Cordwood homes

Cordwood offers the imagination a cordwood homes to play. Random patterning, special features, bottle bricks and designs are all popular ways to make your cordwood home special.

Rob Roy is Director of the Earthwood Building School, which has specialized in cordwood masonry instruction since Rob and his wife, Jaki, have built four innovative cordwood homes for themselves since , including the Earthwood home where they have lived for over three decades. Earthwood is a SF two-story round, load-bearing cordwood home, earth-bermed and earth-roofed. They have helped scores of owner-builders with their cordwood projects, including homes, saunas and outbuildings. Earthwood has produced a 3. Rob is considered to be one of the leaders in the field of cordwood construction and earth sheltering.

Cordwood homes

Cordwood construction also called cordwood masonry or cordwood building , alternatively stackwall or stovewood is a term used for a natural building method in which short logs are piled crosswise to build a wall, using mortar or cob to permanently secure them. This technique can use local materials at minimal cost. Walls are usually constructed so that the log ends protrude from the mortar by a small amount an inch or less. Walls typically range between 8 and 24 inches thick, though in northern Canada, some walls are as much as 36 inches thick. Cordwood homes are attractive for their visual appeal, maximization of interior space with a rounded plan , economy of resources, and ease of construction. There are two main types of cordwood construction, throughwall and M-I-M mortar-insulation-mortar. In the more common M-I-M, and unlike brick or throughwall masonry, the mortar does not continue throughout the wall. Instead, three- or four-inch sometimes more beads of mortar on each side of the wall provide stability and support, with a separate insulation between them. Cordwood walls can be load-bearing using built-up corners, or curved wall designed or laid within a post and beam framework which provides structural reinforcement and is suitable for earthquake-prone areas. As a load-bearing wall, the compressive strength of wood and mortar allows for roofing to be tied directly into the wall.

Of the many mortar recipes out there, we chose lime putty because of its bright color, simplicity, and ability to self-heal small cracks. Materials Nov Kinstone Cordwood Chapel in the springtime, cordwood homes.

Disclosure: I sometimes earn products or commissions from affiliate links or partnerships on my blog. I only recommend products and services I trust to serve you. Learn more. It is quite common for us to get questions about just what cordwood masonry is. While it is a centuries-old building method, it is not widely known compared to standard construction techniques. I hope you understand and appreciate it a bit better by the end of these FAQ pages. Cordwood masonry is a method of log building that is NOT like standard log home construction.

Cordwood homes and barns: Also known as stack wall, log end, stovewood or cordwood masonry. If you do the labor yourself, and use wood from your property, this is a very inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to own a home. All the walls are load bearing. Great Stuff foam was used for insulation. Looks like stone from afar, originally via midcoast. True arches around many doors and windows. The photos below were from midcoast.

Cordwood homes

Cordwood offers the imagination a chance to play. Random patterning, special features, bottle bricks and designs are all popular ways to make your cordwood home special. Imaginative use of space, making your dreams come to reality, learning a time honored, planet friendly technique are all part and parcel of Cordwood Construction. The Best Practices approach to building with cordwood will allow your creation to be safe, warm and well built. Bottle bricks, stones, glass beads, metal and special mementoes from your life make your home special. To place these objects in the wall itself as you build creates a unique statement.

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If you try to build a structure using green wood, it will pull away from the mortar as the wood dries out. Kelly, and the GreenHomeBuilding team of experts, have answered thousands of questions for readers over the years, and we continue to publish up-to-date information about increasingly important sustainable architecture. The middle of the wall holds insulation. It can be very cheap to build with, and it can build very sturdy structures. Use unifying themes on the addition, such as wall texture, roofing, house lines, etc. The cordwood goes right up to the ceiling on the interior, the last mortar joint finished as per the paragraph above about finishing to the underside of girts. Our Cordwood Building Photo Gallery. The picture which Kelly has supplied shows such a lapping on the mudseal, but it is even more important on the top wall plate, as the mudseal is already mechanically fastened to the foundation. There is no way to put a living roof on a 28' diameter round cordwood house or even a 20' diameter cordwood round house without a center post. Proponents say most wood shrinkage and rot can be avoided by carefully choosing well-seasoned wood and creating overhangs to protect the walls. Asheville, North Carolina, cordwood on a mountain top. Contents move to sidebar hide. These products remain flexible for a long long time. Consider the combined talents of your family and friends.

In the realm of natural building, you have many different options. From rammed earth to straw bale to adobe, there is a building method suitable for almost any situation within the United States. In this article, we will be taking a look at a method that is perfect for the many forested areas of North America, cordwood construction.

You have the basic idea. Only one question remains: How would we add on in the future? It plays nicely with other building methods including strawbale and stud-framing. When the surface conditioner has dried, usually within an hour, apply W. Cordwood for Beginners. You can find their workshop schedule here. The wood then needs to be transported to the building site. Thanks for getting back to me. However, it strikes me that a problem with bamboo and cordwood would be that there is practically no contact point between the cordwood masonry wall and the smooth round edge of a bamboo "post. Your posts and siding can come from the local mill or from your own chain saw lumber attachment. This is a masterpiece of good construction and design. Is it a big enough difference to effect it to any large degree? On a larger building, you can go double-thick with your plates staggering the pieces all around for strength.