cordwood house

A lot of info is at Lusenet archives, click 'homesteading, click lusenet archives, click countryside, scroll down to 'Alternative Houseing', many posts there with links.

 

Where are you located? Rob Roy has an excellent hands-on training program at his house in West Chazy, NY.

Sometimes, his son teaches classes at various places around the country.

Check out their website at: http://www.cordwoodmasonry.com/ and click on workshops.

He has classes in Wisconsin and North Carolina this year.

Brian
Parish, NY

 

You will find this site very useful. Its a webdiary about building a big cordwood house with lots of diagrams and pictures. What this guy doesnt know or tell you about cordwood isnt worth knowing. http://www.daycreek.com/dc/HTML/journalmenu.htm

 

FolioMark is right! Daycreek is an excellent site! There are beautiful pictures in the journal. Go to www.daycreek.com to see pages other than the journal.

 

Wow! What a great couple sites. Seems like it would be a lot easier than building a log cabin. I especially like the circular buildings.

 

Wannabe, the above posts suggest great ideas. Do try to go to Rob Roy's place. We built our cordwood home in 1999/2000, yeah it took almost 2 yrs. We did have RR's book and video. But it is veerrrry labor intense, don't let anyone kid you. Have very committed help available, and money to hire help when they finally shake their heads and quit on you. Ours is 30 x 50, though, you may plan something smaller. Not to discourage you, please understand, it is just such a different way to build. If I can, I will find a way to post a pic here of our house. Maybe someone will help me post it. Just plan,plan,plan .....Margo

 

had a friend who lived in his owner built cordwood - he went through RR's course and built to specs all the way - experienced really severe fungus and mildew problems after about three years - and he had a lot of windows and vents - and, this was in south central ky - a decent rainfall area but certainly nothing like the gulf coast and pacific rainforests - i'd look for a cordwood home already built and lived in in your area to see how it works in the long run

 

Here is a group I belong too... Here we have many homes built in this fashion.. I have also been privileged to visit Rob Roy's home in Chazy NY.. as it is just 62 miles south of Me.. accross the border.. anyways.. our Cordwood guy .. is a GREAT reference to anyone interested in this topic...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cordwood/ feel free to join.. has great information..

A Kindred Canuck

 

................I think the houses look great , but aren't the ends of the logs subject to termites and dry rot. I , believe I'd just go ahead and build a rock house and not have to worry about the exterior weaknesses.........fordy..

 

I THOUGHT I`D RESPOND TO THIS POST AND THE OTHERS IN THE LINK AT THE SAME TIME.

KINDRED CANUCK...........THANKS FOR THE REFERAL AND COMPLIMENT ON THE BOARD.

SOME ONE SAID ABOUT ALAN OF DAYCREEK..."WHAT HE DOSESN`T KNOW ABOUT CORDWOOD ISN`T WORTH KNOWING."
DROP BY MY BOARD AND SEE MY CORRECTIVE REPLIES TO HIS ANSWERS.ALAN IS STILL WORKING ON HIS FIRST HOME.I ALSO CORRECT THE AUTHORS AND HAVE REVIEWED SOME OF THE CORDWOOD BOOKS...ALL BY THE WAY HAVE SOME SERIOUS MISTAKES IN THEM.
YOU CAN READ MY CORDWOOD BOOK REVIEWS AT THE FOLLOWING URL.
UNLIKE THE BOOKS I DEAL WITH REALITY AND NOT MYTHS.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cordwood2

FORDY.............LOG ENDS TERMITE AND DRY ROT.THATS VERY UNLIKELY IF YOU FOLLOW MY TREATMENT AND SEASONING SCHEDULE.
I TREAT MY LOGS WITH BORATES WHICH KILLS OFF ALL INSECTS AND MICRO ORGANISMS.GENERALLY INSECTS ATTACK UNDER THE BARK WHERE THE WOOD IS SOFT AND JUICY.PEELED LOGS ARE DRIER AND HARDER TO EAT.THE LIME IN THE MORTAR MIX IS A DETERENT AS WELL.
WOOD WILL NOT ROT IF THE MOISTURE CONTENT REMAINS UNDER THE 19% MARK.IF YOU BUILD OFF THE GROUND UNLIKE THE AUTHORS,YOUR WOOD HAS A BETTER CHANCE OF SURVIVAL.

CORDWOODGUY
PS:I USE UPPER CASE LETTERS DUE TO A VISUAL DISABILITY..SORRY!