? I don’t think the US is unique in not adopting it yet.

   Try r/askscience

3. More expense than concrete and not as strong.

4. Quick trip to Wikipedia says that it has poor compressive strength and can’t be used in load bearing structures.

5. Why not just add “Are they stupid?” at the end of questions like this?

   As of February 2022, hempcrete was not certified as a building material by the IRC, who sets building standards. It’s a specific product that’s still relatively new that has specific use and must be used in conjunction with other materials and techniques, it’s not a 1:1 swap for concrete.

   If there was something approved, easy to integrate, and cheaper than current methods it would certainly be used for construction. But a builder isn’t going to use a new method that will fail an inspection.

6. Source?

7. Poor people live in the housing that’s available to us. We don’t get to choose what our houses are made of.