People have been building structures with wood for centuries. Building homes today usually requires a lot of expertise and a mortgage to pay for it. An inexpensive, centuries-old building method is making a comeback, and a man from Elba is teaching people how to do it.

Peter Turkow makes cordwood construction sound easy.

“Take your regular cordwood that you’d burn up in a fireplace make a mortar matrix filed with sawdust and lime, and your mortar you put a little bead of mortar on the inside and on the outside and just throw your wood in,” Turkow said.

Turkow started Rochester Green Living to promote sustainability. He lives what he preaches. A new 12 by 14-foot guest house will be the second cordwood structure on his property.

“It’s a good way to build. It’s a smarter way to build. It’s a more environmentally sound way to build and people can build it mortgage free,” Turkow said.

He added, "I think when all is said and done we’re going to be about $2,000 for this."

Turkow’s wood supply is free. It comes from the forest surrounding his Elba home.

He said aged pine works best. The mortar is a mixture of wet sawdust, sand, lime and Portland cement; sawdust goes between the mortar.

“Sawdust you can get from any mill. They’re almost ready to give it away. It’s very cheap and that’s our insulation,” Turkow explained.

Turkow said the structures meet building codes.

"It’s 2 and 1/2 times the fire rating of a conventionally built home. It’s actually seismically tested as well. The R values are a little bit higher and again I think it’s a little bit more beautiful than a lot of the home being built today," Turkow added.

There is a lot of room for creativity with cordwood construction. One common practice is to build glass bottles right into the wall as a light source, and art.

“You have the clear bottle on the outside to let light in and whatever colored side comes in. It does put off quite a bit of light a lot more than you would think and it looks beautiful during the day,” Turkow said.

“Where do you get all of those bottles? Drinking while you’re building it. It's not something so technical that you have to go out and measure every single second, so yeah, you can have a glass of wine or a beer while doing this. The whole family can join in and build these homes and that's the beauty of these things," Turkow said.

A cordwood structure can be built just about anywhere there is a wood source.

“If you have access and you have a bunch of trees in your back yard, go for it. I’ll help you. Call me,” he said.

Rochester Green Living
Cordwood Construction Info