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Cordwood Masonry
This page is a work in progress. In the meantime here is a brief description of cordwood masonry and some relevant links.
Cordwood Masonry is a wall building method that involves using split and dried softwood logs as bricks and lime cement plaster as mortar, logs are laid with the ends exposed from the mortar. This makes it relatively easy to build and much faster than stone masonry. This building method has been used in North America since the eighteen hundreds. Farmers would often build houses and barns using this method and cover the walls with wood siding. Despite having a significant thermal mass, wood does not provide much insulation value. To rectify this a new method of cordwood masonry was designed. The out edges of the wall are still laid with a thick layer of mortar, but the center of the wall is filled with insulation material. Most builders use wool or sawdust. The colder your climate, the thicker the walls should be.