Cordwood masonry

[Robernson]

What do we know about it? I haven’t found much in the name of books on it and was looking to learn about it……..

~~R

[Carl Russell]

Rob Roy has written at least one good book on the subject. I have one around here, but can’t find it right now. I think it is called the cordwood masonry book…. or maybe the cordwood sauna is the one I have…. anyway I think they were published by Chelsea Green from White River Jct., VT.

It is a building style that has some real attractive aspects. The material is easily available, and the designs are entirely customizable. The only limiting factor for me is getting a pile of dry cordwood that I don’t sell of burn myself. You really need dry wood to minimize the shrinkage.

Carl

[mitchmaine]

rob and carl, don’t know if this is what your talking about, but years ago when common ground fair was at litchfield fairgrounds, they built a demonstration small building to house the animal scales. popple laid up in mortar walls with a stickbuilt roof. looked pretty slick. but it didn’t last. might have been the popple. 16″ walls, should have been easy to heat if it had been closed in.

[Simple Living]

Robernson,

There is an article in the Jan/Feb issue of BackHome magazine about cordwood construction. It was written by Richard and Becky Flatau, who also wrote the book Cordwood Cabin: Best Building Practices. The article covers the building of a teaching center at the Merrill School Forest of the Merril School District in the community of Merril in north central Wisconson. The students helped build the structure with actually met energy star ratings when they were done. It also made a very interesting building both inside and out. If you can’t get your hands on that issue let me know, I would let you borrow it.

Gordon

[Bess]

I had a bunch of books on the subject, attended a 3 day workshop on it in West Chazy, NY with Rob and Jackie Roy – leaders of this bldg technique – and did some of this work first hand – (pun intended, i guess). Any wood will work. You take the bark off – soaking in pond works! – chunk the wood up – for northern climates 24 inch long chunks is mandatory, though some folks do 18inches or even 12 inches. The cement holds it all together and the big trick there is mixing in sawdust to keep the mix wet while you work it. Jackie Roy is a pro at using a spoon to wipe excess mortar off the piece of wood so it all looks like a stone wall when you are done. The Roys probably still hold seminars. I believe their business is EARTHWORKS or something like that. Great folks. Very nice, hard working, giving. Rob has published a number of books – one of which is living mortgage free. Cheap living is why they settled in northern NY and not in VT!!!! There are updates to their work all the time and conferences held on refining the techniques, getting local building code enforcers to allow this kind of construction etc etc… They sell their books directly from home along with others on septic systems, solar, straw bale construction etc etc.. google ’em up?

[Michael Colby]

I cut and pulled wood for a cordwood house in Worcester, Vermont last year. The folks who hired me (and built the house for themselves) were good friends with Rob Roy and had quite a bit of assistance from him. I’ll try to insert a photo of the finished house. Also, they’re nice folks and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind visitors to see their finished “product.” His name is Ivan McBeth of Worcester, Vermont and I’m sure some Googling will find his number and even some more images of the project.

For me, it was a great horse logging job — close to home and a chance to be a part of a pretty inspiring endeavor. I’ve been back each year to pull firewood for them from their woods. Like I said, fine folks who appreciate and value the work of horses.

[jac]

Been reading the posts on cordwood masonry.. We hope to be in a position to build our own house on environmentaly sound practices soon and this sounds great but….. we live in Scotland and as you probably guessed its wet.. our homegrown timber doesnt get a good reputation for building and I was wondering if it would be any use for cordwood masonary ???
John

[near horse]

Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t cordwood and cement the “infill” between structural posts – in other words, the cordwood masonry portion is “non structural”. That would be the same for straw bales etc.
For some nice pics of a small project try the Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute’s (PCEI) site http://pceiwriterstudio.blogspot.com/. They show it sort of step by step.

[Stable-Man]

Geoff–Cordwood masonry is wood stacked like it’s in a pile with mortar between the logs like bricks. They also use sawdust between two lines of mortar for insulation, at least that’s what I remember from The Natural House. Straw bales can be structural and also used as infill. Straw bale might be a good option for JAC, or perhaps cob (Cob’s been used there supposedly).

[Author]

Posts