The Ereasy spray application system can cut manpower costs and drying time. Photo courtesy of Americhanvre

By Jean Lotus

An Allentown, Pa. company is the new North American distributor for a European spray-applied hempcrete system that can make hemp insulation quicker and cheaper to install, the company said.

Americhanvre Cast Hemp is now selling the handheld hemp blower system for $7,500, founder Cameron McIntosh told HempBuildMag.com.

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Hempcrete is a mixture of chipped hemp hurd bark and lime binder that dries to a limestone insulation envelope. The walls become temperature modulating, mold-proof insect proof and fireproof.

Hempcrete is a sustainable natural building material compared to mineral wool, fiberglass or chemical insulation, because hemp plants sequester carbon while growing and hempcrete walls continue to lock in carbon as they dry.

The Baumer Ereasy, developed in France in 2014, can cut manpower hours by about 60% in a hempcrete installation compared to in-situ hempcrete form placement, McIntosh said.

“It’s dramatically faster,” McIntosh added. It takes about five days to spray-apply a home with a foot-thick thermal envelope of 11 cubic feet of hempcrete insulation, McIntosh said. The mix also uses less binder -- the most expensive ingredient in hempcrete -- and about half the amount of water.

“Less water means the walls cure quicker on site, which gets rid of some of that horrible sequencing time,” McIntosh said. Ereasy hempcrete will cure six to eight weeks, cutting curing time in half, he added.

The spray application creates an even density on walls, unlike packing hempcrete between forms. Consistency makes thermal resistance, or R-value, easier to measure, McIntosh said.

The Ereasy’s cost is “relatively affordable” compared to other European hemp spray systems that can cost up to $140,000, McInstosh said.

The company created Ereasy to be “ within the financial reach of all craftsmen wishing to build in hemp concrete,” Baumer says on the company website.

Contractors typically rent an air compressor and mixer to use the system. McIntosh said he will travel to any U.S. worksite for a one-day training to assist buyers of a spray system and a minimum binder order.

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Currently, the machines and proprietary binder are imported from France, but McIntosh said Americhanvre plans to license the formula and begin manufacturing with local lime in Pennsylvania.

“The ultimate goal here is getting the binder bagged locally, and bringing the manufacturing of the hardware to Pennsylvania and North America, within about a year,” he said.

Jean Lotus is editor and publisher of HempBuild Magazine. jeanlotus@hempbuildmag.com