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KinAlberta
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# Posted: 23 May 2016 10:56pm - Edited by: KinAlberta
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Thoughts on this?
Cordwood Cabin (with 24 thick walls) makes it energy efficient and fortress-like
October 4, 2013
https://cordwoodconstruction.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/cordwood-cabin-with-24-thick-wa lls-makes-it-energy-efficient-and-fortress-like/
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AKfisher
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# Posted: 24 May 2016 12:58pm - Edited by: AKfisher
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They are a cool way of building, I was interested in making a cordwood sauna. Here is my progress thus far. It will be a 8x8 sauna with an 8x8 porch for changing and cooling. I will tell you that the amount of work put in is a lot!!! Getting the dry wood, prepping it, mixing mortar, laying wood, etc.
We did a solid mortar with no sawdust insulation since it just a sauna and won't really need to retain heat.
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Honeybee
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# Posted: 29 Nov 2016 01:53pm
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I am looking in to Cordwood building right now and just trying to figure out the pros and cons for it. Be interested on hearing what you find out and what you decide to do?
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Empower
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2018 12:40am
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Have been searching the forum for info on cordwood cabins. It sounds like they are labor-intensive re preparing materials (namely debarking) but relatively cheap to build (if you have access to a woodlot) and are very solid and easy to heat, while requiring little skill to build. Do I have that right? Any other downside, other than debarking and drying the wood?
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littlesalmon4
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2018 12:05pm - Edited by: littlesalmon4
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My concerns in a cold climate would be trying to heat the walls. Cold walls will act as a heat sink and suck the heat out of the building. I have read research that suggests you do not want a log wall much thicker than 8".
An 8" wall will heat all the way through and give up some heat to the outside but there is no frost in the log to continually draw large amounts of heat.
Kind of like a huge building, you want positive air pressure so when you open the door the heat pushes out instead of negative air pressure to draw in cold air.
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neckless
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2018 07:04pm
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would take a long time in winter to heat up...but i have seen these buildings in the uk that are hundred of years old...
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ICC
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# Posted: 7 Feb 2018 08:17pm - Edited by: ICC
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Cordwood construction, just like a standard log cabin is best suited to full time use. If the building is sitting there in a winter climate it will take the better part of a couple of days to heat up enough so you don't feel the cold pouring off the thick walls. I once spent a winter weekend in a std log cabin. By the time the cabin was shirt sleeve comfortable it was time to leave.
littlesalmon, you have the approximate 8" figure backwards. Many log wall less than 8" do not have enough mass to make for a good winter weather wall. With log construction the thermal mass becomes a factor; more the better. It is a complicated calculation taking r-value of the wood into account as well as the thermal mass. REScheck software is used by many building departments to calculate energy efficiency taking wall types, R-value, thickness of logs walls where used, window sizes and glazing, etc. For ponderosa pine logs it works out that walls must be a minimum of 7 inches while doug fir can be as little as 6 inches and red cedar needs to be 9 inch minimum. The density of those species are quite different, make for different mass and that is important with log construction. In all cases the larger the better for energy efficiency.
FWIW I know people in Michigan with cordwood buildings. Their first effort proved the need for using well dried wood. Those log section dried and shrunk enough after being built that they leak air. Good thing it was a shed experiment. The houses they have built since were done with well seasoned log sections and have proven to be warm and draft free. They heat with a rocket stove, built into earthen based benches in the main rooms.
So, the first question is whether or not this proposal is for full time or part time use. Then do you have time to season the logs well,time to remove all the bark, and time to build as the process is time consuming. You can find cordwood construction in many places in Europe including some with winters as cold as those found in Switzerland.
None of the buildings I have seen in EU, nor any of the buildings the friends in MI have built are on piers though. That seems like a truly bad idea to me. The walls are heavy, lots of wood plus the fill in cement mix. The slightest foundation movement will cause cracking. If you have ever seen what can happen to concrete block walls when the footing is insufficient you will get the idea. While a stick frame building on piers will at worst, have a door or window stick when the building piers shift a little, a cordwood building will not be so forgiving. Something will give and that will be a separation along the wood / cement line. Not to mention more weight = more trouble in trying to reset things. Cordwood needs a good foundation that spreads the weight over a larger area. Just as with a more conventional wall the foundation needs to go to the frost line to prevent frost heaving.
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AKfisher
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# Posted: 9 Feb 2018 06:55pm - Edited by: AKfisher
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My sauna doesn't take long to heat, the walls will retain the heat as well. The mortar, once warm sure it nice.
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darz5150
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# Posted: 9 Feb 2018 08:51pm - Edited by: darz5150
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@AKfisher. Nice burled post(s)!ðŸ‘
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neckless
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# Posted: 10 Feb 2018 12:35pm
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i would think this would be a great sauna....
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