Log cabin living????????

[Dean Hoffman]

That's the title of a show on GAC. Log cabins in Oregon seem to be $400,000 and up. Two, three, or more bedrooms. A bath, or two, or three. The people in those just as well be on another planet than me.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Log "home" is more accurate than cabin. Most of us think of the little cabin built in the woods but log homes have been very mainstream. They just substitute logs for aluminum siding.

[ChairMan]

Yeah, I think I could rough it in something like this

[Tony Hwang]

Today's well built log home is as good or better than stick framed houses. Will easily last a century. But I'd say it needs some constant upkeeps when logs start drying up/shrinking. One example is cupboards in the log home kitchen is sort of hung on the wall so it can move easily(like floating). When I had built my small cabin I seriously considered a log home but after studying all aspects of it, I drop the idea of building one. There is show on TV about building log homes.They are warm in winter, cool in summer.

[Micky]

Logs by Stradivarius.

[Paintedcow]

That's not completely true. A real log home is built from actual logs which are stacked up to form the walls. In the old days, they built these cabins or homes from raw trees. They cut down the trees, removed the bark, and often they somewhat squared them to fit fairly tight. Then they knotched the ends to make them fit together and stacked them up. Most or all of the debarking, squaring and knotching was done by hand, so it was a lot of hard work. That explains why they were usually small (cabins). Usually just one room. These logs were then chinked, which means they packed a rope like material and clay or crude cement between the logs.

Modern log homes are built similar, but the "logs" are actually factory made, planed. sanded, and possibly knotched too. They are almost the same as the old "Lincoln Logs" sold as toys. These logs fit tighter together and they then use some sort of "caulking" between them. (I am not sure what that caulking is made from).

What you're referring to, when you say "they just substitute logs for aluminum siding", are traditional stick built homes (or can be pre-fabs too). Then they cover the outside walls with siding that looks like logs. This siding is real wood, often treated, and its sold just like regular lumber. It's surface is rounded like logs, but it's only about

2" thick, and is tongue and groove. It does not need any chinking or caulking (as far as I know). I have a few boards of this stuff, which I got as part of a pile of misc. lumber which I bought at an auction. I dont have enough to side anything, so it just takes up space in one of my sheds. A building built with this stuff is NOT a real log home, it's just a standard home covered with log-looking siding. Actually it does look nice, but it's very costly.

I once saw a mobile home at a trailer sales lot, which had that log siding. That mobile home cost almost twice as much as another one right next to it, which was comparable as far as features and size. I took a tour of it, just because I wanted to see it.

Anyone with land that has trees, has the skills, some antique tools and a lot of time, can still build one of the "traditional" log cabins/homes if they like to work really hard. One could be built for almost no money (as long as you do it yourself without hired help, and dont have to buy the logs). But you'll need some really good friends to help you at little or no cost. In the old days, neighbors all helped each other build their homes, and after they helped you, you had to help them, or their children build their home. But we live in different times, and thing are not done that way these days. One thing for sure, you can not do this alone. You either need manpower or some machinery to lift those heavy logs in place.

One drawback of any REAL log home, is that there are no hollow places inside the walls for plumbing/ wiring, ducts, etc. So these things must be mounted on the indoor wall surface, and be exposed, or covered with some wooden trim.

I had to wire one of these real log homes once, and it was a learning experience. I ended up using wiremold channel for most of the wires, and surface mounted boxes. But I did manage to put some horizonal wires between the logs and then the owner chinked over them. Of course if you were to sheetrock the interior, you could use furring and then have a place for wires and pipes. But a real log home has the logs exposed on the interior too.

Either way, a *modern* log home is very costly to build, and any log home needs a sealer or stain on the exterior and regular maintenance.

[Dean Hoffman]

The Devil Went Down to Georgia. Jack Benny.

That's more my world.

For the benefit of those under the tender age of forty:

[Terry Coombs]

That link just crashed my computer ... blue screen and the browser locked up . I didn't stick around to see what virus it said caused it , just did a forced shutdown .

[Vic Smith]

That's a hijacker. Note the bogus address.

[Scott Lurndal]

Not always. We reclaimed three single-room (with loft) log cabins; one from Indiana and two in Wisconsin and moved them to a property along the mighty muddy. Combined the two full (mid 19th century) cabins with the third more modern cabin into a single log home on a modern foundation with a wonderful view of the river.

[Moe DeLoughan]

My family rented a large log vacation home in Wisconsin for many years back in the 2000s. We thought the log walls and wood-everywhere interiors were very attractive, but it had a major problem with settling, resulting in some of the logs moving and doors and windows popping out of their frames. It was such a costly fix, the owner instead just put notes on the affected doors and windows telling renters not to try using them. I have no idea if that's a potential drawback of log homes or if the builder was at fault in this particular case. At any rate, I loved staying there but I had no interest in buying it. After the economy cratered, other log homes in the area ended up being sold at auction for a fraction of their assessed value.

[songbird]

....

that must have been one interesting project!

i'm much more in favor of working in layers because of the need for good insulation during the cold weather months. and if i'm doing layers i want the exterior to be stone or brick as that is very good to keep out all sorts of rodents/bugs/people/etc. then if you build the walls and roof sturdy enough you can put gardens on top of it which help even more with insulation and also give you a nice integrated look with the surround- ing area.

songbird

[Terry Coombs]

I didn't catch that , clicked on it . I've run a virus scan (showed no infection) after a forced shutdown/reboot , should I be worried ?

[Vic Smith]

I didn't notice it either. I just killed the task. I'm not worried about it.

[Scott Lurndal]

Indeed.

A 16" thick log has good thermal properties in this case.

[Scott Lurndal]

yes, be worried. A lot of the drive-bys use zero-day exploits that the AV tools won't detect.

[Micky]

I didn't catch it either. I just don't like videos, or I save them for last. Thanks for the warning.

[Dean Hoffman]

Does this look more legit?

It's Jack Benny doing a violin duet with Gisele McKenzie.

Is there anything I could've done differently the first time? I've been trying the Opera browser on my MacBook Air. One thing I've noticed is clicking a link in a post here takes me nowhere.

[ChairMan]

twist........

[Neill Massello]

Yes, but now it's a case of "Fooled me once . . ." Don't expect many responses: your name was just added to a lot of killfiles.