My wife and I had a bad experience with one log home company. We put a down payment on a kit with the company's assurance that we would have no trouble finding a builder. If necessary, they had builders that we could contract. Surprise, surprise, none of our local contractors wanted to bother with a log home kit. They didn't know much about them, and weren't much interested in learning about them. When we went back to the company, they called a builder in to talk with us, who guaranteed quick work when we were ready to start. Several months, and many phone calls later, none of them returned, we decided to cancel our contract. It was only after contacting the state better business bureau that we were able to get a portion of our down payment back.

Moral to this story: Be sure you have a competent builder lined up before you purchase a log home kit.

Things that the contractors and distributors should already know:

1) logs should be cut in winter. Winter-cut logs, according to many generations of wisdom and experience in Europe, last up to twice as long as summer-cut logs. Whereas there is debate about why this is so, one of the reasons given is that winter-cut logs tend to dry more slowly. Of course, log home kits may have kiln-dried logs, which obviates the need for cutting the logs in winter. Logs from the southeast don't have much of a winter to experience anyway, unlike logs up here.

2) Logs should be stripped as quickly as possible. Again, this probably is no problem with a kit. If you are going to use pine logs, pine sawyers are notorious insects, and once the weather warms up consistently into the 50's, you can expect these beetles to be laying their eggs under the bark. The larvae are extremely destructive, boring into the centers of the logs. The holes are a good 1/4 inch in diameter. The beetles must lay their eggs under the bark, so if the logs are stripped prior to the beetles coming around, your logs are safe.

3) Logs never die. Logs tend to work as the seasons go by, moving a little bit here and there. I don't know how kiln-dried logs perform, but naturally dried ones will move about. This makes it a little difficult at times in the construction phase if the logs are tongue-and-grooved to provide a good seal. The tongue and/or groove may be straight when the log leaves the factory, but it may no longer be straight when you're ready to put them together. This will also lead to you never having an airtight house.

4) A dry log is a happy log. It is important that logs be protected from the wet elements, especially if situated in a location prone to periods of wet/humid weather. The eaves should extend at least 2 feet from the wall, the further they extend, the less rain/snow will hit the logs and make them wet. Wet logs will tend to decay, especially since logs check (split). Water that gets down in a crack can have a hard time getting back out, especially in a humid environment. This introduces a wonderful breeding home to fungi, and you may wake up some morning to see shelf-fungi growing on your house. The roof is quite important.

5) In the same vain, the logs should not be laying on the ground. Even if you can use black locust or chestnut or cedar, logs in contact with the ground will invariably decay (unless they are in a bog). A rule of thumb that I have heard is that the bottom log should be at least 10 inches above ground.

6) The chinking is very important. Since the logs work, hard chinking such as mortar or even dried mud may be subject to cracking and certainly won't expend to fill the gaps. There is a material out on the market these days that is pliable. It's not oakum,

Things that others may not quite know:

1) logs with a right-hand twist will not check and move like those with a left-hand twist. Again, this is a piece of European wisdom.

2) log buildings in colder climates last longer than those in warmer climates. It is probably not so much the temperature as the humidity gradient that is most important.

3) pine is easy to work with, and not as heavy as other logs. However, while pine is a good log-building wood, it is not the best. Oak will outlast pine, but is more expensive and certainly heavier. Larch is also a good log-building wood, being somewhere between oak and pine. White pine is better than red pine. I don't know how Douglas fir stands. Black locust is also a good wood, but the trees tend not to grow straight since they are shade intolerant and grow best when grown in the open.

The log home industry can be divided up arbitrarily in a variety of different ways. In my opinion, one of the first divisions is that between handcrafted logs and milled logs. Most of the "manufacturers" supply milled log systems of one kind or another. Some of the handcrafters advertise, but not nearly as extensively. Handcrafting tends to be more of a cottage industry, whereas a big milled log vendor may have a large production operation with dealers all over the country.

Log homes may be further categorized into log style and corner joint style. Rare in the West, but common in the Appalachians is a square hewn log with dovetail corners. Various kinds of "solid wall" systems may also be called log construction (e.g., Lindal Cedar homes), but they don't really qualify, in my opinion. Stick-built homes with half log siding are also offered. These may be marketed as a "super insulated" log house, and they are very attractive, but they do not depend on logs for their structure.

Milled logs may also be available in systems with 2 sides (top and bottom) flat, 3 sides (top and bottom and interior) flat, coped (referred to variously as Swedish, Norwegian or Scandinavian cope: the bottom of the log has a hollow milled along its length so as to fit closely over the log underneath it), and full round. Many employ tongue-in-groove or other systems to improve sealing. Corner joints are usually butt-and-pass for systems with flat sides or saddle notched for coped and full round systems. Butt-and-pass involves having the logs around the structure all at the same level, i.e., the seam in a north wall will match up to a seam in a west wall. Where two logs come together at a corner, one butts up against the side of the other one which "passes" and sticks out in the familiar log house style. To make saddle notches, the logs must be staggered - one of any two adjacent walls starts out with a half-log on the bottom, so that subsequent seams are separated by the width of half a log. At the corner, the higher log has a notch cut into it to fit over the log coming from the other direction. With butt-and-pass, there are spaces the height of one log between the ends that stick out in one direction. With saddle notches, all logs in both directions stick out. Unlike toy Lincoln Logs, a notch should never be cut into the lower log on a corner. Such a joint will tend to hold water if it is driven into the joint. True saddle notches are self draining.

Variations on these systems exist, but most are similar and recognizable as being based on one of the above.

Most handcrafters work in either full round or coped styles, with saddle notches. A true handcrafted log house uses hand peeled logs running the full length of each wall with no butt joints. As a result, a crane of some kind is usually used to set a handcrafted shell, since the logs are very difficult to handle manually. Shorter logs may be used where doors and windows will be placed, so that a butt joint is still avoided. This may also limit placement of a handcrafted house, since it may be impossible to get a log truck with 44' logs to the desired site in rough terrain. Milled logs are usually supplied in 8' to 16' lengths, and it is possible to place them by hand or with much smaller equipment.

Handcrafters will often rough-cut and stack the shell in their yards prior to setting it on your foundation. Setting our shell with a boom truck took less than a day and a half.

Costs and quality: You get what you pay for. Tract homes offer economies of scale not generally found in constructing a custom home in the boonies. If you are contemplating a complete custom home, you can make it as nice as you want, but it won't be cheap. Cheaper log home "kits" provide smaller logs (which give you both less insulation and less thermal mass) and less of the stuff you need to finish your house. Tradespeople will not drive out to your house for free. They don't consider it a privilege to visit you.

It is entirely possible to get an inexpensive kit, do a lot of work yourself, and finish the house to tract home standards. This can get you a nice house at reasonable cost, but may take you years of evenings and weekends, by which time you will have paid an enormous amount of interest on your construction loan, and you'll be so sick of it that you'll be ready to burn it down. And that cultured marble bathroom that looked so practical and attractive? Forget it - many $$$! Tongue-in-groove pine on the walls and ceilings? $$$! Exposed beams and/or purlins? $$$$$! R-38 or R-44 built-up roof system so that you can have vaulted ceilings and insulation? $$$. Custom cabinets? $$$$. The best appliances? $$$. Hardwood floors? $$$$! Slate hearth? Antique brass light fixtures? Custom-built doors? $$$$$$$!! These things have nothing to do with it being a log home. They are good and beautiful items which raise the price of any house, and which you might want in order to raise your house out of the tract-home morass.

If you start with a vendor offering logs of 9" or more, pay a contractor familiar with the system to put it up and finish it out beautifully, and add the extras you want, it will be better than a tract home, it will look better than a tract home, and it will cost more than a tract home. What about the cost of the well? How close is power? People building in the suburbs don't have to think about this.

So the bad news is that you're probably not going to get out of this cheap, despite what the dealers try to tell you. Has anyone given you a COMPLETE turn-key quote? If so, do you have all the bids and cost breakdowns? Without these, it's not a quote - it's a blue-sky guess. If it's based on anything, it's based on how someone else had a house sort of like yours done. When you get a complete quote with all the bid information, you'll begin to have some idea of the cost of what you want. Then you have to find out what they left out. A good contractor will tell you; a poor one may let you find out in mid-construction. Don't mislead them about what you've done or expect to do. Document everything. Don't mislead yourself.

Will it take you three hours to do what a master carpenter does in one? Is your time only worth $4-$5/hour?

There are always unexpected costs. Be prepared. Have several thousand dollars "headroom" in your construction loan and your permanent financing so you can cope. This usually means, actually, that you have to have more of your own money up front. It's a custom home. The contractor has never built one exactly like it before. By the way, only hire a contractor who has worked with the particular log system you are using. Minimize surprises all around.

The good news is that, if you (and the contractor) do it right, you'll love living in it, even though you're in hock up to your nose hairs.

Weathertightness, insulation, etc.: Log structures move. Period. Even a 6" milled log (too small for anything except a vacation cottage) is a large piece of wood. Logs expand and contract with temperature and humidity. The structure will settle noticeably in the first year, and because of temperature and humidity changes, *it never stops moving*! Therefore construction techniques and sealing systems must take this into account. In particular, I do not believe systems dependent on small beads of caulk or thin foam strips can be expected to perform well. The logs move too much and will tend to break the seal. Tongue-and-groove systems may seal well but are often difficult to assemble because the logs have changed shape slightly since they were milled. Logs with the top and bottom milled flat often do not fit together as nicely as the drawing suggest. Logs are simply not dimensionally stable.

This is why I selected a full round handcrafted builder. My bias is evident. The logs are actually set with a little space in between. The gap is sealed with a substance derived from the commercial concrete construction industry (big pieces of concrete are not dimensionally stable, either.). It's modified to look like traditional morter chinking. It's rubbery, it moves with the logs, and it is placed in large enough beads to accommodate movement.

Some other systems would also work, I believe, but I am quite sure that many systems being sold today are more difficult to work with than they look and may be prone to failure.

Care must be taken in sealing external checks in the logs, particularly those which face up and may hold water. Checks which run into window and door frames may provide entry points for air, water and insects, whether they face up or down. In warm or damp climates, insect infestation may be a particular concern, and log houses in such areas will require a lot of maintenance.

I live where insects and decay are not problems. However, my house is occasionally exposed to extremely severe weather. Rain may be accompanied by very high winds of 60 mph or more, driving water into any check facing the wind. If the check doesn't connect to anything, the dry climate in the Rockies will soon dry it out. If it connects to a window opening or another check in another log, the wind may be able to drive water into the house. As a result, my house must be more tightly sealed than most. Just last week, we had 4" of rain in one hour, accompanied by high winds. It's not that unusual. Houses built in certain coastal areas would have to be sealed with similar care.

Larger logs provide more insulation than smaller ones. Log houses also depend on the thermal capacity of their walls much more than stick-built houses. A 9" log gives no more insulation value than the wall of the average cheap tract house. However, it holds a lot more heat. It will be slow to heat up and will re-radiate the heat as it cools down. If your climate is consistently hot, this will make it difficult to cool the house at night with just a fan. If you have air conditioning, on the other hand, thus preventing the interior of your logs from getting hot in the first place, the air conditioning load will be less at night than it would be with a stick-built house. This works the other way around in the winter. It is relatively easy to keep the house warm overnight, but difficult to heat it up if you allow it to get too cold. Our house is positioned for considerable solar gain, so that it hoards heat nicely in the winter. The summer heat is rarely a problem. We have operable skylights and a ceiling fan in the stairwell to pull heat out of the house.

A heavily insulated roof system is essential.

Our house: (Sorry. I have to gave the basis for my experience and opinions, but I'll brag a little, too.) Handcrafted, full round construction. Log diameter 9"-14". Lodgepole pine harvested in northern Colorado. Weathershield clear pine windows, casement or awning - no double hung or other sliding designs. Roof: 12" built up starting with 1" T&G on the inside, furring strips, 2x10s on edge with fiberglass batts in between, sheathing, etc., R-38. Purlin design provides 100psf snow load. Fiberglass shingles; will replace with metal in 10-15 years. Two floors plus walkout basement. All electric, electric provides code-required backup to wood heat. Vermont Castings Defiant Encore woodstove heats entire house, 1700sf, not counting basement. Well: 440'. Three miles from nearest public road. Research log systems for two years before building house. Hired contractor to do complete turn-key construction. I did cleanup, so checked on work in detail 3 times a week. Construction time was 4 months. Six months is more typical for a custom log home. Owner-built is more like 4 years.

LIST OF TOOLS TO BUILD A CABIN

List of building tools from Horace Kephart (from Camping and Woodcraft, chapter "cabin building"): This was at the turn of the century, so, needless to say, there were no electric or gas-powered tools.

2 axes	2 hatchets	framing chisel (1-1/2)		crosscut saw (6 ft) and handles
peavey, or cant hook		sledge hammer (8 lb)		2 steel wedges (5 lb)
3 auger bits (3/8, 3/4, 1 1/4)		2 drill bits (1/8, 1/4)		pocket level to screw on square
2 triangle files (7in. & 6in. slim taper)		froe	spade	mattock	hand saw
rip saw	compass saw	brace	auger	drawing knife	jack plane
tape line	2 ft rule	steel square	T-level	plumb-bob	chalk line
crosscut saw file	mill file (8 in)	whetstone	50 ft rope (1 in)

I had an interest in earth sheltered housing since the 70's. I still have my copies of the defunct magazine "Earth Sheltered Living" somewhere in a box. The main problem with this construction methods where zoning and cost of construction.

A lot of zoning laws were written against GI's after WW2 who would build a basement and cover it with the first floor flooring and tar paper, then live in it until they could afford to build the house. The best zoning laws were in Indiana. In Indiana an earth sheltered house qualified as a "bomb shelter" and was tax exempt. Indiana updated their housing codes real fast.

The cost of building was the major factor. First you excavated for the footers and piled the dirt. Then put up forms and pour the floor. More forms for the walls strong enough to resist the side loads. Then more forms and pour the roof. Waterproof the structure then bury it. Do not bury it in the winter or it took massive amounts of heat to warm the soil around the house.

One guy saved a bunch of money by building the walls then filling the house with sand. The sand was rounded on top and became the forms for pouring the roof. Then he removed the sand.

One guy came up with an alternative construction method. He used a trencher to make a square slot in the ground. where he wanted doors he did not go as deep. He built a reinforcing rod armature and placed it in the hole. He extended the roof past the walls several feet to act as footers and poured his house. There were no forms and the dirt only had to be moved once. As the dirt was dug out it could be placed immediately on the already poured roof.

I came up with an even simpler method. On top of a hill dig two parallel footers 30 to 50 feet apart and as long as you want. Place drainage tile in the bottom of the footers. Using a trenching machine between the footers dig trenches 3 or 4 feet apart 6 or more feet deep. Place plywood or firewood over the trenches and pile the dirt on top. The dirt piled between the footers becomes the forms for pouring the roof. Add your rebar and pour the roof and footers. The roof is an arch which adds to the strength. You will need to run steel rod supports from footer to footer. An engineering concrete CAD program can calculate the loads and rebar positioning. Once the calculations are known for a given width you can make the structure as long as necessary.

Earth is stable at about 60 degree angle. Look at the embankments along the interstate and you can see examples. Excavate the dirt until you have 7-8 foot of head room and pour the floor. You now have a tunnel as long as you want open at both ends. There are no massive side walls because there are no side loads. Since the roof is built first you are working indoors. The dirt only needs to be moved once and can be put on the roof as soon as it is removed. The inside walls are simple partitions and can be changed later, they are not load bearing. The plumbing can be run in the open space between the walls and the side embankments and remain accessible for repairs. A few vents along the side and you will not have a moisture problem. A front and back wall finish the main structure. Most fire codes are met if you can exit a room in two possible directions so excavate both ends.

A few other advantages to my method. To a casual observer it looks about like pouring a slab foundation for a house that was never built if it needs to be left for a while. A big piece of concrete laying there is not subject to theft or vandalism until needed. The cost should be significantly less than a standard house. Since you start on top of the current ground and then build it higher you are aiding water run off and helping to prevent leaks.

If you can find a hill that allows both ends to be exposed, it would be best. Otherwise you have an open end, preferably south and a "courtyard" on the other end. Be sure to provide drainage from the courtyard under the floor before you pour the floor. In a TEOTWAWKI situation you do not add an obvious building front but create an unexposed artificial cave.

The excavation could be done with done with smaller equipment. It is not one massive excavation but a number of sections 3 or 4 foot thick between the original trenches. Dig out one then knock the next one over and shovel it into a wheel barrow or trailer on a garden tractor.

TRI-JOINT XYZ MATRIX CONSTRUCTION

One morning when I was a kid I came downstairs and there was a new coffee table. I remember that morning clearer than any Christmas morning. My Dad had built this coffee table using a simple Tri-joint method of 2"x2" (actually 1 1/2"x1 1/2"s) pieces of wood and bolted them together with regular bolts.

He then added a regular sheet of 4x8' plywood which had squares cut out of the corners. Twenty years later that coffee table is still in my parent's living room. My Dad made this table, and a chair using this Tri-joint bolted system. He also developed a system for making beds, tables, couches, shelves and chairs using a combination of 2"x4"s as the structure and 1"x4"s as the top material. My Mom sewed on covers for foam rubber pads which went on top of the chairs, couches and beds.

They feel that using either of these basic systems that ANYONE can build the basic furniture they NEED in life. They require few tools and little know how. I realize now that these systems may be artifacts from a philosophy of life that I also share.

Having lived for more than a year in a Volkswagen van with my Father, Mother and two Brothers, I have realized that you don't need all the materialistic things we think of as essential. I think this method is an example (and perhaps an inspiration) of this.

I have devised many plans for various projects including: bunkbeds, a loftbed with couch, desk and dresser underneath, a bicycle cart, a worktable, a stereo stand, a computer table, scaffolding, a wheeled dolly and more. As a rather interesting experiment, I like to look at various pieces of furniture or structures and try to imagine building them with these methods. It makes for an interesting way of looking at things. I recommend trying this.

THE MATRIX PROCESS was devised by architect (Now Professor at the School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Chicago) invented the "Living Structure" which was based on a "three-dimensional structural network (or matrix) of wooden sticks or metal struts which support tables, seating, storage and beds systems systematically but flexibly integrated so the arrangement of the parts may be easily changed in dozens of ways to respond to changing needs, individual personality, or location.

To guarantee the structural integrity of the 'Living Structure,' [he] developed a cartesian joint called the XYZ Connection which is strong in wood, metal, or even regional materials like bamboo. "

The variation in their method is they use predrilled and precut pieces so they can modify them easily. Since they drill right through the wood (with a drill press) they only need to drill 2 time to make the four holes required.

Their basic system involves 1 1/2"x1 1/2" WOOD or ALUMINIUM (1/8" wall thickness 6061-T6--NOT 6063) with holes every 1 1/2" (starting at the 3/4" mark). They always cut the material exactly BETWEEN the holes, having an even amount of holes per piece. This makes it easier for determining which piece to use. (Count the holes and multiply times 1 1/2" to determine length).

For WOOD they use a 5/16" drill bit and a 1/4" bolt (3 1/2" long). With aluminum they use a 13/32" drill bit.

They talk about building houses (and wind power generators) out of Steel

TELESPAR Tubing (made by the Unistrut Corp:

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