Shuttering - The Hempcrete Topic: Designing and Building with Hemp-lime - page 313

Hempcrete can be shaped with a nail or grid
float after casting.
As anyone who has lived in a house that was built before the late nineteenth century knows,
walls in old buildings are never straight. For this reason, when setting up shuttering, es-
pecially on ancient timber frames, a more pliable bendy material is often required, so that
the shuttering can easily follow the line of the wall. However, bendy shuttering is only so
bendy; where necessary, a 'best fit' shuttering solution is constructed and the rough or un-
wanted edges of the cast material can be scratched back and shaped with a nail or grid float
after the shuttering is struck.
Remember that historic timber frames are often left visible in the face of the hempcrete
wall, and therefore it might not be appropriate to screw shuttering boards directly into the
face of the timbers. This problem can be overcome by screwing battens centrally to the
inside faces of the timbers (i.e. the side of each timber that faces in towards the hempcrete
panel) and screwing through the shuttering boards into the batten (without spacers so the
shuttering is pulled in tight to the shape of the frame). The battens are buried below the
surface of the cast hempcrete, and the screws are easily removed when striking the shutter-
ing.