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After several years of hard work building our house my partner and I finally finished the exterior cordwood walls a few weeks ago.
We built the roof (following several preliminary steps) and the floor before starting the walls, proceeding somewhat out of order for typical homebuilding.
It was several years ago that we made one of our first purchases for our house - 24 windows and a sliding glass door. Removed from a model cabin, they sat in a farmer's high tunnel for awhile before he sold them to us for a great price.
The windows needed some repair, but we felt they were worth the bit of extra work, since most were large and allowed us to be excessive with windows in our small build. Before starting on the exterior walls, we built window "bucks”: frames to set the windows into, around which we then built the cordwood.
Walls finished, we installed fascia (siding at the edge of the roof). We opted to burn tongue and groove siding to make our fascias, using a method called yakisugi which we tested and practiced early in the summer on another project.
Next, we installed gutters onto the fascias. After that, came soffits (closing under the eves of the roof).
We took all these steps, even though some felt like trim work, because we didn't want complete finishing work around our already installed windows. We were afraid that we might drop a tool into them or smash them when moving scaffolding and ladders around.
Now we are finally installing windows. Anticipating the process, it felt like a daunting task. But with a few extra sets of hands, it's gone fairly smoothly.
And there has been some repair work needed around the windows after all, mostly due to broken flanges. These plastic parts are thoroughly stapled onto the window frame, and stick out about two inches. When the window is set into the buck, the flanges abut the buck, and nails through the flange hold the window in place.
To prevent air flow from coming in around the window, many builders put caulk on the inside of the flanges, so that it fills any gaps between the flanges and the wooden frame.
Caulk was invented to seal the windows of the United Nations building in NYC, as it was a new built in a new architectural style. Before that, skilled craftsmanship was used to create buildings without leaks.
My partner and I are not skilled craftsmen, and after installing our first window, we realized that considering the amount of holes around the windows due to gaps in the flanges, caulk was rather pointless.
Instead, we plan to use waterproof tape to seal around the windows before adding trim. Of course, I will look up eco-friendly options for appropriate tape, but I'm guessing we will end up with a petroleum product as often happens with modern-day construction.
For trim, we plan to carry the blackened yakisugi boards throughout the exterior design, and border the windows with strips of burned boards.
I wish I had the skill and knowledge to avoid using petroleum products in my home build, but I've come to terms with the trade-off; I'm an amateur building a complex house. If I wanted skilled craftsmanship, I should have hired a skilled craftsman.
However, even my slight disappointment at our lack of the required artistry skill level as designers, builders and upcyclers to build my ideal plastic-free home, cannot take away from my excitement of finally reaching the stage of windows installation.