House built of hemp / cannabis

Russ Martin, the former mayor of Ashville, North Carolina, likes to joke that if his house burned down, his neighbors could party hearty. Martin built his 3,400-square-foot-home partly out of hemp, Martin used Hemcrete to build the walls of his house. Hemcrete, made by British company Lime Technology, mixes dried hemp stems with lime. Workers take the moisture-laden "shiv" and pour it into wall forms. The slurry hardens, creating a thick concrete-like wall with a high insulation value. A 12-inch-thick Hemcrete wall has an R-value of R-28.