Cordwood 

Thanks!

Hey thanks! I’m trying to develop an informative yet clean style. Spend this winter diving deeper into video craft. 🤪

​@@radicalgastronomy popo pop y mililitros la ó

Nicolas Cage and Tom Hanks.

He reminds me of Peter Weller.

Not hearing it

That could be okay as long as the roof is maintained. If the cavity ever gets a substantial amount of water, you run a real risk of autoignition inside a wall. This happened to a barn next door to us. The owners used hay and sawdust as insulation, failed to maintain the roof, and subsequently caused the total loss of the structure.

Why would water cause autoignition?

​@@iunnox666rotting causes enough heat to burn. Look up hay fires caused spontaneously (no external ignition like a cigarette or lightning..... just the heat of microbial activity)

My pleasure!

Right on

My pleasure

Thanks!

Cord wood is certainly beautiful. I added some glass bricks in the transom over my door. Lovely accent!

Glad to help!

My pleasure!

I sure felt more comfortable doing it this way.

I’d love to see that. So cool.

Thank you, on all counts. I’ll do a full cottage tour in the spring.

Thank you. Glad you liked it.

Great! Good luck with your build!

Thank you

Best of luck in your projects! Future videos will explore other techniques I currently prefer.

Hey Brian, same here except not this year (I have the wood already but it needs another year of seasoning. Please, post your projects!! :)

Right on.

That’s so awesome! I’ll keep an ear out for people looking for an adventure like that.

¡Gracias, amigo!

Thank you!

This may be worth a try. I have found some traditional examples where the logs are in a cob matrix, and are pitched,witching the wall, such that the outside is lower than the inside. This allows for drainage away from the wall, and would keep water from pooling in the cob, and causing failure.

I have just added a video explaining the “dustcrete” I used in those sections. Check it out, and good luck on your build!

Glad you liked it!

Thanks!

Yw@@radicalgastronomy do the cotton wood logs need to dry for any specific amount of time? We have a lot of those here in Missouri.

@@kimmyseegmiller985 these were from trees dead so long the bark fell off and they’d turned grey. I’d cut fresh I would let them dry a couple of years.

@radicalgastronomy okay, thank you!

Thanks!

I used primarily pex tubing, as it is non-reactive with the lime. I’m running off a cistern, and have an RV pump pressurizing the system. Everything works great with the small exception of one hot water line I placed a bit too far to the outside corner in one wall. That line has frozen twice when temps drop to zero F. Fortunately, the pex is flexible enough to not burst when it freezes, and that line thaws and works just fine. I’m using an on demand propane water heater. At first I had one of those $125 camp units, but that burned out after a year. I replaced that with a $450 camplux unit that is working great. Thanks for your kind words!

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Thanks!

Bitte

Thanks!

Stop resisting, citizen.

The best move is likely linseed oil once complete. Mine are still natural, but I plan to oil this season. Ideally, the logs are seasoned two years before assembly, so the checking is already done and shrinkage is minimal.

Take a look at his videos on forming a wall of "dustcrete" and plastering a dustcrete wall with lime.

Me and 2 other fellas built a log cabin out of old power poles. We did this in winter, all was good till late spring hit, and man, the inside stunk so bad from creosote, he could not live in it. The heat from then on into summer, made it worse. He finally after 2 years, decided to cut bigger doors in the ends, and use it as a barn, and leave any doors off so air would circulate in there. It's still standing, this was in 82' when we did this, and still a barn.

Like he mentioned in the video... If you have irregular pieces, such as split in halves or quarters, you can't keep your grout spacing tight. Meaning the distances to the studs from the last piece of wood won't have to be as big in the case of not having a piece of wood small enough to fit in the wall after the previous piece. Kind of like this... |~\~•~•~\\| or [~•~•~\~•~] instead of having [~~~•~•~•~~]... Did I explain that correctly? It just allows you to keep the limestone to a minimum. You really don't want huge areas of places that are just lime mortar. How that helps!!! Have fun

The wood remains un treated, but it’s a good idea to seal the log ends after everything is fully dry (after a year). I’ll get to it this fall, along with putty for the fine cracks. We haven’t had any bug issues in the 4 years since I built this. I can see issues with termites in other locals. I have see people pull this of with red cedar in such places.

In the video he said to peel the logs when you harvest the wood. So yes, peel, or remove the bark.

That’s a good idea. I’ll make one. I did not seal my log ends, but plan to. I wanted to make sure the logs were as dry as could be before sealing them. I’ll use a linseed oil/citrus solvent sealer, then patch any fine gaps with lime putty, at some point.

I suppose with a wood stove inside, the moisture in the logs would be drawn out. Hmm 🤔 Interesting physics question, would the heat push it outside or the dryer air inside pull it in? Great channel, thx

@@Bolthole_Studios A stove fire draws a lot of air. All winter there is a draw to the inside, for sure. In the summer we run a window fan, and a window AC unit when it gets super hot. Air gets pushed out during the summer.

There is a method for cordwood that uses soaked sawdust in the lime mortar. I have tried this and found it too fragile, over time.

We have vastly different climates. Mine is high dessert with low humidity and 12” of rain per year. Hardwood is rarely used for this, due to lower R value, but cedar in your situation would be suitable for the shed you describe.

if you look closely the foundation around the shower (where he was working) is a concrete slab, so yes it works .

5 parts sand to 1 part lime putty.

Your concern is valid. In this build, I half sank 3” construction screws into the timber frame, about every 6”. These get encapsulated in the lime mortar. A better move is to screw stickers as cleats all the way around the perimeter of the void to be stacked. Over time, the mortar shrinks a 64” from the wood, or vice versa. At any rate, there is a draft gap that has developed on mine, so I recommend the full cleat method to serve both anchoring and draft issues. Though further reinforcement should not be necessary, it wouldn’t hurt anything, to my thinking. Perhaps wire anchored to screws at each end. That wouldn’t interfere with the organic log layout. Good luck with your build!

@@radicalgastronomy Thanks so much for the rapid response. That is awesome and was planning on doing something like that but it is always nice to hear from someone who has done already! Happy Thanksgiving!

@@enochborozinski890 same to you!

These concerns are of varying importance in different climates. Mine is high desert with low humidity. Much of the seasonal movement is unnoticeable. The continued crystallization of the lime mortar self heals the hairline cracks that form. The matrix of mortar tends to remain fixed, and the logs swell and shrink within it. There is no overall compression of the stack. This building was constructed in the spring of ‘20. Most of it remains as sound as it was at the time of completion. There are, however, areas that are showing some degradation. These are due to my less than expert timber framing skills and the frequent closing of the front door. Because my joinery is a bit less than perfect on a couple places, the vibration of the door rattles the mortar, causing some fracturing. I hope to lessen this effect with some shimming of the wind braces which are exposed on the exterior. Ideally, the frame would be more precise, using all of the techniques which make a strong, enduring frame (offset peg holes, dado mortise pockets, etc.). If building without a frame, as many do, I’d pour a reinforced bond beam on top of the wall, and anchor door frames from foundation to bond beam. The log ends and mortar are currently unsealed. I may seal them, now that the wood has had three+ years to fully cure. This is more of an esthetic choice than a performance one in my dry climate. There are some drafty spots where logs have shrunk, here and there. I will fill these with a loose lime/sand plater, this fall (video to come). Over all, I love the look of the cordwood, but would not use it extensively, going forward. I like it for an accent wall, or for semi climate controlled applications, such at a mud room. Bare in mind my wall depth is well below the typical 16-24” depth. This likely adds to the instability mentioned. I wouldn’t say don’t do it, but I would say I vastly prefer dustcrete.

Pea gravel has no R value, and would be counter to the purpose. If you are worried about mold and rot, don’t. The alkalinity of the lime makes this an environment impossible for these to take hold.

In a climate like that I would probably go with earthbag or cob with a good 24” high stone footer.

@@radicalgastronomy Thanks.

Because the end grain of the wood is exposed, moisture escapes easily, reducing the risk of rot. Termites aren’t really a thing where I live, but the lime inside the walls would prevent an infestation from getting too far.

Good question. Did you get a answer?

If your logs are very well seasoned before you build, the movement is minimal. My climate is very dry, so I haven’t experienced much moisture related swelling. The there are some tiny gaps around the logs in some places.

I have no such video. I also have no experience with this repair. If I was doing this repair, I’d try chipping out the mortar around the rotten log, from both sides. If the home was built in the conventional fashion, there will be mostly void in the middle. With the mortar removed, the log should be easy to slide out. The wall structure should hold, as the logs form an arch over the hole. Replace the log and point mortar around it. Sorry I can’t offer expertise.

@@radicalgastronomy thank you. I will be trying that.

Bark MUST be removed. Pipes too close to the outside can be an issue. This is not a problem with thicker walls. Mine are 9”, but typical thickness is 16-24”.

I've put the torch to it, and it will not ignite. Loved that video.

@@radicalgastronomy That is excelent. I know that Hempcrete will not burn so I was hoping this would not either.

The mixture is the same. You will want to lay long logs overlapping at the corners.

@@radicalgastronomy Muchas Gracias, Thank you very much, if I am going to put long logs in the corners, I send you a big hug from here in Argentina, very good video! Health

@@LeonardoViglioneok ¡De nada compadre!

There are cordwood buildings in the Southeast. Once the lime sets up it will no longer burn skin, but remains alkaline enough to deter mold and insects.

@@radicalgastronomy love it

It is not a perfect system, to be sure. It’s beautiful, and affordable, but not the most efficient.