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Bottle Logs & Cordwood Walls: How to make ’em

by Richard Flatau | Aug 31, 2017 | Alternative Building, Cob, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, log end, Natural Building, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Workshop | 0 Comments

Bottle Logs and How to Make 'em You can make bottle bricks (logs) by simply placing two bottles together and taping them. Or you can cut each bottle and tape them together. Here are pictures showing how to make bottle bricks. In this...

Cordwood in Oregon

by Richard Flatau | Aug 30, 2017 | Alternative Building, Cob, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, Natural Building, Natural home for sale, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Don Noe built two beautiful cordwood structures in Oregon. His hybrid shed with the cordwood wall was built with 90 percent construction scrap. It was timber framed with timbers from large machine crates. The logs came from an arborist who was planning to use them...

Cordwood Window Boxes: How to build

by Richard Flatau | Aug 23, 2017 | Alternative Building, Cob, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, Natural home for sale, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Making a well-built window box (also called window buck) for your cordwood home is crucial. Done properly your windows will open and close with ease in perpetuity. There are a couple of important points to follow. Buy your windows first so you can make the right...

Cordwood Books & Videos

by Richard Flatau | Aug 14, 2017 | Alternative Building, Cob, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, Natural home for sale, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Which one? If I could only buy one cordwood book, which one should it be? This questions pops up frequently as folks look to find one book that gives all the answers. Cordwood is evolving. What worked 20 years ago has changed. So, get a book from a reliable author...

Cordwood Star Wall Celebration

by Richard Flatau | Aug 4, 2017 | Alternative Building, Cob, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, log end, Natural home for sale, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

So, how do you celebrate finishing a cordwood wall? Here are a few cordwood completion poses for your enjoyment. First of all: What is a cordwood star wall? Well at Kinstone we built a wall with 8" x 8" cedar posts, 20' long and 5' high and loaded with 67 bottles...

Cordwood Outdoor Patio Floor

by Richard Flatau | Jul 21, 2017 | Alternative Building, Cob, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, Green building, Off grid, solar, Tiny home | 0 Comments

Martin Tyciak built this gorgeous cordwood patio terrace at his home in Slovakia. Here the 2-inch cordwood slices are being hammered into place so they are level. The base of gravel had already been tamped to make a firm and level foundation. Martin used wood from...

Cordwood in New Zealand

by Richard Flatau | Jul 14, 2017 | Alternative Building, Cob, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Clifton Loveridge of Loveridge Woodcraft sent the following pictures of this beautiful cordwood build in Tokomaru Bay, New Zealand. Clifton used Macrocarpa log ends 350mm thick (14 inches), posts were Macrocarpa and Manuka wrapped in thick plastic and mortared....

Cordwood Cottage in Tlaxcala, Mexico

by Richard Flatau | Jul 8, 2017 | Alternative Building, Cob, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, Natural home for sale, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Mario Alberto Bastida Vargas sent these lovely photos of his cordwood building project in the forests of Nanacamilpa, Tlaxcala, Mexico. Here are some of the details. He used red cedar and white cedar for the cordwood infill. The posts are white cedar. The beams are...

Funky Cordwood Windows

by Richard Flatau | Jun 29, 2017 | Alternative Building, Cob, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, Natural home for sale, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Can you make a window using a hollowed out log and plexiglass? Of course you can if you follow the method that Pelle Henriksson used in his sauna. All pictures are courtesy of Pelle Henriksson and are used with permission. 1. First you clean out and sand the...

Cordwood at Kinstone Circle

by Richard Flatau | Jun 24, 2017 | Alternative Building, Cob, cordwood, Cordwood Construction, cordwood house, Green building, Off grid, solar, Tiny home, Uncategorized, Workshop | 0 Comments

Kinstone Circle rests gently upon a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. The largest megalithic stone circle in North America, a walking labyrinth, rolling hills, a tepee, a yurt, a reflecting pond, permaculture plantings and three cordwood buildings accent the...