Our post and beam, shed-roofed, 43' x 25' design has 14 infilled cordwood panels between the posts. The minimum number of filled panels we need to be able to live there during this winter is eight: this would give us the kitchen, bath, one bedroom, and a bit of living area. But we can only lay cordwood until about mid-September, because lime-putty mortar doesn't set up well in really hard frosts. So our goal has been 8 panels by mid-September. Looks pretty doable at this point (maybe we can fill 10 panels, which would give us more living area and the other bedroom!).
The following pictures show the fifth panel, which is actually the center panel of the three well-glazed south-facing living-room panels. This went fast because the window frame took up so much room.
Here are Isaac and Heather, completing the top of the center panel. Note Joe's homemade scaffolding:
Check out Isaac's under-the-window cordwood pattern!
Laying a bottle end:
Joe is sitting in the window well. 18-inch-thick walls make window frames with a lot of options! (You can see one particularly bright turquoise bottle end as well.)
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2 comments:
I've been enjoying reading your blog. I came accross it after searching for rubble trench foundations built in Maine. I'm currently looking to build in Bridgton and was wondering if you had any idea about the amount of load a rubble trench foundation can hold. I know that soil conditions,etc are a factor, so I'm just looking for a general idea. The soil on the land I have is sandy with a high water table. I'm not considering building a cob house, but would like to use the rubble foundation as it looks like it would drain better and handle freezing temperatures better than a typical concrete foundation. Any ideas on load capacity would be great. And by the way, your house is looking awesome.
Greetings, "r"! I'm glad you're enjoying our blog. We, too, had a hard time finding information on rubble-trench foundations. We ended up relying on a couple of resources that kept coming up. I will see if I can dig them out and get you the details. We were also fortunate that our excavator/foundation guy, Nick Jose (see the "Foundation" links at right), brought in his father, who had done rubble trench foundations before. E-mail me at kybird19@yahoo.com and I'll send you some information.
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