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Cordwood Homes and Barns
also known as Stackwall, Log End, Stovewood or Cordwood Masonry...
cordwood house
The Kruza House, built in 1884 in Shawano County, Wisconsin was ”built of stovewood laid in a bed of mortar.” www.lsvejda.wordpress.com
cordwood house
Cordwood Lodge Bed & Breakfast in Bracebridge, Ontario. www.bedbreakfasthome.com
cordwood house
Renyard Felt's cordwood home near Adel, Georgia. The home is made of cypress and was built in the 70's. Using dry wood and building with slow curing mortar is key to minimal cracking. www.cordwoodconstruction.org
cordwood house
Camp Cordwood, Northern Michigan. With cordwood building, curves are easy. www.thenauhaus.com
cordwood house
Mushwood on Chataugay Lake by Rob Roy. 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. Image by Pseu www.flickr.com
cordwood house
Cradlerock under construction, Ontario, Canada. www.cradlerockhomestead.com
Cordwood Home by Rob Roy near Rochester, NY., image by Peter Turkow. Via Rob Roy's FB page: www.facebook.com
Carlson Home near Rochester, NY. by Rob Roy. Via Rob Roy's FB page: www.facebook.com
cordwood house
Local building codes often require a supporting structure, such as post and beam, then cordwood as an infill, even though the cordwood alone could support a substantial load. University of Alaska www.snras.blogspot.com
cordwood house
Alan Adolphson's cordwood home, Hope, Maine. Although spacing the split wood close together is fine, it should not touch, as this could promote damp conditions leading to rot. www.midcoast.com
cordwood house
The whole house is built with 14" Aspen (poplar). All the walls are load bearing. Great Stuff foam was used for insulation. Alan Adolphson. www.midcoast.com
cordwood ho
cordwood house
Alan Adolphson's cordwood home, Hope, Maine. Looks like stone from afar. www.midcoast.com
cordwood house
True arches around many doors and windows. Alan Adolphson's cordwood home, Hope, Maine. www.midcoast.com
cordwood hou
cordwood house
Alan Adolphson's cordwood home, Hope, Maine. Do not place the split logs with a flat surface facing upward, they will collect rain. www.midcoast.com
cordwood house
Stone fireplace & oven to left - cordwood wall on right. Alan Adolphson's cordwood home, Hope, Maine. www.midcoast.com
cordwood house
Alan Adolphson's cordwood home, Hope, Maine. www.midcoast.com
cordwood house
Mark and Chelsea's home in Kenai, Alaska. The walls are 14″ spruce with foam insulation in the center cavity between the two 3″ mortar beads. thenauhaus.com
cordwood house
Mark and Chelsea's home in Kenai, Alaska. thenauhaus.com
Cordwood Lodge, Northern Wisconsin. daycreek.com
Cordwood Lodge, Northern Wisconsin. daycreek.com
cordwood house
Cordwood home in Upstate New York, off-grid. www.rainharvest.co.za
cordwood house
Luke & Amy's cordwood home of debarked cedar in Spartanburg, SC. Lots of overhang for South Carolina's wet weather. Via: cordwoodconstruction.wordpress.com
Cordwood House by Wayne Higgins (Stonewood) - Log cabin on left, shingle for the second floor, cordwood on right. www.daycreek.com
cordwood house
Ravenwood is a double wall, LPM, foam insulated triangular home in upstate New York by Bruce Kilgore and Nancy Dow. www.daycreek.com
Cordwood Garage in New London, MN. Photo by Greg Harp. www.pbase.com
Cordwood Carriage House, New London, Minnesota. For a rectilinear house without a heavy post-and-beam frame, stackwall corners can be built of squared log-ends called quoins. The stacked corner functions as a post. www.facebook.com
Bear Claw by Ojibwe tribal artist Bill Paulson, in the wall of the cordwood home on the White Earth Reservation in Naytahwaush, Minnesota. cordwoodconstruction.wordpress.com
Cordwood home in Northern Wisconsin. www.daycreek.com
cordwood house
www.ourcedarcottage.blogspot.com
cordwood house
Richard Flatau, West Canada. www.daycreek.com
cordwood house
Lakewood Hollow, www.lakewoodhollow.com
Stone, shingle and cordwood house. If you have stone on your property, start building with that. Collect logs and let them dry for about a year, then add a cordwood addition to your stone home. Image by Mark Angelini www.flickr.com
Cordwood Barn, Oconto County, Wisconsin. www.rootsweb.ancestry.com
Cordwood Barn, Oconto County, Wisconsin. www.rootsweb.ancestry.com
cordwood house
Stone Creek Camp, Flat Head Lake, Montana. www.stonecreekmontana.com Architects: www.anderssonwise.com
cordwood house
Stone Creek Camp, Flat Head Lake, Montana. Architects: www.anderssonwise.com
cordwood house
Stone Creek Camp, Flat Head Lake, Montana. Architects: www.anderssonwise.com
cordwood house
Stone Creek Camp, Flat Head Lake, Montana. www.stonecreekmontana.com Architects: www.anderssonwise.com
Cordwood home in Quebec, Canada. Love the old pipes, as well as the wall.
For more info: www.troglodium.com
Luke and Amy's cordwood home in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Via: cordwoodconstruction.org
Inside walls.
Mermaid Cordwood Cottage in Del Norte, Colorado. Via: cordwoodconstruction.org
cordwood house
Feather by Ojibwe tribal artist Bill Paulson, in the wall of the cordwood home on the White Earth Reservation in Naytahwaush, Minnesota.. Image: Robert Zahorski. cordwoodconstruction.wordpress.com
cordwood house
Grant Nicholson's arched door on his double wall, slip form, cast quions cordwood home in Owen Sound, Ontario. Via: www.facebook.com
cordwood house
Glass bottles frame the window. Cordwood walls on top of a stone foundation. Image by Scot DeGraf www.flickr.com
cordwood house
Indoor tile mosaic 'stream', interior cordwood wall, and hand-hewn beams from self-harvested timber at Rainbow Valley Farm. Photo by Kristi www.flickr.com
Cordwood Home (without mortar) of Armin Blasbichler, Tyrol, Italy.
www.arminblasbichler.com
Cordwood Home of Armin Blasbichler. Cordwood and clocks are sandwiched between glass. www.arminblasbichler.com
Cordwood in the bathroom.
blueforest.com
cordwood house
Mecikalski Store, built in 1900, in Jennings, Wisconsin. Eighteen-inch lengths of cedar logs were used. www.rentandmortgagefree.pdf
Cordwood Barn. www.gallery.pasty.com
Stackwell cornered barn, Canada. www.cordwoodmasonry.com
cordwood house
George J. Sauvala barn, 1929. Between Houghton and Chassel Michigan. Image: Wayne Higgins. www.daycreek.com
Cordwood Barn.
Stovewood Chicken Coop, Michigan, built in the 1930s. © Bob Kisken www.fadingad.com
For a cob mortar mix: 5 gallons clay soaked in water, 5 gallons sawdust, 5 gallons dry manure, 5 gallons sand, 2-1/3 c. flour glue/EM, 1/3 c. psyllium powder, and 1 tsp. EM ceramic powder and 1-2 gallons of water. www.home-n-stead.com & www.daycreek.com
cordwood house
Sage Mountain Center, Montana. Love the mix of rectangular wood with the logs. www.sagemountain.org
cordwood house
Sage Mountain Center, Montana. Love the mix of rectangular/square wood with the logs. www.sagemountain.org
Cobwood construction, the inner wall space will be filled with an insulating material. www.daycreek.com
Cordwood workshop in Grand Marais. See more pictures and info here: www.bennetthouseproject.blogspot.com
cordwood house
Spray foam as insulation at White Earth Reservation, Minnesota. NPR www.minnesota.publicradio.org
More about cordwood on wikipedia - www.en.wikipedia.org. Image by Greg Webster.
There are remains of cordwood buildings in Greece and Siberia that date back a thousand years.
Before you Build:
As with all building methods, planning is necessary. Logs need to be dried to prevent expansion, shrinking and cracking. Trees should be cut and debarked, then allowed to dry for 1-2 years, before they are cut into lengths. Or, if you want your wood to dry faster, split it. The wood will dry faster, and it will crack and check less when in the wall. Before placing in the wall, spray or soak the cordwood in Borax. The Borax acts as an insecticide, a wood preservative and a fungicide. Use four cups of Borax (borate) mixed in a gallon of hot water. This can be sprayed on, or the logs can be dipped in the solution. You want your mortar to be 'soft' or a little flexible, not straight concrete or brick mud, because the logs continually shrink and swell.
R-value depends on the species of wood, thickness, and insulation you chose. Cedar has an R-value of 1.5 per inch; cut to 18" the R-value would be approximately R-27. The mortar will need to be insulated to bring the R-value up to par with the wood. In Canada, Cliff Stockey builds double wall homes (not shown): two cordwood walls with a vapor barrier and insulation in between. Cliff states that a 24" (8" cordwood + 8" insulation + 8" cordwood) double wall has an R value of 40+. Although this sounds like double the work, it is not, as you only need to point the outside and most inside wall. www.daycreek.com
Wood types:
Softwoods are best. Cedar has a good R-value (1.5 per inch) and is naturally decay resistant. Hardwoods have a tendency to swell and crack mortar joints. The best softwoods: white cedar, white pine, cottonwood, poplar, red cedar, spruce or larch followed by hemlock and poplar. If all you have is hardwood, you must split the wood and let it dry for only months instead of years, otherwise it will expand in the wall.
For a 32' x 36' one story structure - you need approx 5 cords of cedar wood.
Resources:
Earthwood Building School's full length how-to videos. www.cordwoodmasonry.com
Best Practices with Cordwood Construction By Richard Flatau www.thenauhaus.com
Yahoo cordwood forum: www.groups.yahoo.com
Info on spray foam and double walls: www.daycreek.com
More photos: www.daycreek.com
Table of Insulation R Values - www.inspectapedia.com
Books:
Cordwood Building: The State of the Art, Rob Roy (Editor)
Collects the wisdom of more than 25 of the world’s best practitioners, detailing the long history of the method, and demonstrating how to build a cordwood home using the latest and most up-to-date techniques, with a special focus on building code issues. Author/editor Rob Roy has been building, researching, and teaching about cordwood masonry for 25 years; and, with his wife, started Earthwood Building School in 1981. Information about what species of wood are best, how to select, prepare and store the wood. www.amazon.com
List of recent books: www.daycreek.com
See Cordwood Sheds and Cabins as well...inspirationgreen.com/cordwood
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