Contractors in Tomah, WI

Yes, Richard@Cordwood Construction

you might contact http://designcoalition.org/ in Madison

http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageNavigator/20101017_Rally_for_Starved_Rock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXVlvFvKn6A Hey, this doesn't really have anything to do with natural building, but I know many of you are from the general area. Please come help save Starved Rock!

Hi David, I did a little research. It looks like the r-value range is from 0.3 to 1.0, so probably 0.6 is a good middle ground. here is what I learned from Michael Smith who co-found the Cob Cottage Company with Ianto & Linda. This is a Q & A. Q: My husband and I are very excited about building a cob home for our family. We live in Edmonton, Alberta and the winters get quite cold. Is it even possible to have a heat efficient home in -35 C weather? A: In a very cold region such as yours, I would not recommend building a large living structure entirely out of cob. Cob has great thermal mass but poor insulation value. In very cold weather, especially when the sun doesn't shine for extended periods, you will lose a lot of heat through those cob walls. A more efficient approach would be to make most of the exterior walls out of a more insulating material such as straw bale. Cob can be used for interior walls, for sculptural details on the bale walls, and possibly for some south-facing exterior walls. A: There has been very little engineering testing done on cob per se. Most of the numbers we use were actually derived from studies of adobe, which is similar in its makeup. Purported R values range from a low of 0.3 per inch to a high of 1 per inch. Michael G. Smith has a background in environmental engineering, ecology, and sustainable resource management. In 1993, along with Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley, he started the Cob Cottage Company, a research and teaching group focused on reviving and improving traditional forms of earthen construction. He is the author of The Cobber's Companion: How to Build Your Own Earthen Home This is from a fellow in Michigan on a blog site. "Cobb walls are great for thermal mass and lousy for insulation. So, while it may be ideally suited to mild climates, I would freeze to death here in Michigan if I had Cobb exterior walls. Various estimates for the r-value of Cobb ranges from, r 0.3 per inch, to r 1.0 per inch at best. So if your wall is a foot thick, which is a lot, you will have between r-4 and r-12 at best. Framing, windows and penetrations will make the overall r-value even worse. In my neck of the woods, I want r-40 or better in the walls and the ceilings and the basement, if I can get it."

Hello, I provide assistance with cordwood construction (in addition to my FB page and website you can view some current cordwood projects in Wisconsin at www.cordwoodconstruction.wordpress.com Design Coalition with "Lou and the crew" does light straw clay (these are very fine people--as are most natural builders.) The other place to look is at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) in Custer, WI. The concentrate on renewable energy, but also have many natural builders in their stables--look under resources and sponsor (cob, strawbale, masonry stoves, cordwood, light straw clay). www.midwestrenew.org

Richard Flatau is the cordwood guru and one of the teachers, along with Wayne Weiseman of The Permaculture Project, who are helping create the cordwood chapel at Kinstone near Fountain City, WI. Pat Craig you can certainly help with our cordwood... we will be winterizing before Nov 1, but will begin again when it is warm enough in spring. (Find us at: facebook.com/kinstonecircle or kinstonecircle.com). We hope to do more natural building at Kinstone over the next couple of years.