Re: [GBlist] P&B infill??

["Peter Grames" <peterg@KrechOjard.com>]

I am in the process of building a timber frame house on an old farm in
northern Wisconsin.  As a first step, I built a 1200 s.f. timber frame
garage for practice and a place to live.  The structure is made primarily
from 6"x12" timbers, cut locally.  After erecting the frame and roof, I
filled in the structure using cordwood.  The wood itself is 12" northern
white cedar.  The mortar/insulation system is per Rob Roy's Earthwood
Building School.  After living in the house (garage) for 3 years, I have the
following comments:
1.	The walls are warm, solid, and comforting.  In the event of a
tornado, we will sit right in our living room.
2.	We burn 2-3 cords of wood per year in a 9000 degree day heating
zone.
3.	The timbers are somewhat hidden by the structure, but not too much.
4.	The cordwood took me three months of 3 day weekends, 10-12 hours per
day.  The timber frame and roof took a bit longer.
5.	Cordwood requires no special tools, skills, or physical strength.
My 7 year old son erected a large percentage of the walls.
6.	I paid $2000 for enough cedar to build the garage with 12" walls,
and the house with 20" walls.  (By the way, the cedar was blown over in
storm in 1995.  Much of it is unacceptable for lumber, but works just fine
for cordwood because we cut it short and split it.)
7.	We considered strawbale, but we live in the woods and felt the
cordwood was more fitting.

	Hope this helps,
	Peter

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