What Is Green Building?
(Page 6 of 8)
August/September 2005
By the Mother Earth News editors
Cordwood Styles
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Cordwood accommodates three structural styles quite easily.
Round or curved-wall buildings. A round house makes good use of a quirk of geometry, enclosing a desired space with the least amount of materials. Birds, bees and beavers — as well as so-called “primitive” societies — know this instinctively.
Our round Earthwood house is a good example of using cordwood masonry as a load-bearing structure. The lower courses at Earthwood support two full stories of cordwood masonry plus an extremely heavy earthen roof — sometimes covered with 3 feet or more of snow — a testament to the cordwood’s impressive compressive strength.
Stackwall corners. For a rectilinear house without a heavy post-and-beam frame, stackwall corners can be built of special squared log-ends called quoins. This system enables builders to make walls 24 inches thick or more. The downside to using this method is that, like the load-bearing curved-wall construction, all the cordwood work must be done under the open sky, putting the builder at the mercy of the weather’s whims.
Cordwood infill with a post-and-beam frame. Although I am partial to the circular design, building a strong post-and-beam frame from heavy, rough-cut timbers and putting the roof on prior to commencing the cordwood work offers compelling advantages. Not only does it afford protection from the elements, as you can work on the cordwood infill with a roof overhead, but it also may more easily gain the approval of your local building inspector, as he or she may not be convinced of cordwood masonry’s suitability as a load-bearing medium. For building in seismic (earthquake-prone) areas, the post-and-beam style is the only method of cordwood building I would advise.
Several builders I know have managed to combine the round style with the post-and-beam method by building a 16-sided post-and-beam frame and using cordwood infill. From the outside, such houses look round; inside, they have almost the same advantages of space-enclosing geometry as the truly round house does.
To Learn More
If you’re interested in learning more about cordwood masonry, additional books and Web sites on the subject are available. Along with my books and Web site, www.cordwoodmasonry.com, another helpful site is www.daycreek.com, which lists other resources, tips and tricks helpful to a neophyte builder.
In addition to writing books and articles about cordwood masonry, Rob Roy also is the director of Earthwood Building School in West Chazy, New York, (518) 493-7744. He and his wife, Jaki, have taught cordwood masonry construction across North America, and in Chile and New Zealand.
Cordwood Confusion? Ask the Experts!
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