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Pallets as cordwood?

Sarah Houlihan

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Location: Central Maine

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posted 2 months ago

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I am currently building an addition on my small house. I have a post and beam section that I plan to fill with bottle walls, cordwood, and cob. My walls are 18" thick on a 2' tall rock foundation that is mostly underground. I was given a huge amount of pallets and was wondering if I could use the pallet pieces as cordwood.
I'm thinking yes, here is my thought process: I have a post and beam structure so the cordwood walls are non-load bearing and the cob is more structural than what is in it (I have seen plastic bottles and all sorts of things used. Any thoughts?

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John C Daley

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posted 2 months ago

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Would the timber weather well in that location?
Also, its small in dimension would you have a lot of potential openings for wind to sneak through?
I am guessing you may have a high mud to timber ratio, is it worth it?

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Sarah Houlihan

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This is only the first wall, I have many more I'm doing.
I have obscene amounts of clay in my yard, so the clay is no problem, at least for harvesting purposes. You can build solid cob walls, so that shouldn't be a problem.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean about more gaps??
What may make it worth it for me is that it will be quicker than processing whole trees and living in Maine, I'm running low on time. But I'm not sure it will be worth it. I was hoping someone may have tried it.

William Bronson

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I think keeping the pallets mostly intact and cobbing over them is the way to go:

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Sarah Houlihan

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Location: Central Maine

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This does look like a great idea. I may very well use this for at least part of my build. I can't switch over for all of it because I have done too much to change, but this looks amazing.

Glenn Herbert

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Location: Upstate NY, zone 5

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posted 3 weeks ago