Magnificent Cordwood in Missouri

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 need to be like and look like everyone else. My dream since we got married in our 20’s was to someday build our own place on land of our choosing. Finally in our late 50’s we got serious about it and committed to buying some land and building our own place. After a 3 year search, we finally pulled the trigger on 11.5 acres of raw woods.

Even as we began clearing for a drive and finalizing the house site we still hadn’t settled on what type of house we were going to build. We looked at pole barns, Versa-Tube, and Curvco buildings as possible DIY solutions. But the more we fell in love with the property, the more we wanted something from natural materials that would look at home in the woods. That’s when the great Google opened my eyes to the world of cordwood and cordwoodconstruction.org The more I looked at pictures and the more I read of the process, the more I liked it. Everything I previously showed my wife was met with a ho-hum reaction. Then I showed her pictures of cordwood homes. She loved it. I loved it. Decision made, cordwood it is!

Conventional wisdom says that cordwood has to be built on a slab to support the weight of the walls, but with the slope of the land we were getting quotes in 2019 of $15K to put in a 32×44 slab. I reasoned that even with a concrete slab the thickest part of the foundation is the footer around the edge of the slab that supports the walls. Pier and beam construction can be made to work if you upsize the piers and beams to support the weight of the cordwood walls. Some research at the Southern Yellow Pine industry website provided the load tables for different sizes of pine boards. Our frost level is 12”, so all my footings are at least 24” below ground level. The poured concrete pads are 24”x24”x24” with a double layer of ½” rebar. The vertical rebar is in a J shape about midway through the footing. It comes up through the concrete block piers and metal plates welded to the rebar fasten the timber mounting pads to the piers.

The focus of most cordwood build articles is understandably on the cordwood walls. When building, we must also pay attention to infrastructure and utilities as well. I installed my water supply line just over 2 feet deep. Beside the foundation, I dug down and installed an irrigation vault to house a water manifold using brass valves. I am a big believer in isolation valves so you can work on one area without having to shut off all your water. And since the house is 150 feet from the road I didn’t want to have to go out to the road in the dark and pouring rain to shut off the water. The supply comes in at the top. The line that goes underground to the house is at the bottom. The 3 valves on the right supply a frostproof hydrant, the laundry shed, and the RV. Keep in mind the things that have been an inconvenience in other places you have lived and plan around them.

The day I got timbers up on the first corner was very satisfying. The timbers are mounted on pressure treated 2”x12” pads using 4 hot dip galvanized ½” x 6” lag screws. I covered the top of the piers with roofing felt, then installed a piece of aluminum flashing. Another layer of roofing felt is between the flashing and the timber mounting pad. A ½” metal plate is welded to the rebar coming up through the pads to secure them to the piers. Note that the timbers are notched to accept the 2×12 beams which rest on the pads and are secured to the timbers with ½’ galvanized lag screws. The fact that the beams rest on the pads, which rest on the piers, means that the screws are used for fastening the beams and are not carrying the load of the walls.

For floor joists I used 2”x12” engineered I-Joists on 16” centers. They are rated for free span of 19’ 6”, but only span 14’ 6”, so I didn’t have to put additional piers other than those that carry the center beam of the floor and roof. The floor decking is ¾” Advantech water -resistant OSB secured using screws and construction adhesive per the Quiet Floor method. The subfloor has been down for about 3 years and there is no bounce and no squeaks. The beams around the base are made of two 2”x12” nailed together on the outside and another set of two 2”x12” nailed together directly under the mortar bead on the inside of the wall. Using the load tables on the Southern Yellow Pine website I calculated that the beams would support at least 4 times the weight of an 8 foot high cordwood wall. A neighbor who built homes his entire life asked me if I was going to park my truck on it. We looked at a lot of different roof designs and decided upon a shed roof. The rafters are 8 feet from the floor on the back side of the house and 12’ 8” from the floor at the front of the house. The rafters are 2”x10” engineered I-Joists on 24” centers. The center beams at the top are made of 2 2”x10” nailed together and attached to the timbers with lag screws. There is a beam on each side of the center timbers. There is a 2”x10” on either side of the outer timbers that holds the other end of the rafters. They are fastened using joist hangers and rafter clips that meet Florida Hurricane codes. This cost about $350 compared to just shooting some nails, but I
thought it was well worth with it, along with the 4 foot overhangs, especially since we can get some pretty intense straight line winds. Roof decking is 5/8” plywood. We went back and forth deciding on the color for our metal roof before finally deciding on Evergreen. With the shed roof design, all we see is the trim around the edges. In order to actually see our roof we have to be on the front porch of our neighbor to the west. Oh well. We chuckle about it from time to time.

Finally the first cordwood! I didn’t have time or resources to build a practice building or practice wall first, so this was my first cordwood. I used a mortar mix from the Cordwood Construction Best Practices book (the edition that was current in 2019). I also made a gauge to make sure my mortar beads were the right thickness. It also made a handy place to write down my mortar recipe so I wasn’t relying on memory. Deciding what logs to put where was most enjoyable. Tuckpointing not so much, as I really struggled to get the hang of it on this first wall. It got better as I went along.
You can also see the interior walls framed out. I thought it would be easier to install cordwood up to a wall than to build a wall against cordwood. Much of the focus of cordwood construction is placed on the outer cordwood walls, but you will need to familiarize yourself with the proper way to frame up walls and doorways for the interior of the house. Also, note the yellow Romex and blue outlet box. I ran my wiring through the insulation space and attached my outlet boxes either to timbers or logs. There are only a couple places, where the wire feeds through mortar and I used grey PVC conduit in those places to keep mortar off the Romex.

The back wall really turned out nice. I’m very happy with the log placement. Our bed sits underneath the 2 windows on the left walls. The other walls have no windows because the bathrooms are against them. My wife does not like bathroom windows, so I was happy to oblige her.

The North wall. The 2 sections on the right make up the Master Bedroom and the 2 sections on the left make up the Living Room. With the way the roof goes up and the ground falls away, it looks like the house is opening up to the sky. The original plan was to go with cordwood all the way to the top. My sister recommended putting windows up high to let in more light and provide nice views. Notice that by this point in the build I picked up the trick of using blue painter’s tape on timbers and window boxes to keep the mortar off them. Saves a lot of cleanup time.

One of the things I love the most about cordwood is the way it lends itself to artistic expression. I had saved this particular log for well over a year just waiting to build this design in the front of the Living Room wall. In addition to the different colored bottles I pressed colored glass beads into the mortar for some sparkle. I painted the window boxes with the brightest white I could find. They look nice against the mortar and help to bring in more light.

In this front view, you can see the OSB where the upper windows will eventually be installed. We are building mortgage-free and will put in windows as we get some more pressing things (flooring and insulation) done. I designed and built the 4’x8’ front door. I wanted something that would make a statement and a smaller door in such a tall wall just wouldn’t look right. As I install the upper windows I’ll trim around them with red cedar tongue & groove siding.
Our house isn’t finished yet, but we were ready to get out of the RV we had been living in for almost 4 years and get into the house. Words fail to fully convey the emotion and satisfaction of relaxing in the home you built with your own hands. Building a cordwood home takes a lot of time, sweat, sore muscles, commitment, and patience. The reward is a home built to your dreams and vision. We have been married over 45 years and lived in a lot of different houses.

This home is the best place we have ever lived. Mortgage Free and built just the way we wanted. I hope you enjoy your cordwood build as much as we’ve enjoyed ours.
You can find many more pictures on Facebook on my Serenity Hill Homestead page, as well as more pictures and articles at https://serenityhillhomestead.com For those who like videos, I’d love to have you join us on YouTube at Serenity Hill Homestead. Happy cordwooding! LINKS below.

To see more of Bob’s work, to watch his amazing videos, you can contact Bob at

https://serenityhillhomestead.com/

https://www.facebook.com/serenityhill.homestead.9

YouTube at Serenity Hill Homestead

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 2005, 2011 & 2015 Cordwood Conferences and provided consultation for cordwood builders. Cordwood Construction: Best Practices DVD (2018), Cordwood Construction Best Practices 2020 (print & ebook) and Cordwood Conference Papers 2015 are the newest publications available from their online cordwood bookstore. www.cordwoodconstruction.org