Cordwood Housing

[thekleins]

My husband and I came across an article in Mother Earth News (I think) about cordwood housing and want to figure out more about it. We plan on settling in mid-Michigan near both our families so there'd be plenty of resources available. We're still off at college and not settled on anything, but this might be a direction we want to go. Are these houses expensive to build? Are they more difficult to build than a basic stick-built house? Is there a website with plans that we could look at? We're both pretty inexperienced in this and we just got married and moved across the country so we barely know what's going on anyways.

Thanks!

[glenn kangiser]

to the forum.

We have a cordwood pro here on the Forum....Andrew... (Ernest T Bass).  Here is some of his stuff for you until he gets here personally to help you out... and of all places to be, he is in the UP.

http://home-n-stead.com/about/blogs.html

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=2410.0

[glenn kangiser]

Forgot - I should have added a pix for you...

[Ernest T. Bass]

Thanks for the intro, Glenn. 

Are these houses expensive to build? Are they more difficult to build than a basic stick-built house? Is there a website with plans that we could look at? We're both pretty inexperienced in this and we just got married and moved across the country so we barely know what's going on anyways.

Welcome and congratulations! There's quite a bit of info on cordwood around the net. The http://www.daycreek.com forums are a wealth of information on the topic as well. Most cordwood structures are built with a cement mortar. We opted to use cob instead, which is an earthen mix typically consisting of clay, sand and some sort of fiber (straw, shredded manure, etc.). We chose cob for it's eco-friendliness and because we were able to harvest the raw ingredients right off of our land.

The process is very low-tech and easy to learn just from books and little experimentation. Cost will depend entirely on design, usage of recycled/reclaimed/bargain basement materials and how much work you do yourself vs. sub contract, as it would with any construction method. I think cordwood easily has the potential to be cheaper than conventional construction, but it isn't necessarily.