Cordwood Construction Best Practices Paperback – February 27, 2012

I purchased this book in preparation for a one-day workshop with the Flatau's in a month. I now feel even more appreciative of the fact we live so close to these folks and will be able to attend a workshop.Our plan is to make a porch addition on the front of our log home rather than spend an exorbitant amount of money to replace the now 22 year old front door which is showing signs of aging. Exploring masonry and wood options beyond log building was intriguing because I wanted to add some interest to our mostly rectangular dwelling. Of course funds are always a challenge so something that is beautiful and inexpensive is a bonus.If you have some experience with DIY and construction this book should give you everything you need. It has references to other sources, pictures of multiple projects, lots of tips and step-by-step guides.I feel like Richard is there in the book to hold my hand through it all. Paying the going price here on Amazon is an astounding bargain for everything you get in here.The book follows a critical path from imagining you can do this all the way through. There are many options for styles and medium. There is just no getting around the sweat-equity necessary for this, but without the book to keep you from some dreaded mistakes (like choosing a wood type that is not ideal or work pace or mortar mixture, etc.) one could certainly be lost.And as I mentioned the grunt work in taking this on is substantial so having a guardian angel with you is appreciated.Going to start planning our "winter work" as we will actually break ground next spring.

Let's start with negatives - My first impresions of this book were:1. The author is not very skilled in work with text editor, which makes your orientation in the text bit more difficult.2. Some photographs are at very low quality, possibly just bad print3. The same for the drawings - low resolution, different style of particular drawings, description is sometimes too small to read.But these are all the negatives I have found; despite of all of that, I hade understand all the photos, drawings and text. The book really gives, what it promisses by it's name - best practices, so you don't care so much for quality of images, the book is supposed to be dirty from mortar! Here I have found an ansver for any practical question I had.I have purchased this book, because I want to set up an cabinet at my own. Haven't started yet, (well, I made my cords and now I'm waiting to have it dry), but thanks to this book I feel ready & looking forward.Happy to have this book, I give five stars.

I was hoping for definitive best practices and there were some, but I found this book to be a bit more like a series of examples of one way to do things, but not necessarily the best way. Very helpful regardless and I am glad to have the book handy for instruction purposes.

Well, as I said, my son is in engineer, and he wanted this for his birthday and he seem to like it quite a bit. I did not look at it because that’s not my thing but it’s his and he really liked it.

This book gave me all the information I was hoping for, plus some. It included great pictures, examples and references. I had planned to pass my book along to another family member, so they could gain the knowledge. I enjoyed the book so much, and made so many notations throughout the book, that I didn't want to give that up, even if only temporarily. Instead, I am going to purchase another copy for my family member to use.I highly recommend this book to anyone else interested in learning about Cordwood Construction.It was shipped to me in a timely manner. It arrived when promised.

Can't get any better than this! We plan to build our own cordwood home and Richard is the expert. Such a humble man that gives credit forward to others and is selfless with his time, passion and expertise. I highly recommend this book and it is a must have if considering cordwood building.

I wish that it has more pictures and plans in this book but you do get a very good idea how to go about building your own by this read.

My husband showed an interest in this type of buildling so I got him this book as a surprise... Great pictures, wonderful information... he is building a blacksmith shop from trees on the property and is even going to place some colored bottles along with the cord wood to make it more interesting. and let light in!