Greenstar Blox -- A New Energy Efficient Wall Block

Greenstar Blox are a new wall building product that has been under development for several years.  The Greenstar Blox offer the promise of high strength, durability, high R values, reasonable cost, and a relatively straight forward build process.  It looks to me like they might make a good material for owner built homes.

A Greenstar Blox project

The standard Greenstar Block is 10 by 14 by 4 inches and is made from roughly 65% selected recycled paper, 25% Portland cement, and various additives.  This is similar to papercrete, but the difference is that Greenstar Blox are commercially made to a standardized recipe  using  a standardized process to produce a consistently high quality block.  The Greenstar Bloxs are currently going through an extensive testing program at Texas Tech University.  The results of the testing program are being used to seek building code approval, which is anticipated in early 2012.

The blocks are laid in courses as usual (kind of like Legos).  The mortar is made from the same
material that the blocks are made from.

The blocks appear to be relatively straight forward to build with.  They are much lighter and easier to handle than concrete blocks.  They offer the big advantage of a high R value right in the block without the need for additional layers of insulating material.   Greenstar says that walls made with their blocks will be about R25.  


An important item for anyone thinking about building with these blocks is that building code approval is in the works -- this will make it much easier for people wanting to build to get building permits.


I'd love to hear from anyone using the Greenstar Blox.


Notes from a consversation with Greenstar Blox...


The Greenstar Blox website...


Gary