Cordwood building is an alternative building method that uses stacks of firewood held in place permanently with mortar to create walls. Most people considering cordwood building are interested in its potential as a green building method. But how green is cordwood building really? The answer, like most questions pertaining to sustainability, depends on where you live and the techniques used when constructing your cordwood building.

Top Reasons For Cordwood House Construction

Embodied Energy

Cordwood building can have low embodied energy provided the wood used is local, or better yet, used from on site. Because the wood requires very little work before being used in cordwood walls, there is very little waste or energy consumed processing it. However, the inherent energy contained in the wood, combined with any distance that the wood must travel to the site, can increase the embodied energy significantly.

The embodied energy represented by the wood pales when compared to the energy intensive mortar that is often used. Portland cement is one of the most high-embodied- energy materials used in building construction. It also causes significant pollution when it is manufactured. Some of these concerns can be addressed by using a cob mortar or a Portland cement that has a significant amount of fly ash in it.

Tulip Poplar bark siding is about as rustic as it gets in the building material world. This was the first time I had seen Yellow Poplar bark shingles/shakes in use and we saw it while on our little excursion a couple of weeks ago on the home garden tour we attended recently.

The fully landscaped 10-acre estate on the tour featured a fully equipped outdoor kitchen, fireplace, picnic tables (dining area) and...(drumroll please) an outhouse clad in Tulip Poplar bark siding. Now that's rustic outdoor living at its' finest!  

This blog is primarily about my (our) experiences when we visit new homes, mainly on our home turf, and all of the new and interesting things that home builders choose to do with these new homes. But I can't always make the spur of the moment trips that we make around the corner (and further...sometimes much further) to see the newest homes. That's where my 12 y.o. son, Tristan, comes in. He likes to go with my wife, Sandy, and I to look at houses for fun, too. His favorite thing to do when we're looking at houses is to pick out which bedroom would be his. Same thing goes for my daughter.

Tristan and Sandy returned from their trip where they visited several homes in different subdivisions. He was very excited to show me that he had taken his own pictures of things that were interesting to him and some details that he thought I would have wanted to see had I been there. Very sweet...very thoughtful. And then it dawned on me that we had created a monster...a home-stalking monster. Without any direction from Sandy, Tristan discovered a laundry chute in one of the homes they visited and took some photos from some very smart angles and what follows are his photographic results. After a total of only 244 pictures later of some of the other homes they visited, he was ready to head back home. Thank God for digital.

Pooktre tree shaping is a unique eco-art form created, developed and perfected by Peter Cook and Becky Northey in South East Queensland, Australia. Pooktre is a dream made into a reality through inspiration, love of nature, tree finesse (see the photos), persistence and understanding trees and how they grow.

Arborsculpture is the art of shaping live tree trunks. Arborsculpture isn't for everyone, but it is for anyone that is into living eco-art. The art of shaping live tree trunks into living art has been around for centuries and continues today by skilled arborists and enthusiastic green thumbs around the globe.

While researching for this post I've come to discover that arborsculpture requires patience, practice, artistry and a knowledge of bending, shaping and grafting procedures. It is a unique form of art that instills a sense of awe when viewed whether as a work in progress or as a 'finished piece'. If you've thought about taking up arborsculpture or maybe even honing your skills in your own backyard, this post should inspire you even more. If you're here just to have a look-see, I've got you covered, too.

Choosing to live in an underground home isn't for everybody. Some might say it's a little extreme! On the other hand, a certain percentage of homeowners may wish they had the opportunity to live in an underground home to save on the high cost of utilities these days.

Woody and Wilma Ravenscraft of Greenfield, Ohio (between Cincinnati and Columbus) chose to design and build an underground home for a very simple reason that you might not have thought of.

How much water volume does it take to handle a custom walk-in shower system with multiple shower heads? Or better yet...how much hot water storage is sufficient to fill a two-person water jetted tub?

The amount of water that is required to adequately supply a multi-station custom shower system is something that I was curious about when I visited a model home in nearby Hanover subdivision in Hiram, GA.

I made a return visit to Hanover the other day and spoke with Russ Giudicessi, Builder with Prime Built Communities, Inc., and asked him that very question.

Here's what Russ had to say...