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 size window box.
- Make the window box out of dimensional lumber for added strength adding 1/4″ to each side (called the rough opening). Have windows of all the same size: make a template like in the picture above.
- Secure the window box to a post, top plate, lintel or framework.
- Brace the window box diagonally so it stays square, level and plumb.
- Stack your windows safely out of the elements and then install carefully to keep them level on the outside of the window box. If they come with a nailing flange, make sure it is nailed securely to the outside edge of the box.
- It is possible to float small windows into a cordwood wall.
7. More photos of well built and well installed window boxes. 
8. These tips work for all natural building styles.
9. Door frames and window boxes attached and ready for cordwood infill.
Window box, electrical with wire staples and blue boxes. Blocks used for getting the cordwood “up” off grade.
Should you wish to learn how to build a cordwood cottage, cabin or home, please visit www.cordwoodconstruction.org While you are there, click on the pictures, read the brief articles, check out the latest workshops and newsletter and if you are interested click on the Online Bookstore to see all the cordwood literature available in print and ebook format.
If you have questions that aren’t answered on the website you can email me at richardflatau@gmail.com
Readers have requested a brief bio, so here goes: Richard & Becky Flatau built their mortgage-free cordwood home in 1979 in Merrill, Wisconsin. Since then, they have written books, conducted workshops, facilitated the 2005, 2011 and 2015 Cordwood Conferences and provided instruction for thousands of cordwood builders. Cordwood Workshop Video (2017), Cordwood Construction Best Practices (2017) and Cordwood Conference Papers 2015 are the newest publications available from their online cordwood bookstore. www.cordwoodconstruction.org
Here is a picture of the Cordwood Workshop Video cover, featuring the Cordwood Education Center.
For more information on Cordwood Construction, click on the picture or visit www.cordwoodconstruction.org Below is the 30 item Video menu.
