Modern Cordwood Off-Grid Home from a Recycled Barn

                        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 did he know that an early snowstorm with high winds would help him in his quest.  What does one do with an 80 year old barn that was half blown-away. Well, now he had all the materials for his cordwood project. All he needed to do was salvage it. That is what Todd did. He took the barn apart single-handedly with no heavy equipment, just his hands and some old-fashioned ingenuity. The old barn provided 90% of the cordwood, the post and beam work, all of the stonework and moldings around the door jams, the floor, and some crown moldings.

Clearing the land, building the footings, and putting in a FPSF (frost protected shallow foundation)  with an ICF (insulated concrete form) 32” wall was the next step. The ICF wall was built to bring the cordwood off the ground.  I used the stone from the barn.

Arranging and laying out the stones for each ICF section.  This will keep the snow away from the cordwood walls. 

To face the outside of the ICF wall a slip-form technique was used. The rock pattern was laid out on the ground and the rocks were put into place with a mortar fill between and behind the rocks. After a few hours, the form was taken off the wall and slipped to another section to repeat the process. Rebar was set into the ICF wall (prior to the cement pour), and wire was run between the rebar to help hold the stone onto the ICF. Working alone, each 8’ section of rock wall took about 4 hrs to complete. You can see the different color mortar indicating that days work

The date stone from the old barn was used in the wall next to the front door. The stone was cut in half and the new house date was engraved and placed above the old date stone. The barn date stone is 6/20/1933.  88 years after this stone was laid for the first time by another craftsman, who used it in his building. I like to think that it made the original craftsman smile. 

After setting the post and beam framework and building the inside wall framing, it was time for the roof.

Making a scale model of the home, helped me to visualize what it would look like.  I also did a round, scale model.

With the roof on, plywood was added to dry the building in for the winter. Prepared logs were placed between the posts and anywhere there was room to keep them dry and out of the elements. .

Keeping a neat work area will help the day go smoother. Having an easy way to measure all your ingredients helps you maintain a constant mortar color. I used an old one-gallon paint can and the mortar is almost perfectly blended throughout the walls.

One of the corners of the building has a fake stackwall (lomax) corner. 

A masonry heater is the main source of heat in the winter. Pictured is the finished product with a roaring fire.

In the kitchen area, a 2×6 insulated wall was built on the inside and a 6” cordwood wall on the outside of the house. This was done to prevent any kitchen messes from damaging the cordwood walls.

I poured Epoxy countertops in the kitchen.  Here are the finished open-concept kitchen, dining, and living areas.  

The power for the house comes from a 1600 watt wind turbine and a 4200 watt solar array. A generator is used sometimes in the winter to charge the five 3.8kwh batteries.

The all-important mortar mix.  I added the extra half portion of Type S Lime. It lightens the color.  There is minimal mortar cracking because of the age of some of the logs (80 years) and by paying attention to drying the wood to 12% moisture content.