Cordwood Construction

Cordwood construction is truly a vernacular building method. Utilised by early pioneer builders who were simply responding to conditions on the frontier. Many existing cordwood structures are barns built in the 1920s and 1930s during the Great Depression. These structures were built utilising regionally available and affordable materials because high quality heavy timber and stone were too costly and not readily available. Homes were also built using this technique and were called “Depression Housing.”
Cordwood construction is a technique that utilises whole or split wood, usually 15 to 60cm long or more, layed width-wise in a bed of mortar. The walls produced are textured with exposed log ends.

The technique has seen a renaissance in the past 30 to 40 years with cordwood homes popping up across the US and Canada because they are inexpensive to build, easy for the do-it-yourself homebuilder, energy efficient, and a natural construction method.