Your shed looks amazing. I love the cordwood method. Great job! I could view your photos from the Photo Bucket link, but not from the http. Enjoyed your photo album. Cute dog.

How thick are your walls & what did you use for morter?

Kim

Thanks! The walls are 6" thick as we used 6"x6" timber for all the posts. For the mortar we used a mix that was 9 parts sand, 3 parts sawdust (the sawdust when wet helps delay the mortar from setting to fast and prevents cracking), 3 parts hydrated or type 'S' lime and 2 parts portland cement.

Oooh I finally figured out how to post pictures directly from photo bucket instead of using the link. Here goes:

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The first wall took two days to put in. We did the back one first, so no-one would see if we messed it up!

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The above shot is from the wildflower meadow in its infancy, this year, all I've got is sunflowers, next year the perennials should be flowering! And now I have a place to store all my garden tools!

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Stain glass window made out of glass jars.

That's awesome, well done!

--Jonathan

That's beautiful. Well done. Where in Canada are you?

wow. I have to say I am incredibly impressed. That's the first stacked cordwood building I've ever seen someone build. I've always thought of those as more of an idea or concept than a building style for someone to actually construct...you tend to see them discussed in cabin books the same way espalier, cordoned orchards, and knot-gardens are in gardening books. Anyway, I ramble, but stupendous. One more thing, was the cordwood purchased or processed on site? I notice alot of tall conifers (hemlocks? Spruces?) around in the pictures. Fortunate setting if one wished to work in local wood.

Okay, I have to ask - what book or plans did you use as a reference for this project? I would love to build a shed like that out in my garden, near my hoophouse. That shed you built is very attractive and looks like it will age gracefully!

Jim

Sorry for the late response! I've been away for awhile. Thanks so much for your lovely compliments. The shed is stocked full of tools and garden stuff now. Winter is rearing it's ugly head already, but I know everythings tucked away safe and cozy in my new shed. hueylatoani, we purchased the cordwood from a local mill that sold 7ft logs already peeled and seasoned for one year (allowed to dry out for a year). We could have used our trees, but I love them too much to cut them down and we would have had to peel the bark and wait a year for the green logs to dry. Green logs shrink as they lose moisture, so if you used new wood (less than a year old) your shed walls would shrink and the log pieces would pop right out of the mortar.

mainelyjim. We used a book by David Stiles simply called 'Sheds'. We found it to be very helpful, but lacking in detail in a few spots. Look it up on amazon.com and read the reviews on it and you'll see what I mean. While we couldn't have built the shed without it, the book would have been perfect if they just fleshed it out a bit more.

Hopefully the shed will age gracefully. Problems with this kind of building usually involve cracked masonry and the odd popped out log as the building shifts and the logs shrink with age. I wasn't concerned about building an air tight building, so I won't mind a few cracks here and there, and the logs can be surrounded by expanding foam if one or two happen to jiggle loose.

Hope that answers you're questions!

Thanks again!

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Sheds' book

Oh! funnylady, I didn't see your question! We're in Alberta, Canada. Zone 2 about two hours away from Banff.

Very, very nice job!

Love it! Is that a doggy door on the back wall?
When you made the stained glass window, did you use the whole bottle, or just the ends?

It is a doggy door on the back wall. The stained glass window is actually made of candle votive holders (cup shaped and about 3 inches high). I placed them open end together and used duct tape to hold them together while I was mortaring them into place. That way the closed ends (bottom) of the candle holders is what you see on the inside and outside walls. Hope that makes sense!

It makes perfect sense, especially considering how thick the walls are. Great idea.

Of course, I also like that the shed is canine friendly. ;^)

camaria, that shed is wonderful! You did a beautiful job on it. Never heard of an "Irish shed" before. My son thinks it would make a wonderful vacation cabin - a little bigger, of course. He's wondering what your cost of materials was.

Songbird, the cost of the shed was $1600.00 (canadian) including everything down to the last bolt! If your son were to tackle a guest cabin, I would probably recommend thicker walls. Our shed has 6" walls. Most cordwood buildings meant for occupation have 18" walls (sounds quite thick I know!) Instead of running mortar all the way through like we did, these structures only mortar on the outside and inside edges of the logs, and in between they stuff the space with sawdust for insulation. So, if you were looking down on the wall while building it, you'd see a middle layer of sawdust, sandwiched between two borders of mortar. These buildings are very well insulated, because of the sawdust layer and the extra wall thickness.

Our shed, not so much!

These are great shed designs and you did a great job. We made a few modications to ours by using stone instead of the logs for the walls, changed the roof to cedar shingles, and made the floor out of brick. The shed is a major feature in our garden. A picture is attached.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: our version of the Irish Shed

I'm so glad that someone rescued this thread from the archives. I think the original shed is awesome.

And then Dave, your shed is quite lovely as well.

Mostly our version began with our derelict cement block garage which had gone without its shed roof for many years before we bought the house. It's taken us a few years to make the redo top of our list of projects, but this winter we had a local contractor with a vacant spot on his schedule to help us out. We are in our 70s and such a redo was beyond us both.

My DH is first generation Irish, so I was intent on giving him something to look at which suggested the old stone cottage outside Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, where his mama was born and raised. It is a project still underway, but hopefully will be complete by the middle of March.

If anyone wishes to see some of the photos uploaded to my Webshots albums, you can click on the link below and then select the Casa Del Sol..Garage Redo album which shows the progessive conditions from start to finish of this salvaged piece of work.

May the wind always be to your back....

Here is a link that might be useful: MoccasinLanding's photo albums.

I LOVE the looks of this. Love the little candle glass windows too for a little more light. Great job.

Love this and thank you for making this look manageable.