cordwood barn
 

Has anyone had any experience building a cordwood barn? My husband and I just finished building our cordwood sauna, measuring 8' x 12' (two rooms-sauna and change room) and although it was a very time consuming project, it was also very rewarding and we are very proud of the accomplishment.

Now we are looking into options for building a new barn to house our horses and possibly future smaller residents (goats...maybe). My idea for the barn is to have 3 or 4 large stalls, 12x12 and a large aisle way, probably 12' wide. All in all, I am invisioning a 24 x 36 barn, but am flexible in the design. Still haven't decided on the loft portion...gambrel or not...but we do not need hay storage, as we use round bales and store them elsewhere.

I guess what I am looking for is experience and feedback from others who have built their own barn this way? I am assuming that a wall for a barn will not have to be as aesthetically pleasing as the sauna is, so the painstaking pointing that was involved with the sauna will not have to be done with the barn.

Any feedback or photos of cordwoods barns out there?

I would like to see pics
 

of what you just built? the sauna deal

A man in a nearby town build a basic cordwood type wall but rather than using wood he used empty glass bottles. it looks good .

My friend is building a cordwood barn.
I'm having trouble getting any pictures to stick but it is post and beam, using split white cedar and metal roofing. It's really too lovely to put animals in.

The next project is their cordwood home addition built around a masonry heater.

That wall is beautiful. It must look fantastic for a sauna and out buildings. How is the wood preserved? I am unfamiliar with this. Are the ends exposed?

I really like the appearance of it.

PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES.... I wanna see your sauna!

I'd like to see the sauna pictures as well please :)

Okay, okay. I'll post some pictures...lol.

The most recent sauna pics I have are from back in November. The pictures show the sauna almost complete, but without the doors, windows, stove and rest of the front left wall. When I get a chance I'll take some new ones to post.

I wasn't sure how to post just the one picture of the sauna, so you'll have to scroll through the rest of them. The sauna pics are at the end...

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2099340288

Thanks so much for those pics. I absolutely love it, nice job. It is actually larger than I expected.

Nice pictures, but, how do your horses stand being around all those ghosts (the 'orbs' in your pics)? :whistle: :bouncy:

Wow, you used whole logs as opposed to split cordwood, how long did you wait after cutting your logs before you used them, ie. drying time? I have been reading Rob Roy's books for the past several months in an attempt to figure out if I want to build a cordwood house, he also has a very informative website.

http://www.cordwoodmasonry.com/

Margie

Thanks. I really do have to post new pics though, because it does look so much better. The concrete mix has lightened up, and we've sanded the messy concrete off all of the logs ends, too.

Yes, those ghosts left about a foot and a half of snow that day!! I was trying to capture the feeling of all the big, fluffy snowflakes falling all around us, but alas....yeah they just look like orbs.

NW Hippie--Yes, we used all round eastern white cedar, which came from a million different places. Some from my dad's property, some from ours, some from my husbands' parents place and some from his brothers!. We were lucky that all of the logs we got had been cut down for a year or more, so we didn't even have to let them dry, or de-bark them. ALOT of the log ends came from old guide rail posts that my hubby got for free. They are also cedar and are not preserved either. The only thing you have to watch with those ones, is if you are using a chainsaw to cut the log ends up. They suck in gravel and sand and can really wreck your chainsaw blade.

congratulations on the sauna building. I really like the looks of it on the picture. Great Idea!
where are you in Ontario? North, East? I'm in N.W. Ontario.

cordwood-our place
 

I'm so glad that I was directed to this board. I'm having great fun reading threads about fencing (which I hope to do this year), draft horses, and sheep!

We're still under construction with our cordwood building. It will be used partially for a garage but more for my DH's studio/workshop. It's 26x30, modified post and beam, 10 ft walls and with a 12/12 pitch metal roof. There will be a loft area as well. We are using split cedar which has been dried for at least two years. It is extremely time consuming, so if you want something fast, this is not the method to use.

Once I figure out how to post a picture, I will :)

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2...rl/thewall.jpg

okay, let's see if the picture will work

Wow! What a beautiful place! Thanks for the pictures :)

Runestone-nice wall!!! I almost shouted a big HE** YA, when you posted about cordwood being time consuming!! My husband and I worked on our sauna for it seems--the whole summer long!! I can't imagine having the time to build a house this way. Actually (chuckling to myself) I think my husband would kill me if he knew I was secretly researching the possibility of building a cordwood BARN, after all of the time spent slogging away at the sauna! I think that he would just rather pay someone to come and build it.

I have to ask-what kind of footer did you have to put in for your sauna?

I have what may be an idiotic question....referring to the whole log sauna....dont you have a problem with the dried wood checking or getting dry cracks that would let the heat out? sis

Countrybumpkin-First we put down a decent load of crushed gravel, and packed it (half of it is on bedrock, so luckily we don't have to worry about frost heaves). Then we made a concrete footing 12inches wide by 6 inches deep, around the whole perimeter where the walls would be sitting. We incorporated a drain into the sauna side with 4 inch PVC pipe and then filled both sides of the foundation to form one large concrete slab.

Sisterpine-Yes, there are some cracks and checking in a few of the logs, but I don't think they are large enough to make the sauna lose any significant amount of heat. You want some air exchange in and out of the sauna anyway to keep the air fresh inside, or else it would get quite uncomfortable. If we find larger cracks to be a problem, they can also be filled with grout or caulking. I remember my dads sauna always had these huge cracks (and I mean huge...you could see outside!) around the stove, and it was always HOT, HOT, HOT!!

Runestone, I am thinking about cordwood walls for part of my house. How long would it take to build a wall like that? What were the dimensions?

Hi Buffy in Dallas,

I wish I could give you a good idea of the time, however, DH has a really bad accident in Jan. 06 prior to us starting the walls. Since he's still recovering, it has taken ALOT of time to do this work. All he could manage in a day was about an hour's worth of work on the wall itself. That wall and part of another took from May to September. The dimension of the wall in the picture is about 12 ft x 10 ft high. Since DH has done this type of work before, I'll ask him to give me a best guess :)
It is great fun to do, but a lot of preparation, planning and effort does go into the construction, if you want to do it right.

Okay, I checked with DH. He said 2 people working should be able to do an area that size in about 2 weeks. The thing about cordwood, is you can only go so high at one time because of the mortar mix.