Log Cabin Luxury

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jul 23rd 2005 at 12:06PM

Luxury homes don't always have to be sleek moderns or spacious Mediterraneans, there is a growing number of people who like to pull a Lincoln and go back to the days of log cabins. But these are no ordinary log cabins. The new "rusticrats" stock their homes with every amenity. According to this article 25,000 upscale log homes are built every year by stress-escaping city slickers. The editor of Log Home Living refers to these folks as the "Gucci rustics." As the article points out, luxury getaways with a log cabin feel are hardly a new thing. One hundred years ago, rich families built log cabins in the Adirondacks. But our forefathers didn't have the luxury of calling Orvis and having a five bedroom log cabin starter kit dropped off on their doorstep.

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Wizard of Logs Dec 18th 2005 6:02PM

Consumers today need to become educated in log homes. A log is not just a log. There are different species used and some better than others.. Western White pine has a better insulation value (other than cedar) where as douglas fir and spruce are very hard and have little "thermal mass" to provide a warm home. 3 kinds of product are used in log homes. 1) green trees with a straight grain, disease and inscet free, 2) dry dead standing with spiral cracks allowing bugs to come inside, died of disease or insect infestation and is graded by the Timber Products Industry wall log 30 the lowest grade on the scale, and 3) cants, a bi-product of the deminsional lumber industry where square timber are turned to semi-round logs which will warp, twist and bow excessively like the 4x4 posts we use for fences.. When you cut across the growth ring 4 times the structural integrety is damaged and will cause lots of problems during construction and in the future.
Mositure content also known as "bound cell water" is critical. Water causes movement "settling" in log homes. Find a log home manufacturer that has a constant moisture content below 19% to the core. Most manufacturers will tell you an average moisture content and you do not want an "Average". A tree dies in the forest and gravity pulls water towards the base of the tree. They cut it and lay it horizontal, now at one end you have 35% moisture and the other end that used to be the top is 20% moisture, they weigh the log, put it in the kiln, bake it, pull it out and weight it again and use a formula to arrive at an average. You still have a very high content at one end and lower at the other end and they can not tell you what is at the core which could be 20% or more and over time you will have to "chink" your home at a cost of $6,000 per one thousand square foot of home. There are a couple of manufacturers that have a process to kiln dry to the core and you sould find them to save time and money. Become educated and ask questions because if you do not ask they are not required to telll you about the problems in their product. For more info contact me at blackbear849@yahoo.com