There's a little one-story "Lincoln Log" house in my area that's up for sale, and given how every new buyer around here just tears down whatever house that's standing and puts up a f-ugly mc-mansion (gawd I hate those things), I was thinking of making a deal with the new owner to take it apart and cart it away for him.
Never having done this sort of thing before, I'm wondering if anybody else has, and what suggestions they might have about doing so.
Thanks muchly!
on 8/9/2007 1:02 PM Reid Fleming said the following:
If it's like Northern NJ (i.e. Bergen County), the land is worth more than the house and the land. You can probably get the log house for nothing, which will increase the land value, since no deconstruction costs by the new owner is needed.
He was asking about the proposition of physically taking a log house apart, not land values.
See the Subject heading.
James
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If it's like Northern NJ (i.e. Bergen County), the land is worth more than the house and the land. You can probably get the log house for nothing, which will increase the land value, since no deconstruction costs by the new owner is needed
He was asking about the proposition of physically taking a log house apart, not land values.
See the Subject heading.
James
----------------------------------------
If it's like Northern NJ (i.e. Bergen County), the land is worth more than the house and the land. You can probably get the log house for nothing, which will increase the land value, since no deconstruction costs by the new owner is needed
on 8/9/2007 2:22 PM James said the following:
Responding to a message does not mean that one has to address every item in the message. My response was about the "deal" with the owner to take the house away.
Yes, I helped take apart the Loomis Tavern in Port Angeles Washington. It was in '95, the leaders meticulously labeled every log and were able to reconstruct it perfectly. You will need to come up with a labeling system and buy a bunch of long metal cutting recipro saw blades to cut nails. I think they used tags with wire string on them to label logs. You will need a boom truck and of course a digital camera(which we did not have).I would say a crew of 3 maybe 4 and a boom operator. TonyG
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Add to Tony's reply:
Take digital photos. Upload them to a notebook, and annotate anthing that is not obvious on a copy of the photo! The more information you have the better when it comes to putting it back together. When disassembling things, I often mark 'joints' with a number, and add a letter for each part at the joint. (so two logs that attach end to end may be joint 123, giving 123A and 123B. I mark the ends (as it is easy sometimes to mix ends and have things not fit right) at the joint if at all possible. A sharpie works in many cases, stick the markings in places where the joint will cover them when the item is reconstructed.
Take pictures of each joint. Knwo what a movie 'clap board' is? Make something like that to label each picture (a small 12x12 whiteboard works well) and put information such as the joint number, and any notes ("three pieces, brace and sealing strip" for example.)
Pictures, pictures and more pictures is the answer to making life easier later when you put the thing back together. You won't remember much (if anything) from the disassembly phase when you reconstruct, trust me!
Also carefully measure the foundation, how flat it is, dimensions, level etc. If the foundation is different when you reconstruct, it won't go together the same!
Good luck!
The logs are probably screwed together with long lag screws or nailed. Plus they are heavy.
So to take it down so that it could be re-assembled would probably take a lot of time.
If just taking it down, might want to make firewood. But could be dangerous using a chainsaw if you hit metal. Use metal detector first?
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