Planning For Your Log Home

If you're seriously considering a log home, here are some questions you should ask yourself. Your answers can help you decide if a log home is right for you.

Money and location. Have you completed the basic steps for buying/building a home, such as arranging financing, procuring a building site, and choosing a floor plan?  

Region. What part of the country do you live in? Are log homes common there and suited to the climate, terrain, and lifestyle? 

Environment. What environmental factors do you need to account for when building a log home? 

Size. How big or small a home do you need? Which log home plan will meet your needs sufficiently? 

Cost. Which log home package will fit your budget? 

Green living. Is energy efficiency a major concern for you? If it is then a log home may be the perfect choice for you! 

Building experience. If you're planning to do some of the work yourself, do you have some experience in the construction trades? 

Advance research. Have you researched log homes? Are you familiar with the lifestyles they offer? 

Finishes. Have you made decisions about the type of wood you want, the interior finishes, windows, and doors? 

Direct experience. Do you truly love the look and feel of a log home? Have you visited models or spent time in the log homes of others? Log homes have a definite "feel." For some folk, the rustic tone, however romantic it might seem, might be not be the right fit. 

Maintenance. Are you committed to the maintenance required to keep your log home in good shape? Can you do exterior treatments yourself or can you afford to pay someone else to perform necessary chores such as sealing and caulking?

Why Does Wood Crack When It Dries?

Differential Shrinkage

To get right to the point, wood cracks due to differential shrinkage! Differential shrinkage occurs because the outer fibers in the shell dry first and begin to shrink. However, the core has not yet begun to dry and shrink, and consequently the shell is restrained from shrinking by the core. Thus the shell goes into tension and the core into compression. With the stresses from the shell and core pulling in opposite directions, the wood fibers break and a crack forms.  The larger the wood member, the more stress that is exerted to the wood member.

Examples

Let's take the example of a 1x8 board versus an 8x8 timber:

• The 1x8 board is only one-inch thick so it dries fairly quickly. The stress is minimal and just a few, small surface checks may result.

• The much larger 8x8 (8-inches x 8-inches) timber takes a long time to dry, which could be as much as six months. The inside of the timber will stay wet for months while the outside is dried to well below 20% moisture content. The stress that is set up within the 8x8 will eventually result in a ½ inch crack or larger on one face of the timber. This crack will go all the way to the center of the timber and usually be on one face only.

I have seen people cutting a round, “lily pad” from the end of a log so that they can use it as a cutting board in the kitchen. It looks nice in the green, unseasoned state but after a few weeks it develops a large pie crack. It is eventually discarded as unsightly. After throwing it away they wonder what happened to the wood to allow this to happen.  
 
This is just another reason why wood materials should be properly dried before using them for anything other than exterior purposes, such as fence posts, landscape timbers, or a rough fence. If they are being used where their final moisture content will be 15% or lower, they should be dried prior to milling and installation. This way the stress cracks can be aligned so that they are hidden or discarded when installation occurs.

Preventing Cracks – Proper Drying Techniques and PEG

What can be done to prevent this seasoning degradation in wood? With large quantities of lumber, boards to timbers, one can only resort to proper drying following the many details that make up the complete process. This can be done with either a kiln or by air drying, but many details have to be followed to achieve the desired results. It is not the purpose of this short essay to outline what must be done to properly dry wood. This will be covered in another article.

For small, fairly expensive items such as carvings, another method can be used to prevent degradation due to seasoning checks and cracks. This is done using a chemical called polyethylene glycol-1000 or PEG for short. This material looks like a block of paraffin in the solid state but will dissolve in water. The correct method for using this material is to soak the newly carved piece of wood in water for a month or more depending on its size. After it is completely saturated with water it is placed in a solution of PEG and water. It is kept in this solution for several months for best results. The solution should be warm and can be kept this way with a fish tank heater. After the carving is thoroughly saturated with PEG, it must be dried slowly in a cool environment and out of the sunlight. The result is a wood carving that will not shrink when it dries and thus will not crack.

The physical explanation for the above process is this: PEG can only be transmitted through the wood if the wood is thoroughly saturated with water. When the PEG enters the cells, it fills the cell walls and the cell lumen located in the center of the cell. When the wood is dried, it cannot shrink because the cell walls are now filled with a solid (PEG) and cannot shrink. If the wood cannot shrink, it cannot crack or split!

As a final note, I used this method on a piece of sycamore that was buried in a clay pit for nearly 6,000 years. I had it made into a gun stock and after 30 years of use the gun stock looks like new without the slightest hair line crack in any surface of it.

Environmentally-Friendly Log Homes

by Clyde and Jeff Cremer

Mention the words “log home” in these environmentally aware times, and unfortunately the first thing likely to spring into the minds of many people is an image of lumberjacks clear-cutting entire forests and destroying habitats for spotted owls. At a time in this planet’s history when climate change, pollution, the destruction of the natural environment, and soaring fuel costs are truly legitimate concerns, the thought of a home made from trees can understandably cause an initially panicked reaction.

That notion of log homes being anti-“green,” however, could not, however, be farther from the truth.

Today’s log homes are, in fact, among the most environmentally friendly residential choices available, good both for the planet and for the people who live in them. Log homes can help restore, renew, and safeguard nature. The best-made log homes are manufactured with virtually zero waste. From every stage of their creation, from standing timber through construction to move-in, are responsibly built log home leaves one of the smallest carbon footprints of any residential choice.

A Log Home Begins: Responsible Logging

Every log home has its start when the logs from which it is built are first cut. Today, the most responsible builders of log homes become responsible stewards of the environment by carefully choosing the trees they cut for the most positive impact on the environment.

Some trees may be harvested strategically for log homes with the goal of optimizing the well being of trees left behind. Done correctly, this can allow remaining trees more room to grow and more direct access to sunlight and rain.

More importantly, however, is the fact that the smartest log home builders aim to use dead standing timber—trees that, at first glance, may look alive because they appear upright and strong, but have in fact died. One prime example of such trees are pines killed by beetle infestation, a major problem in America’s forests.

Dead standing trees scattered throughout the forests are removed selectively by helicopter logging. In many cases entire tracts of woodlands may be composed of dead standing timber, which are most efficiently removed by clear cutting. Either way, such dead trees have drier wood that is much more prone to catching fire from lightning strikes, sparking power lines, or careless campers. Caught alight, one such dead standing tree can lead to the devastation of vast living forests and related ecosystems.

Fortunately, most dead standing timber is prime material for log homes. Beetles, for example, attack only the cambium, the thin growing layer beneath the bark, leaving the rest of the timber unaffected. Since a tree destined for a log home will be milled down to its heartwood, any and all traces of infestation are eliminated long before construction.

In these fundamental ways, logs are a sustainable resource. And that fact alone makes log homes a superb green building option. But there are more good reasons still why log homes make superb eco-friendly choices.

Log Homes: Less “Embodied Energy”

The term “embodied energy” is becoming more and more familiar among folks concerned about the environment. In brief and put as simply as possible, it refers to the sum total amount of energy expended to produce a product. For a brick wall, that would mean every bit of energy involved in digging up the clay, trucking it to the brickworks, building the molds, firing it in the kiln, trucking it to the store or brickyard or building site, similar energy for the mortar, and assembling the wall, plus a share of the energy expended to make all the machines or equipment used in every step of the process.

By this standard, the walls of a log home contain consume less energy than walls of brick and mortar, and also less than walls of milled boards. That makes logs a much more responsible building material choice for the well-being of our planet.

Log Home Milling: Waste-Free Manufacturing

Once they reach the mill, responsibly harvested timbers go through a milling process that is a model of environmentally responsible manufacturing. Virtually no part of the tree goes to waste.

As mentioned, trees destined for log home construction are milled down to their heartwood and cut to length. But what, you may wonder, becomes of the parts that are milled or trimmed away?

When a manufacture receives a log it is usually in the form of a "cant." A cant is a round log that has had slabs cut off of the sides to make it square.  These cants are ready to be run though the planner machine but before this happens they go through the first grading process.  Logs that have a large amount of cracks, bends, curves, bows, or other flaws are either rejected before they are even milled or are cut down to a smaller usable length and placed in a Grade B or Grade C pile. Logs that make it through this process are Grade A logs.  

These Grade A logs are run through a large planner which mills the tongue-and-groove pattern into the top and bottom of the log and makes one face of the log round (the side that is on the outside of the home) and mills the inside face of the log flat.  This is done with tungsten carbide tipped cutter heads which makes for an extremely smooth finish. 

After the logs are milled they are cut to length according to a log layout.  The log layout is a blueprint of the house and contains the exact length of every that is going to be used in the home.  

When the log is cut to length it a small slab is cut off the front of the log to make it flat and smooth.  Sometimes if the log has a crack which was not seen in the first grading process that portion of the log will be cut off to assure that it meets Grade A standards. These small trimmings from logs are sold as firewood.

Logs graded “B” or “C” because of cracks, bends, curves, bows, or other flaws that render them unsuitable for large-scale quality construction also may be turned into playhouses, sheds, or garages. 

Logs which are below Grade B or C quality logs get cut up for dunnage, the strips of wood that secure bundles of logs for shipping or are used to make the borders for gardens. 

Even the wood shavings from the planer machines that make the tongue-and-groove cuts that fit logs together are sold for horse bedding or to decorate and hold moisture in garden flowerbeds. 

Believe it or not but even the finest particles of sawdust finds use with environmentally friendly composting toilets or to soak up oil on shop floors.

Some enlightened log home manufacturers take the notion of waste-free sustainability one step further still. They become members of environmentally conscious industry organizations that actually fund the replanting of trees to keep forests well managed, healthy, and growing.

Log Homes: An Ideal Choice for Sustainable Living

Once a log home has been built, its value as a green living choice becomes all the greater. Especially when a log home is positioned on its site to take maximize direct sunlight during the colder months and to maximize shade during warmer months, logs are an ideal building material, absorbing heat effectively and releasing it slowly to reduce heating costs in winter, and keeping interiors well-insulated against exterior heat in the summer.

Using dry wood to eliminate shrinkage and built following proper construction, sealing, and chinking procedures, log homes are also extremely airtight. This factor not only further reduces heating and cooling costs but also improves indoor air quality. The result is a far healthier interior environment.

In such practical, everyday ways, log homes provide true benefits to those who build and live in them. From the ways in which the logs are harvested, through their milling process, to the construction of the finished home, they make an ideal choice for anyone who wants to reduce their carbon footprint and live a sustainable, environmentally responsible life.

The Demise of the Lodgepole Pine in Colorado

by Clyde Cremer

Traveling through Colorado, the keen observer will note that vast areas of the montane forest are covered with trees that have a reddish, rust-colored tint to the foliage. These reddish colored crowns are evidence of the death of the lodgepole pine forest in Colorado. Populations of the mountain pine beetle have exploded over the last decade and it has not been possible to control this spread through thinning of the timber stands or by spraying.

The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus monticolae) will attack trees which are more than 3-inches in diameter. They girdle the tree with their boring into the wood and this prevents the lifeblood of the tree from reaching the crown. They are not like the common termite that eats all of the wood, nor does this beetle live in the tree for years on end. They spend the winter in the tree bole and leave in June through August as an adult. In heavily infected stands, this life cycle continues as their offspring infest neighboring trees.

In Colorado, the winters have been unseasonably warm over the last 10 years. This in return has helped the mountain pine beetle increase its populations and spread over wide areas. Presently there are 1.4 million acres infected by the beetle over a forested area of some 22 million acres in the State of Colorado.

The first “knee jerk” solution to this dilemma is to cut the trees in the infected stands of timber. There are many drawbacks to this solution when one considers the commercial cutting of the dying lodgepole pine.

1)      The volume of timber affected is so widespread that commercial operations cannot handle the amount of fiber available.

2)      Much of the timber is of small diameter and thus is really pre-commercial timber. A sawmill cannot log and haul loads of logs into the mill which are 4 to 10 inches in diameter. If all of the trees were in a diameter class of 14 to 24 inches, for instance, the sawmill could cut the logs into various lumber products and make money from the expenditure of their capital.

3)      During the present recession, the demand for lumber products of all types has decreased precipitously. At the present time, most sawmills don’t need yards full of merchantable logs, as the markets have dried up.

4)      When these trees are attacked, they carry spores of a fungus into the tree which results in blue stain. This staining of the wood is desirable in the West for paneling in a home. However, if a mill is sawing logs for grade lumber, then this blue stain is not desirable.

5)      These vast areas of infected timber could be used for pulpwood, but the Intermountain West does not have pulp mills that could use this wood fiber. The wood would have to be shipped to the Pacific Northwest or even to the Lake States at a high shipping rate. The wood is partially to completely dry when it is harvested, so a very large load could be placed on a rail car without concern for weight. The blue stain wood also increases the absorption of chemicals into the wood fiber and this would decrease the time it would take in the digester at the pulp mill.

6)      The lodgepole pine would make good posts if they were pressure treated but again, we must think of the number of pressure treating plants in the area and the markets available for the finished product.

7)      Firewood comes to mind, but this is “small potatoes” when one considers the amount of acres affected and the limited market for firewood in the 21^st century.

8)      It has been suggested in the State of Colorado that the sales tax be rescinded on products produced from beetle killed lodgepole pine. However, this will probably be reminiscent of the song from the 1960’s, Mona Lisa: it will just lie there and die there!

So what will happen if this dying timber resource is not harvested before it becomes unmerchantable? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that fire will be the final arbiter. Fire has been an ecological factor in the lodgepole pine forests since they first colonized the Intermountain West tens of thousands of years ago. In fact, lodgepole pine depends on fire to maintain its foothold in the mountains. Fire clears out the thick stands of pine and creates factors conducive to the growth of a new stand of timber. The heat from the fire opens the pine cones and a proliferation of seeds will cover the area. This results in “dog hair” stands of pine after a fire which can be in excess of 5,000 stems per acre. Although this life cycle which is dependent on fire was fine thousands of years ago, it is not something that can always be tolerated in modern times with houses and towns being in close proximity to the dying lodgepole pine stands. 

As one travels through Colorado, dying and dead lodgepole pine is found in close proximity to towns, businesses, condos, and homes. One lightning strike or ignition source caused by a careless human will wreak havoc on a very large region of northern Colorado. One only needs to think of the Peshtigo, Wisconsin fire, which took place the same time as the Chicago fire, to know what can happen when a forest fire gets a good start. Another large fire in northwestern Montana and northern Idaho was the 1910 burn which devastated the region in which it took place and spread.  When fire hits the region of dying lodgepole

1)      Increased harvest is a “no-brainer” but as mentioned earlier, the markets are limited. When one considers the hauling costs, the sales available are not extremely attractive.

2)      Should the state and federal agencies that own much of this timber pay mill owners and others a fee for taking it from the forest? They can have the timber as an added incentive, but in this way a large forest fire could probably be averted or kept to a minimum. Why is it that this is not an option but fighting a forest fire with millions of dollars is money well spent?

3)      When a landowner has noxious weeds on his land, the local governments can have the landowner remove these weeds at his own expense as a public nuisance. Should the local governments compel homeowners to remove this timber from their land and especially around buildings to deter fire spread? This would be considered an action taken for the public good.

4)      Some policy must be taken soon as the problem is not going away. Each year more timber dies, it becomes drier and less marketable. Sooner or later nature will take its retribution as it has always done in the past. Do you remember the Yellowstone fire back in the 1990s?

In conclusion, I need not reiterate the problem and the imposing danger stalking the mountains of Colorado. What I need to stress is the lack of strong and immediate action by foresters at all levels and local cities and towns in minimizing the danger of fire if they cannot completely eradicate this threat. This treatise is not a call of hysteria, but a call for immediate and positive action to remove the fire threat. I am afraid that once again, “after the horse has got out of the barn,” fingers will be pointed at one another as to who was to blame for leaving the barn door open! We don’t need a blue ribbon panel to report on the obvious, we need action for the good of all. 

Along the Arkansas River in Colorado, the tamarisk and Russian Olive are using too much water from the river. This deprives the state of water for irrigation, drinking, flushing toilets, car washes, and industry. This problem has been studied for a number of years by various agencies, but I have yet to see the tamarisk go the way of the bison. It is still there through drought years and years of plenty. Just study it to death and everyone gets a warm, fuzzy feeling that something is being done. With the state of Colorado in the economic doldrums, as are most states, don’t look for any infusion of money to correct any natural resource problems. Maybe we need another study!

When the fires move across northern Colorado, all I can say is, “I told you so.”

Clyde Cremer has a BS in Forestry from Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas, and a Masters Degree in Forestry from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, New Haven, CT. 

How Much Does a Log Cabin Cost to Build?

by Clyde Cremer 

The above question is asked by most people before any discussion ensues about log homes in general. The above question cannot be answered unless many questions are asked of the prospective home buyer. As an example, the above question is similar to one asked, “How much does a car cost?”

A basic consideration of home cost is what part of the United States are you planning to build. Will you be building in California, New York, Arkansas or North Dakota? There can be a great disparity in building costs between these various regions of the country. Costs may be higher in California than in Arkansas due to the fact that living costs may be higher in California than in Arkansas. In some states, there will be greater requirements of the builder and more approvals from various state and local agencies before a permit can be granted to build the home. Some states do not have building codes or stiff building code requirements or in terms of engineering and contractor licensing and thus costs will be lower. Building materials can also be higher in some states and in some areas of individual states than in another location. Thus, where you plan to build is a major consideration when the cost of a log home is analyzed.

Other considerations to consider are:

1) The type of log home you intend to build. Will it be a pre-cut package, a custom hand-crafted log home or random length logs from a local sawmill? The price of these various components can vary greatly and thus it is a major variable in the cost of building a log home.

2) Do you intend to ship logs in from another part of the country so that you can get the home and the home plan that you desire? Shipping can result in extra costs, but should not be prohibitive when one considers the total cost of the home.

3) Do you plan to have a full basement, maybe completely finished, or are you going to build on a slab or crawl space. There can be a great difference in these various forms of construction.

4) People must remember that the logs are just a small portion of the costs when building a log home. The type of roofing that is to be used, such as exposed beam, conventional 2x rafters, or a truss roof can affect the cost of the home. Do you plan to use a specialty metal roof or use regular asphalt shingles?

5) The insides of the log home can run up the cost of the finished home. For instance, a stone fireplace, hardwood floors, custom cabinets, top-of-the-line bathroom and kitchen fixtures, specialty lighting and electrical components, and interior wall finishing. Most people have the misguided belief that once the house is shelled in, they are near completion. This is not true! There is a lot of labor and materials that will go into the interior of the home before it is finished. It is at this stage that many people opt for the better cabinets, lighting fixtures, carpet, etc., and destroy their budget. Once a budget is determined, stick to it or you will get into a lot of trouble with the funds you have allocated to the project.

6) To get an idea if you can afford a log home, you need to check building costs for the area where you plan to build. If custom homes are being built in your area for $125 per sq. ft., then you can use this as a guide. A local builder can also give you some idea what building costs are running in the area. In the end, you will have to bring a completed blueprint to a builder and tell him exactly what you want for flooring, cabinets, roofing, etc. He will also have to look at your lot to see if it will require more or less work than normal to put in a foundation, septic system, driveway, etc. As a last reminder, if the building costs are in the $125 per square foot range, that does not mean that you can put in a deluxe bathroom, teak floors, imported crystal lighting fixtures, etc. Keep your feet on the ground when designing your home - unless you have no financial constraints.

7) One might hear that a completed log home will run two or three times the price of the log package. This is not an accurate way to judge the cost of your finished log home. For instance, one package may sell for $30,000 and another for $60,000, but the less expensive package may well have fewer materials furnished. Thus you have a range of $90,000 to $180,000 for a completed home which are both the same size. Components that go into a log home (or any home for that matter) can vary greatly in price from the low end to the high end. Which end of the building spectrum you plan to stay in will make a big difference in the final cost of the home.

8) To use a multiplier against the cost of the log package is like getting the price of an automobile by using a factor against the weight of the vehicle. The only reliable way to get a finished cost of your log home is to have a builder(s) go over your prints after you have exactly what you want in the house in terms of materials and components.

9) Finally, always have a buffer in your budget of 5% to 10% to cover price increases or unforeseen expenses. If you are on a really tight budget, don’t just throw caution to the wind and say, “let's build it; it will work out.” It might, but if you are wrong, you or the bank may end up with a not-quite-completed home.

10) I have worked with people who want their “dream home,” which is going to be a log home with the best of everything that can be had. They cannot get a loan to cover such a project so they eventually go to a factory built conventional home because it is “less expensive.” If they had gone to a more realistic floor plan with fewer “bells and whistles”, then they could have had a log home that would have fit their budget. Be realistic when setting goals for your new log home. Don’t design something that is completely out of your financial range. The belief that log homes are a very expensive way to build is just not true. What happens is that some people put in too many costly features that runs up the price of the home.