Blog

Double Wall Cordwood Inventor Cliff Shockey’s Legacy

by Richard Flatau | Jun 20, 2025 | Alternative Building, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Natural Building, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Workshop | 0 Comments

Cliff Shockey is the inventor of the energy-efficient, high R-value (40+) cordwood technique called Double Wall Stackwall. If you live in a cold climate or want to build a home that will be super-insulated, this is one of the techniques to investigate. ...

Cordwood Sauna with Brilliant Blacksmith Hardware

by Richard Flatau | Apr 25, 2025 | cordwood, Cordwood Construction, Natural Building, Off grid, Tiny home, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Noah Bly built this gorgeous cordwood sauna in Maine. He made all the doors and fabricated the hinges with rock-solid blacksmithing and mudded all the walls. The Sauna is an excellent example of a simple shed design. The building is relatively easy to frame and with...

Cordwood Dorm Room

by Richard Flatau | Mar 19, 2025 | Alternative Building, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Cordwood Dorm Room by Nicole Barna The Barna’s of Houghton, Michigan used to rent out their cordwood cabin, which their daughter built and wrote an article about in the Cordwood Conference Papers 2005 called “My...

Cordwood Dream Home Shines Brightly in Virginia

by Richard Flatau | Jan 21, 2025 | Alternative Building, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Cordwood Dream Home Shines Brightly in Virginia Winona and Donnie share details about their wonderful cordwood creation in Virginia. This is both a work of art and a cordwood home built using Best Practices. Since the house site is in the 100 yr flood zone we had...

Square Cordwood Sauna

by Richard Flatau | Jan 7, 2025 | Alternative Building, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Off grid, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

The Story of the Square Cordwood Sauna in Minnesota by Charles Yeager Cordwood Instructor In October of 2023, I was helping clear the Banadad Ski Trail, near the Gunflint Trail in Northern Minnesota, to ready it for cross-country skiers. One of the volunteers, who...

Cordwood Wave House in Nova Scotia (update) 10 Years After

by Richard Flatau | Dec 8, 2024 | cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Wave house in Nova Scotia by Michael Fuller. [Update] Michael sent me a few pictures of his beautiful cordwood cabin in Nova Scotia about 10 years ago. His photos have been very well received and admired by folks researching cordwood. He has recently sent an...

Opening a Cordwood Wall with the MudGirls

by Richard Flatau | Nov 10, 2024 | Alternative Building, Cob, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Tiny home | 0 Comments

How to Break Open a Wall in a Cordwood House by Peter Kulich The cordwood cabin we bought in 2015 was lovely – and listed in Lloyd Khan’s Builders of the Pacific Northwest. Nestled in the trees it was sheltered from the worst of the beach weather and never...

Cordwood Finds Another Way

by Richard Flatau | Oct 27, 2024 | Alternative Building, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Off grid, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Dennis Laper built this cordwood cabin (pictures below) AFTER he constructed a gorgeous Stackwall Garden Shed. He built the "Stackwall Corners" first and used them like corner posts. The Stackwall Garden Shed The posts, trusses, and roof were installed and then...

Magnificent Cordwood in Missouri

by Richard Flatau | Sep 26, 2024 | Alternative Building, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Tiny home, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Bob and Deb Gallamore build a Cordwood Dream home in Fairdealing, Missouri by Bob Gallamore We are Bob and Deb, a couple of 70’s kids who grew up loving nature and feeling a real connection to the woods. We also tend to prefer things that are unique and don’t feel a...

Modern Cordwood Off-Grid Home from a Recycled Barn

by Richard Flatau | Sep 20, 2024 | Alternative Building, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, Off grid, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Modern Cordwood Off-Grid Home from a Recycled Barn by Todd Ashley Todd Ashley (cleaning a log) had a dream to build a modern, off-grid cordwood home in Michigan. Little...