Here are some details from my cordwood wall construction. I show how to lay the lime and sand mortar, as well as how I tuck point and dress the mortar. Check out my Amazon shop for tool links: www.amazon.com/shop/radicalga...
wow. that combination of stone, wood, and mortar is making a beautiful building. well, that and of course the builder. 8 years ago I had a tree removed in my backyard. which left me with lots of firewood and a stump. the stump stayed because I didn't pay for its removal. I have a question. the stump is of course getting all the weather and last year I noticed it was getting pitted. this year it has really changed. the stump is rotting out big time. So, I know that other large pieces have aged but not really rotted. My question, is how many years before rot works on these vertical walls? Hope this makes sense and it's beautiful work you are doing.
The rotting of wood is primarily caused by fungi that live in the soil, and moisture. It is best practice to have about 16-24” of stone or concrete at the bottom of such walls. I didn’t do that, but my dry climate makes this less of an issue. Two foot eve over hangs are a good idea, too. As long as this system is used with “good boots, and a good hat” it should last many decades in most climates. Bonus: a neat trick for removing stumps is to plug them with oyster mushroom spawn plugs. These can be purchased from fungi.com, and others. You’ll get a couple good flushes of oyster mushrooms per year, for about 5 years. After that, the stump has been consumed by the fungi and you are left with amazing garden soil!
There are some who mix soaked sawdust into this lime mortar for cordwood. I’ve done a little of this, but abandoned it in favor of the lime/sand mortar. The addition of the sawdust yielded a mortar that I found too crumbly in the narrow application.
Good information, working on a cordwood outbuilding this year. Question, adding a pigment to the Lime putty? My first guess would be there wouldn't be any issues with doing this. Your thought? Also what about adding pigment to the Aircrete? Any cracking with your mix, lime putty/sand 5-1?? Thank you.
Typically these walls are stacked with 16-24” logs, rather than the 9” ones I’m using here. At 16” they tend to test out at R-20 plus. Mine performs satisfactorily as the wood stove heats all the mass in the mortar which stays warm all night.
Great videos, how high did you build your first coarse ? and how long to set before you continued withthe second coarse? and how long before the morter is fully cured?
I would just keep stacking until I got reed of mixing mortar. The sand and the logs carry the load. Mortar is well set the next day, hard cured in about three days.
@@radicalgastronomy when you mentioned that you had used 1/4 of a bag is that a 50lb bag? how many sqft total did you do and how many bags did it take for your whole project?
Queria enviarle mi Saludos y desearle exsitos súper chevere trabajos. Me ayuda la preparación de la mezcla. Que nomas lleva. Y si se puede apoyar esté este tipo de pared df troncos en columnas de hormigón. O solamente en madera. Gracias tu confirmación Saludos mi sr.
