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KINGSTON, N.Y. — From the outside, the home of Henry Gage Jr. and Sally Warren at 74 Foxhall Ave. looks a lot like any other home in the city.

But once a visitor walks inside, they’ll notice something far different. On the interior walls, in place of the sheetrock of modern homes or plaster and lathe of older homes is hemp-lime insulation made by combining hemp “hurd” with lime and water.

On one wall the texture of the hemp stalk can be seen. A wall on the other side of the room is plastered over, giving the appearance of colonial-era Dutch stone houses.

Gage said the hemp material, which comes in large packages that resemble hay bales, is mixed in with the lime and water in a large bucket. The hemp is filled in between the studs of the home against the exterior walls, Warren said.

Warren showed off a line that denotes each pour of the material. “Then you tamp it down and then you form it and you move the form up,” she said. “It’s a lovely material to live with. It’s very cozy.”

Pointing out the top of the wall where they shaped the material using their hands, Gage said he loves its organic nature.

Warren said hemp-based insulation gives off none of the “off-gassing” that conventional modern building materials give off. “They cause infertility and all sorts of other problems,” she said.

According to Warren, it’s practically mold-resistant, helping to create more hospitable space for even the most mold-sensitive people.

“We’ve had mold-injured people who stayed here and were symptom-free and when they went back home their symptoms came back,” she said.

Gage said hemp-based insulation helps to keep heat in a space better, thanks to its thermal mass. It’s also fire-resistant and helps to sequester carbon dioxide, he added.

The project was substantially completed on April 20, 2021, he said with a smile. April is the fourth month of the year and 420 is slang for marijuana use.

Now the couple, in their 60s, are turning their attention to opening a hemp mill. If they can find funding, it could be completed as soon as next year, he said. Gage said such a machine costs anywhere from $3.8 million to $5 million, depending on the model.

Gage, with a background in electrical engineering, and Warren, a board-certified naturopath, head Build Green Now LLC, which the couple completes projects under.

Gage said fixing up the once-derelict 19th century home is more than a home improvement project. It’s an experiment to develop and perfect a hemp-insulation project that could be made on a much larger scale at the couple’s proposed hemp mill.

Gage said they also want to work with farmers to find the best “cultivars” or plants that will grow the best in this area’s climate and soil conditions. He admitted this is a bit of scientific experiment that involves testing different plants and seeing which end up doing best.

He said he wants to reach out to indigenous communities to build on their knowledge that extends back thousands of years before European settlers arrived in Hudson Valley in the 1600s.

Gage also said much of the knowledge about growing and working with hemp was lost in the decades it was criminalized in the United States in the 20th century. It was a crusade, Warren added, that was driven in no small part driven by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, who did not want to see hemp compete with his extensive timber holdings.

Gage said he envisions starting small with a facility that could take hemp stalks that are currently just sitting in barns, rotting away and letting off methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, and put them to good use. The stalks could initially be used to make insulation products but may have many other uses down the road.

But the couple has far bigger plans for the future, possibly using space in the town of Ulster, either at the former IBM site or the former Sears store in the Hudson Valley Mall to create a large hemp-processing warehouse. He said the community would play a large role in any such operation and he wants to locate it where there’s strong community support.

Gage said such a facility could create a large number of jobs, ranging from drivers who deliver the hemp from farms to people who run the machinery and package the material inside. He added that he also envisions an onsite maker space where locals could perfect new hemp products they could sell in turn.

Gage said right now they’ve reached out to state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, and Ulster County legislators Phil Erner and Chris Hewitt about potential private-public partnership opportunities. He said they’re also reaching out to U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado.

Warren said hemp has been used to build whole houses, particularly in Europe. Hemp blocks that resemble giant Lego blocks and feature metal rebar inside are strong enough to use as load-bearing walls, she said, adding that they are now being used in houses in the United States.

Gage said a product that replaces oriented strand board is also in the works by a company. He’d like to see such a product licensed and produced here and also envisions a hemp-based replacement for gypsum-based sheetrock.

Warren said hemp could also be used in fabrics and fibers, paper and plastic making. “All of this sequestering CO2, while it’s growing locally,” she said.

Hemp can also be used to clean up oil spills and held sequester carbon in old oil and gas wells, she added.

There’s not a day that goes by that there isn’t a new hemp innovation, Gage added.

Said Warren, “There’s just so many bright minds here who can’t wait to get their hands on this material.”

For more information, visit buildgreennow.net.

Editor’s note: This story was updated March 6, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. to correct the address of the residence.

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