This Is Wisdom Radio - Retire Early with a Cordwood Home 

WHY make a how to video with the only part that matters a SECRET !!?

@@jimmymarshall7572 no secrets...just a lot of variables

More than likely it was more Portland cement added to the mix

+Bill W Yes it is something else Clearly a labour of love. Hes obviously very happy with how it turned out too.. Good on him.

Yes i agree....

Start with a cabin or shed....

The wood you mentioned is just natural. The mortar is two different mixes one for the construction then it is pointed with a finish mix...you could add a little paint to get any color you want.

Its a secret

No video of construction but a few still photos

They have a well.....they use considerably less electricity (energy) than most houses because the walls are 24" thick. Their cost of operation is less thaan 30% of other homes making it somewhat of the grid and they do grow their own food in their garden.

They are not off grid. Apparently it's just a saying some use.

The Forerunner Project my only question that I am unable to find an answer to is "the oldest cord/cob build in history?" They say they can last as long as maintaining is continual!! ??????????

@@nannaskare8149 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwood_construction

There is nothing secret about the mortar mix but there are multiple ways to mix with different applications. Secondly, Albert has had some health challenges and he is unable to answer. Run some tests...nobody owes you a turn key formula just because its posted on RU-vid.

So you simply assume and don't even try to find out any facts? It is an ancient building technique and 1000 year old cordwood buildings still stand today, good luck matching that with your steel concrete builds. To laugh at things you don't know anything about, are we supposed to be impressed by that? Stop making a fool of yourself. It is ok to ask questions but to ask and then proceed to condemn without finding out the answers to those questions makes you look foolish. Yes cordwood is a proven, safe, durable and economical technique. If it isn't your thing, fine, but it is good practice to try to achieve at least some minimal level of knowledge about a subject before presuming to offer an opinion on it. Yes this is the internet, that doesn't obligate you to act like a cretin.

memmi sure people can make igloos and straw huts, mud huts or teepees and live in them, for how many years have you studied the subject of Strength of Materials, or soil mechanics? or structural design? and for how many years have you worked in the construction Material testing labs? if this cord-wood construction style is used for composite filler as whimsical ornament, it may be a choice, but as a reliable construction material, it will be a very difficult task to obtain building permits for such construction. for a good reason it is not any part of the international schedule of rates. Do you even know what i am saying? and good luck getting any financing for this. as an investment you will have a cord-load of paper work to do Disclosure for this type of property. marketability, equity, and appreciation of investment will be poor. the Golden rule in engineering is that you cannot sacrifice safety for the sake of economy.

Alfa Romeo So you stumble across a video of a building technique that you know nothing about, and ask a bunch of questions about it, such as how much stress it can handle, termite resistance, mold proofing, etc. Then - without acquiring answers to ANY of these questions - you assume that the technique must indeed perform poorly on these variables. Hmm pardon me for not accepting your word as authority on this subject. As it stands, you are clearly in the *so ignorant that you don't even know that you don't know* category. Perhaps you are as you say very experienced with the materials and techniques that you use, but fact is you have yourself admitted that you have no clue about building with Cordwood - you don't know how much compression force it can take or what the termite resistance level is. It is all conjecture on your part. If you were actually interested in determining the safety and reliability of this technology you'd try to find out if these evaluations had been made and then you would have based your opinion on facts and results, not "knee jerk assumptions".

I know exactly the answers to those questions I had posted and asked from the person who had built this house. many many years ago i was teaching Engineers. of course i know all this. but when i see some student making blunders i just politely ask them some questions to see if they know the answers , and if they come up with wrong answers then i offer them guidance. so many PhD student still consult me to do their research work. I would have had fun teaching you in my class, but it is RU-vid and you are not an engineering university student. your replies do show your academic level. this is what makes me laugh.

Alfa Romeo You do NOT know the answers to the questions, because you have not conducted an evaluation of cordwood building, nor have you looked up the evaluations that exist. Be honest, you are not even interested in the answers. For you this is clearly an ideological issue, where you are very firmly invested in the mainstream and for some reason feel threatened by alternative approaches (I must say it is also rather disconcerting to find a person in the building sector show such ignorance concerning, and disrespect and disregard towards, the cultural history of architecture and heritage building traditions). Am I supposed to be impressed that you have consulted engineering PhD students, and thereby ignore your behavior in this thread? That information just makes me think this ought to be beneath you. I hope you advised those students to actually look up facts and numbers when faced with an unknown material or technology, and not settle for "assuming" that the material behaves as you might expect based on experience with other, different, materials. Please don't attempt to lecture me about academics, because I have had plenty of opportunity to observe the way you approach a subject that you are unfamiliar with, and it is not impressive. If you were any kind of academic worth your salt you'd be aware that knowledge in one specialty of a field cannot merely be transplanted onto a different one in that field. You have let your bias and presuppositions stop you from learning about a subject - that is the antithesis of the academic or scientific.

White cedar is not subject to termites....they don't like it. Weather wise this house is 2 or 3 times more capable of withstanding heavy weather. Its not perfect but cordwood has many advantages

Terry Nicholson beautifully said!!!